Enterprise Architecture, the subject of three recent articles, provides one way to establish this inventory, but methods from Business Process Management, from IT Service Management, and other techniques also provide a way forward.

FORBES: Eight Steps For Addressing the IT Management Crisis

Some economists have argued that just-in-time methods of inventory control, which allow firms to adjust production more quickly to changes in sales, should help to prevent an unwanted build-up of stocks and so smooth out the economic cycle.

ECONOMIST: Stockbuilding