While a strong inventory -- both deep and broad -- can certainly be a competitive advantage, smart business executives are careful to limit the amount of capital they're willing to commit to this critical asset. No company, not IBM, not Wal-Mart, not Home Depot, and certainly not your company has enough capital to ignore inventory levels.

Inventory and accounts receivable account for approximately 80% of total assets in most businesses and 100% of manageable assets, so getting a handle on both will provide any business with much needed capital to grow.

In this article I want to share with you several inventory management ideas that will help you optimize inventory turnover and minimize out-of-stocks: