The ultimate goal of operations management is to provide high-quality goods and services instantaneously in response to customer demand. Over the years, low cost often came at the expense of quality and flexibility. Furthermore, suppliers didn't always deliver when they said they would, so manufacturers had to carry large inventories of raw materials and components to keep producing. Such inefficiencies made U. S. companies vulnerable to foreign competitors who were using more advanced production techniques. As a result of new global competition, companies have had to make a wide variety of high-quality custom-designed products at a very low cost. Something had to change on the production floor to make that possible. Several major developments have made U. S. companies more competitive:. (1) computer-aided design and manufacturing, (2) flexible manufacturing, (3) lean manufacturing, and (4) mass customization.