Two mechanics opening a workshop on an island with about nine hundred people, and a budget that had to cover tools as well as stock.
The usual mistake here is buying a broad range thinly: one of everything, so that the shelf looks like a parts shop and nothing that breaks is ever in stock. We asked a different question. We asked them to count what was parked outside the mosque on a Friday.
What came back was that four machines made up most of the island, and two of them were the same family. So the opening list was deep rather than wide: belts, rollers, pads, shoes, plugs, filters and bulbs for those four, six deep on the fast movers, and nothing at all for anything else.
They have reordered eleven times since, always by photograph and always on the same boat. The first time they needed something outside the list was month five.