Advantages and Disadvantages of Just-In-Time Manufacturing
Introduction
Just in Time, (JIT), represents a management movement, which whilst introduced by the Japanese in the 1980s, has gained wide currency among Anglo-American businesses in the last fifteen years. Integral to the modern day concept of lean manufacturing, JIT focuses primarily on streamlining inventory management; it aims at firms operating with minimal inventory levels and having supplies at the precise moment of their requirement. Working with minimal practically zero levels of inventory helps firms to save on inventory carrying costs and reduces wastage on account of obsolescence, redundancy, deterioration and spoilage.
Such concepts, whilst theoretically appealing, are extremely complex to implement and require excellent organisational skills.
JIT aims to reduce wastage through various means, key among them being the reduction of (a) inflated inventory, (b) superfluous store personnel, (c) paperwork, and (d) other activities that do not add value. It involves the redevelopment of the storehouse and plant layout to reduce the time for material movement, eliminate physical processes, and slash costs associated with such factors. The relocation of work in progress, for example, to positions of close proximity to manufacturing stations serves to eliminate unnecessary movement of goods in the manufacturing process. Reduction of inventory levels can lead to significant savings in costs and addition of value through reduction of sizes of batches and set-up times, as well as through elimination of buffer and safety stocks.
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