I’ve read a number of times of fridges that will order milk for you as you run out (and not taken it very seriously), so it’s good to come a cross a real example of technology ensuring I get what I need when I need it.
So, my printer knows when I am running low of ink and sends an order through to the ink supplier which sends it to the University.
It even marks up the package as being for my specific printer and room number!
It doesn’t get delivered to my room (it could be) for the sensible reason that I am not in my office all the time, so I go and get it from the ‘Stationery Cupboard’.
Look at how small this is now. Once it was a small room full of spares of four different colours for the hundreds of printers in the University.
So now there are frequent small deliveries to the University reducing the number of cartridges that need to be made and stored at any particular time.
JIT in action.