Jeff Glaze recalled walking through his father's plant a few decades ago and seeing row upon row of bins full of work-in-process (WIP). All in all, the company had about 100,000 pounds of aluminum in inventory and between 100 and 200 bins of WIP in every department. Times, of course, have changed. Today the same West-field, Mass., plant may have only 5,000 lbs. of raw inventory and little if any WIP in any department. Glaze is now president of the company his father founded in 1950, Decorated Products Inc. The make-to-order shop produces metal labels like those found on automobiles, machines, and power tools.
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