Instead of putting together fully loaded PCs in Taiwan and then shipping them worldwide, Stan figured it would make more sense to configure machines downstream to suit local tastes. Final assembly could be delegated to Acer's standardized production lines - 16 different sites worldwide - and components could be sourced according to shelf life. Under this scheme, computer housings and floppies could be shipped to franchises by sea, motherboards flown in fresh from Taiwan, and the most perishable parts - CPUs, hard disks, and memory chips - sourced locally. The result cuts inventory shelf life in half, from 90 to 45 days, and customers can have it their way - at McAcer's. Stan's plan seems to be working. In 1993, Acer grew 60 percent, scoring sales worth US$1.9 billion. In the first quarter of 1994, sales were up 70 percent, to US$630 million, boosting Acer into 10th place among PC vendors in the US. For the full year, Acer predicts sales of US$2.7 billion.