just in time

= JIT

An approach to manufacturing that aims to reduce stocks of raw materials and finished goods, queues and bottlenecks, excess transport, and levels of scrap and defective units. Whereas traditional systems isolate operations from the environment, for example by uncoupling inventory, JIT recognizes that without protection processes can go wrong but, if they do, the reasons should be found and the process put right. It seeks to improve all performance variables, such as cost, quality, speed, dependability, and flexibility. The key elements of JIT are:

• respect for the contribution that employees can make;

• encouragement of personal responsibility and process ownership from a multiskilled workforce that is proactive in problem solving;

• a demand-pull system in which material only flows when needed;

• kanban;

• standardized product design;

• accelerated learning-curve effects;

• preventive rather than reactive maintenance;

• level scheduling;

• reduction of set-up times;

• efficient plant layout, eliminating places in which inventory can get lost;

• JIT purchasing involving close liaison with suppliers;

• total quality management committed to continuous improvement JIT has been facilitated by the advent of cheap computing power and computer-aided manufacturing systems. It is easier to install JIT techniques from the outset, rather than attempting to introduce them piecemeal when a process is running.