Decreasing an inventory conversion period improves a company's cash conversion cycle, which, in turn, reduces the organization's working capital requirements and increases its cash flow.

So how is an investor to track the efficiency of managing inventory ... cash to generate more sales. See the chart below with the cash conversion cycle for Wal-Mart, Target, CostCo and Amazon.com.

Getty Images The cash conversion cycle (CCC) tracks how long it takes for a company to turn cash spent on inventory and production ... suppliers to generate cash flow, usually by being on credit ...

The cash conversion cycle (CCC) is a metric that measures the amount of time it takes for a company to sell its inventory, collect receivables, and pay its bills. The shorter the cash conversion ...