4. Think twice before manufacturing overseas.
While manufacturing in China and India certainly has its place for certain types of product—particularly children's books with complex formats—rising wage rates, currency issues and time in process are important considerations and should be given due weight in developing your inventory strategy. No less important is the basic supply chain maxim that suggests that the longer the supply chain, the higher your safety stock levels should be. Put another way, if you have to increase your print order by 10 percent to 25 percent to make sure you have sufficient safety-stock for Asian manufacturing, is offshore manufacturing really an effective strategy? No less important is the question of availability—producing the product onshore provides dramatically better options to meet unexpected demand—something that you would do well to remember as the Internet grows in importance as a major book-distribution channel.