tuotantovarausten

Tuotantovarausten, Finnish for production inventories, are the goods and materials held by manufacturing firms to support their production processes. They differ from finished‑goods inventories, which are ready for sale, and from raw‑material inventories, which are yet unprocessed.

Production inventories typically include semi‑finished components, sub‑assemblies, and partially finished products that have moved past the first stages of production but have not yet entered the final packaging phase. By keeping these inventories, firms can mitigate the impact of supply‑chain disruptions, production bottlenecks, and fluctuations in customer demand. The existence of production inventories enables a buffer against variation in processing times and reduces the risk of backlogs in assembly lines.

Management of production inventories is guided by inventory control methodologies such as Economic Order Quantity (EOQ), Kanban, and Material Requirements Planning (MRP). Companies must balance the costs of holding inventory—capital tied up, storage, obsolescence—against the costs of stockouts, which can delay production schedules and lead to lost sales. Optimal inventory levels depend on factors like production lead times, demand variability, and the cost structure of the manufacturing operation.

In value‑chain analyses, production inventories are considered part of the working capital that firms use to sustain operational continuity. Accurate tracking and forecasting of these inventories support lean manufacturing initiatives and are increasingly integrated with digital technologies such as RFID tagging and real‑time analytics to improve visibility and reduce waste.