How long have we all been focused on inventory? Forever, it seems. Early on, you would sooner be dead than without safety stock. Then there was just-in-time, to varying degrees, of course. Then the focus shifted to inventory across the supply chain. But then most everyone had way too much inventory because production was outpacing weak demand, sometimes called a recession. Then the Fed talked about rebuilding inventories. And now it seems that inventories are in much better balance.

Whatever the time and place, it's always been all about inventory. According to the consultants we're talking to, however, the game has changed. It's not all about inventory anymore. Instead, it's all about orders and how you manage them. What's changed, you ask? From what we're being told, the new emphasis is on heightened customer demands and orders of one. It's no longer about optimizing the production run. Instead, it's all about optimizing the order and how it gets filled.

Nobody knows this better than Modine Manufacturing Company. Every 72 seconds it receives an order from DaimlerChrysler's Jeep Liberty vehicle assembly plant for an engine cooling module. Not just any module, mind you, but a very specific one for the next Liberty to roll along the assembly line. There are ten different models possible. Modine then has just five hours to deliver that module in the right sequence.

As Lyman Tschanz, general manager for Modine's automotive division put it, 'we can't blink.' No kidding.

Better yet, Modine doesn't blink. For all of last year, not a single module was shipped out of sequence for hundreds of thousands of vehicles. In addition, deliveries were 100% on time. In fact, Modine is so outstanding that it received Jeep's sequential part delivery Supplier of the Year award for 2002.

To say the least, it's all about the order at Modine. As the story, Just in time ... just in sequence explains, the company uses a little trick to take the emphasis off inventory (which it has) so it can be sure to focus on the order.

Quite simply, module assembly is decoupled from shipping. Rather than try and build in sequence, Modine uses an automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) to maintain inventory at lean levels, explains Ed Wawrzynski. He says that inventory once spread across the supply base is now focused in the AS/RS, keeping inventory levels lower than before and providing better control.

Now think about that. By focusing on the order rather than inventory, Modine actually cut its inventory levels. While a bit counterintuitive, that's what happened. Sounds like a twofer to me. Maybe those consultants really do know what they're talking about.