Seat-of-the-Pants Management Alternative --Dickeson

Are you concerned that C tied up your cash for more than a third of a year?

That's what I mean by having some numbers to use in making decisions. Yes, by the seat of your pants you'd have a hunch that Job C was hurting you. Maybe. If you ever thought about it at all.

Look at it this way. Suppose you had a hundred thousand dollars invested in a printing plant. The plant's making a cool 1 percent operating profit on jobs. If it's turning your $100K four times a year, you're getting a 4 percent operating return on that money. Right? Am I wrong? Think about it. Suppose we doubled that annual turnover rate to eight times a year. Now you'd be clearing 8 percent on your money. Which would you rather have: $4,000 or $8,000? Silly question.