The program--known as the clunky "At the Customer, For the Customer"--taps the parent company's wealth of expertise in the vaunted Six Sigma defect-reduction method, just-in-time manufacturing and such management pursuits as succession planning.

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Evan Saks, the founder of online mattress maker Create-a-Mattress, says manufacturing technology that ties orders to production known as just-in-time manufacturing and Web-based tools have done away with the need for inventory managers or warehouse staff, among other workers.

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This may be the crucial test for Mr Dell who, after all, gave his name not just to the firm but to a whole business model (just-in-time, made-to-order manufacturing using an outsourced supply chain), key elements of which have since been adopted by his competitors.

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And, tapping his auto parts experience, he introduced the just-in-time inventory-control system and lean manufacturing, which emphasizes reducing wasteful processes in order to make better products and respond quickly to customers.

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When first developed in Japan in the 1970s, the idea of just-in-time (JIT) marked a radical new approach to the manufacturing process.

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Specifically, it copies advanced manufacturing systems such as those used in automobile assembly plants, which effects just-in-time finding and retrieving of components this way.

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