Case AnalysisIn the past two months, our sales of copper fittings have almost doubled due to growing demand from the market and unsuccessful sales promotion of competitors. However, the problem arises from the overwhelming demand. Many back orders are simply piled up on the warehouse manager's desk, and some customers have lost patience with us. What we really need right now is to limit or reduce abnormal demand from customers by increasing the price of our products, but to earn a reputation with our customers, we should consider filling all back orders with original price. In the long term, the solution to solving this inventory shortage still depends on sufficient and timely supply from our suppliers. The main reason causing this huge and unusually high customer demand is the loss of market share by our competitors. Furthermore, there is a possibility that some customers have false expectations about the future price of the market. They have heard that the cost of raw copper may increase, so they predict that the price of copper fittings should also increase. As a result, they start making more purchases and storing more inventory than usual to save money after the copper price rises. After a serious discussion with our marketing and warehouse managers, we have found a strategy to solve this inventory shortage crisis. We can purchase excess goods at a very low cost from our competitors, because their business is slow and they don't have enough cash flow. Since most of our competitors are local, we can save a lot of shipping and handling costs if we buy their products. But the disadvantage is that it may confuse our customers, because the products we buy from other companies have their own logos. It could become an opportunity for our competitors to get free advertising about their products through our marketplace chain. We can also start placing large orders to our supplier to prevent future shortages. However, the downside is the risk of excess inventory. It is very difficult for us to predict the price of copper fittings. If the price of fittings drops due to other companies, a new wave of promotions or other macroeconomic influences, it will slow down our sales and cash flow..