How Much Inventory Do You Really Need? A few years ago, I implemented an SAP? ERP system for a subsidiary of an Australian arms manufacturer. The company was setting up a manufacturing plant in Tucson, AZ. The Iraq war was at its peak. It was mandatory that the company manufacture their product in America, and they needed to ramp up production fast to produce enough to support our forces in Iraq. During a requirements-gathering workshop, the plant manager told me that companies producing similar products turn their inventories at three. He wanted to turn his at six. What processes did he need to make that a reality? (As you probably know, a ?turn? is a technical term in inventory management that measures how fast you convert raw materials into finished products. The larger this number, the lower the inventory; e.g., a turn of four means that the raw materials procured today will get converted into a finished product in three months because the inventory turns four times a year). I had spent over a decade consulting on various ERP solutions for manufacturing enterprises, and I had hands-on experience implementing supply chain solutions for enterprises large and small that employed a