1. So what's Just'In'Time production, then?

Just in time production

1. So what's Just'In'Time production, then?

2. What do you mean, exactly?

3. And this is a Japanese idea?

4. And components are delivered just when they're needed, so there's no inventory?

5. Isn't that dangerous? I mean, if just one supplier doesn't deliver on time, or delivers defective components...

6. Are there other advantages, apart from reduced inventory costs?

7. So why don't we do it in Europe and the States?

a. American companies have developed versions of JIT, which they
call lean production, or stockless production, or continuous flow
manufacture. But over here there's always the risk of strikes or other
problems, so companies prefer to keep reserve inventories. Not so
much just-in-time as just-in-case...

b. It's a system in which products arc 'pulled' through the
manufacturing process from the end, rather than 'pushed' through
from the beginning.

c.Several. There's no risk of overproduction if demand falls, or of
idle workers waiting for work-in-process to arrive. It shortens
throughput time, which increases productivity. And it probably
means that defects or quality problems are noticed more quickly.

d. Sure, but the big Japanese manufacturers have large networks of subcontractors, and the whole system is based on long-term relationships and mutual trust.

e. Thai's the idea. JIT regards inventories as avoidable costs, rather than as assets.

f. Well, nothing is bought or produced until it is needed. Each section
of the production process makes the necessary units only when they
arc required by the next stage of the manufacturing process, or by
distributors or customers.

g. Yes. The system is usually credited to Taiichi Ohno at Toyota in
the early 1950s, but he said he got the idea from looking at American
supermarkets.

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