Just-in-time (JIT) is easy to grasp conceptually, everything happens just-in-time. For example consider my journey to work this morning, I could have left my house, just-in-time to catch a bus to the train station, just-in-time to catch the train, just-in-time to arrive at my office, just-in-time to pick up my lecture notes, just-in-time to walk into this lecture theatre to start the lecture. Conceptually there is no problem about this, however achieving it in practice is likely to be difficult.
Introduction
Just-In-Time (JIT) is a process for achieving excellence in a manufacturing company based on the continuing elimination of waste. Waste is considered as those things which do not add value to the product. It accomplishes this by moving material to the necessary place at the necessary time. Each operation is closely synchronized with the subsequent ones to make that possible.
JIT is a management philosophy that strives to eliminate sources of manufacturing waste by producing the right part in the right place at the right time. Waste results from any activity that adds cost without adding value, such as moving and storing. JIT (also known as lean production or stockless production) should improve profits and return on investment by reducing inventory levels (increasing the inventory turnover rate), improving product quality, reducing production and delivery lead times, and reducing other costs (such as those associated with machine setup and equipment breakdown) (Frigant, 1996). In a JIT system, underutilized (excess) capacity is used instead of buffer inventories to hedge against problems that may arise. JIT applies primarily to repetitive manufacturing processes in which the same products and components are produced over and over again. The general idea is to establish flow processes (even when the facility uses a jobbing or batch process layout) by linking work centers so that there is.....
