I often tell the factory employees they have too much work-in-process inventory. In general, they don’t understand how lower inventory can go hand-in-hand with faster production and lower costs.

Last week I was in a factory that really, really doesn’t see anything wrong with WIP inventory:

Another problem is that WIP can be lost, stolen, or damaged. This time I got a great illustration… I couldn’t help taking a picture:

They are sleeping on the fabric, before it’s used by the sewing operators. Isn’t it cute?