You work for a game console manufacturer that ships thousands of units each day from their factories to distributors. You and your CIO are discussing some supply chain issues that have proven problematic for months as product demand has steadily increased.
CIO:
Sales are up, but our performance numbers this month show increased delays and other red flags.
You:
We've seen this trend worsening over the past several months. When our supplies start running low, we place orders right away. But it takes too long for those orders to be processed and shipped, so then there are delays in arrivals, which slows down manufacturing. Clearly, we need to do some __________ optimization.