Orion is a global company that sells copier. Orion currently sells 10 variants of a copier, with all inventory kept in finished-goods form. The primary component that differentiates the copiers is the printing subassembly. An idea being discussed is to introduce commonality in the printing subassembly (i.e., all 10 variants of copiers use the same common components), so that final assembly can be postponed and inventories can be kept in component form. Compared to the case without component commonality, using common components for all variants will
a.
need less safety inventory
b.
decrease the response time to customer orders
c.
maintain the same response time to customer orders
d.
need the same level of safety inventory
e.
need more safety inventory