History of Just-in-Time:
Just-In-Time is a Japanese manufacturing management method developed
in the 70's. It was first
adopted by Toyota manufacturing plants by Taiichi Ohno. The main
concern at that time was to
meet consumer demands. Because of the success of JIT management,
Taiichi Ohno was named
the father of JIT. After the first introduction of JIT by Toyota,
many companies followed up and
around the mid 70's, and JIT gained extensive support, which was widely
used by many
companies.
One motivated reason for developing JIT and some other better production
techniques was that
after World War II, Japanese people had a very strong incentive to
develop a good manufacturing
technique which would help them rebuild their economy.
They also had a strong working ethic
which was concentrated on work rather than on leisure, and this kind
of motivation was what
drove Japanese economy to succeed.
Before the introduction of JIT, there were a lot of manufacturing defects
for the existing system at
that time. This included inventory problems, product defects,
risen cost, large lot production and
delivery delays. The inventory problems included the unused accumulated
inventory that was not
only unproductive, but also required a lot of effort in storing and
managing them. In the case of
the product defects, manufacturers knew that it only took one single
product defect to destroy the
producer’s reputation, therefore they must crease a “defect-free” process.
Lastly, the existing
system did not manage well for fast delivery request, so, there was
a need to have a faster and
reliable delivery system in order to handle customers’ needs.
Therefore, the JIT manufacturing
management was developed based on these problems.
Elements of Just-In-Time:
The basic elements of JIT manufacturing are people involvement, plants,
and system. People
involvement deal with maintaining a good support and agreement with
the people involved in the
production. This is not only to reduce the time and effort of
implementation of JIT, but also to
minimize the chance of creating implementation problems.
The plant itself also have certain requirements that are needed to
implement the JIT, and those are
plant layout, demand pull production, Kanban, self-inspection, and
continuous improvement. The
plant layout mainly focuses on maximizing working flexibility.
It requires the use of multi-
function workers”. Demand pull production is where you produce
when the order is received.
This allows for better management of quantity and time more appropriately.
Kanban is a Japanese
term for card or tag. This is where special inventory and process
information are written on the
card. This helps in tying and linking the process more efficiently.
Self-inspection is where the
workers on the line inspect products as they move along, this helps
in catching mistakes
immediately. Lastly continuous improvement which is the most
important concept of the JIT
system. This simply asks the organization to improve its productivity,
service, operation, and
customer service in an on-going basis.
Goals of Just-In-Time:
Goals of JIT can vary, but there are a few that should be constant in
any JIT system. Increasing
the organization’s ability to compete with others and remain competitive
over the long run is very
important. The competitiveness of the firms is increased by the
use of JIT manufacturing process
as they can develop a more optimal process for their firms. The
key is to identify and respond to
consumers needs. Customers’ needs and wants should be the most
important focus for business
today. This objective will help the firm on what is demanded
from customers, and what is
required of production. Moreover, the optimal quality and cost
relationship is also important.
The organization should focus on zero-defect production process.
Although it seems to be
unrealistic in the long run, it will eliminate a huge amount of resources
and effort in inspecting,
and reworking defected goods. Another important goal should be
to develop a reliable
relationship between the suppliers. A good and long-term relationship
between an organization
and its suppliers helps to manage a more efficient process in inventory
management, material
management, and delivery system. It will also assure that the
supply is stable and available when
needed. Moreover, adopt the idea of continuous improvement.
If committed to a long-term
continuous improvement idea, it will help the organization to remain
competitive in the future.
Limitations of Just-In-Time:
Regardless of the great benefits of JIT, it has its limitations.
For example cultural differences.
The organizations cultures vary from firm to firm. There are
some cultures that tie to JIT’s
success, but it is difficult for an organization to change its cultures
within a short time. Also
manufacturers that use the traditional approach which relies on storing
up large amounts of
inventory for backing up during bad times may have problems with getting
use to the JIT system.
Also JIT is quite different for workers, in the sense that due to the
shorter cycle time, lots of
pressure and stress is added on the workers. Also the JIT system
throws workers off in the sense
that if a problem occurs, they cannot use their own method of fixing
the problem, but use methods
that have been previously defined. Moreover, the JIT system only
works best for medium to high
range of production volume manufacturers, thus leaving a question to
whether it might work for
low volume companies.
Just-In-Time Total Quality Management:
Just-In-Time Total Quality Management is the mean of market and factory
management within a
humanistic environment of continuing improvement. Moreover, it
means continuing improvement
in social life, and working life. When applied to the factory,
Kaizen means continual improvement
involving managers and workers alike.
