The frictionless distribution system. No waste, no excess. No lost time. And no conflict! This ad sums up the philosophy of just-in-time production. Coupling the speed and accuracy of computer information systems with a fleet of jets dedicated to shipping goods FedEx claims to have eliminated the cost of warehousing goods. One of the major bottlenecks in the capitalist circulation process, stored goods not only hold up the circulation process, but also costs money to rent storage space, thus reducing profit margins. Managing inventory, that's the problem.

The just-in-time system depicted in the FedEx ad presumes near perfect timing and execution. And that is what FedEx is touting about itself -- it offers the perfectly rationalized tool for regulating your business.

This is consistent with how FedEx defines itself in its formal filings with the SEC: "FedEx Corporation is a global transportation and logistics enterprise that offers customers a one-stop source for global shipping, logistics and supply chain solutions through its subsidiaries FedEx, RPS and others." Managing the supply chain and getting through-put velocity of inventory -- this is the commodity market that FedEx and UPS compete over.

Once again, we are witness, via the ad, to imagery of a quiet revolution in the organization of the capitalist supply chain. Quiet revolutions do not disrupt or dislocate, but rather reintegrate -- linking the local and the global in such a way that though we gain speed, we are never hurried. This is the vision set forth by FedEx -- a corporation with global reach that claims to coordinate geographies with clocklike precision and reliability.

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