Walmart calls it "through the register", they never really owned it until it sold. Whatever the pet name it's VMI. Vendor Managed Inventory. Imagine that you put in an order for 500'000 toasters and the parts come from China. The factory is in Mexico. You order the components from the different vendors but you have them sent to a consolidation center. Your order 4 hours of supply for your factory and it is delivered from the consolidation center to the factory. Once it reaches the factory you pay for what is on that truck, build those toasters and use up the parts. The other 4 hour "kit" of material is still at the consolidation center and still belongs to the vendor that supplied it. You just saved a ton of money by not buying the entire days inventory (or week or month's) at one time. Added benefit is if that toaster immediately goes out of style you aren't stuck with parts for 400,000 more toasters. (obsolete inventory)