When it comes to Total Quality Management, Japans strong industrial
reputation is well-known
around the world. Total quality control is the system, which
Japan has developed to implement
Kaizen or continuous improvement. The traditional description
of Just-In-Time is a system for
manufacturing and supplying goods that are needed. There are
several important tools that are
important for total quality management control, but there are seven
that are even more important.
These are relations diagram, affinity diagram, systematic diagram or
tree diagram, matrix diagram,
matrix data analysis, process decision program chart, and arrow diagram.
When used properly,
these seven tools will help the total quality management system by
eliminating defective products.
Moreover, they will help in assisting to improve productivity, complete
tasks on time, eliminate
waste, and reduce lead time and inventory cost.
Kanban Just-In-Time at Toyota:
Toyota uses the Just-In-Time production system to control immediate
material flows between
work station and another down-stream. The companies management
department receives orders
on small, fixed quantities from customers. On sending the supplies,
a production slip is generated
requesting the previous upstream server to supply a replacement quantity.
Therefore, users “pull”
off supplies as required. Direct communication between the client
and the supplier replaces
instructions issued by a remote center control point. At the
same time, materials requirements
planning and other systems get rapid feedback on progress or delays.
It is the integration of the
computer systems internally and externally that allow for the quick
responses to changes. The
system will help for the important planning phase whether medium or
long term to be filled to
capacity along the supply chain. Finally, all the data and instructions
can flow between the linked
systems.
Toyota took advantage of Kanban Just-In-Time, which in turn gave it
great benefits to operate
it’s company in. Kanban JIT helps companies in solving many Manufacturing
problems. Kanban
gets it’s name from the manufacturing systems and processes implemented
at Toyota Motors
Manufacturing. By using this method, Toyota is able to effectively
produce at low cost, high
quality, and short cycle times. As a result of this, these systems
are highly flexible and responsive
to customer requirements. Toyota’s manufacturing processes route
the products around the plant
to various work centers, where work is staged to be processed.
Implementing manufacturing
cells typically increases the net income drastically, and also reduces
cycle time by over 50%. The
cost of design and implementation is usually recovered within the first
year from inventory
savings.
Conclusion:
Just-In-Time is a manufacturing philosophy which leads to producing
the required items, at the
required quality and in the right quantities at the precise time as
they are required. It is an
approach to achieving excellence in elimination of waste. In
this case waste can be thought of as
all things that don’t add value to the product. Overproduction,
Inventory, defect products,
transport and waiting time are some examples of what can be waste according
to JIT.
Just-In-Time manufacturing is a system of enforced problem solving.
Managers have the choice
between putting a huge effort in finding and solving causes of production
problems, or they can
learn to live with an intolerable level of interruptions in production.
As everybody knows, the
situation in which one has to put huge efforts is highly undesirable,
and therefore the system is
called enforced.
Quality within JIT manufacturing is necessary, because without a quality
program in JIT, the JIT
will fail. Here we think about quality at the source and the
Plan, Do, Check, Action with its
statistical process control. Furthermore, techniques is also
very important. The JIT technique is a
pull system rather than a pull system, based on not producing things
until they are needed. The
well known Kanban card is used as a signal to produce. Moreover,
integration also plays a key
role in JIT systems. JIT integration can be found in four points
of the manufacturing firm. The
Accounting side, Engineering side, Customer side and Supplier side.
At the accounting side, JIT
has concern for WIP, utilization and overhead allocation and at the
engineering side of JIT
focuses on simultaneously and participative design of products and
processes.
Just-In-Time has its influence in ordering, scheduling and producing
sides of a manufacturing
firm. JIT production contains the well known Kanban System.
This influence in the
manufacturing firm is depending on employees, suppliers or customers.
Therefore a large element
of training is put toward the JIT to reach certain goals. One
of these goals are mutual trust and
teamwork. This is an important factor in the JIT principle.
When managers and workers see each
other as equal, committed to the organization and it’s success, they
are more willing to co-operate
with each other in order to find the problems and solve these problems.
Moreover, a firm which
empowers it’s workers, gives the workers the authority to solve problems
on their own. When
this is done, workers have the authority to stop production and to
solve problems, instead of first
waiting for guidance from a supervisor. The objective of worker
empowerment is having workers
involved in the problem as it occurs.
In all, JIT is an important operational system for manufacturing and
supplying companies to adopt
and implement. Technically, procedurally and managerially it
requires attention to data,
information and communication. But if looked at through the eyes
of the corporation that has
implemented the JIT system, the positive outcomes that arise from the
use of the system is far
greater than those that are not. The JIT system really is a state
of the art idea that is beginning to
catch on in a tremendous way all over the world.
References:
Hawthorne
Management Consulting Inc. Just-In-Time
Kanban
Inventory
control
