The Risks of Being Just-In-Time
The following is a guest article written by Nick Koletic, an economics specialist at UCLA. In addition to giving a brief background on Just-In-Time inventory system’s benefits, the article’s main focus is the risks that JIT systems face.
Just-In-Time inventory (JIT) is part of a production system whereby a firm vastly reduces inventory from its production processes so that utilization of production inputs and delivery of finished products are accomplished without incurring significant holding costs. While JIT inventory systems are quite attractive for this reason, they are a double-edged sword. And though a JIT system might even be a necessity given the inventory demands of certain business types,
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Shipping the same quantity of a product to different retail outlets, for example, might not make much sense if the demand for that good is significantly greater at one location relative to another. This approach to delivery cost savings also facilitates decreases in aforementioned holding costs by not overstocking certain locations with a product. The same principle holds for inputs in production; parts are not delivered and held at production centers where they might lay idle.
Some positive externalities may also result from a firm’s decision to implement a JIT system. Suppliers of such a firm, for example, might then be able handle larger orders but fulfill them with smaller shipments. That is to say that for any given order size, supplying a customer that utilizes JIT is typically easier to do because individual shipments tend to be smaller for these customers and thus tend to be less demanding of the supplier. So it might be possible for suppliers, merely by the nature of their customers’ JIT system, to greatly expand their ability to fill larger orders without having to increase production capacity.
Several factors, however, make JIT systems a risky proposition. A key concern here is the extent to which firms are dependent upon particular suppliers under such an inventory system. For example, if a firm were to commission a highly proprietary product to a single supplier (single suppliers being common in JIT), a JIT
Using ABC also allows the company to use the Just in Time (JIT) system. This system allows ensures materials are purchased just in time to produce the products, and products are completed just in time for delivery. JIT uses the demand-pull system to receive the order, schedule production, delivered materials, and finished product delivered to the customer. This lessens the amount of excess parts and inventory saving the company money as well.
a. After analyzing Pro-Forma Income Statement for all four quarter the utilization of Just-in-time strategy in Quarter 2-3 would have made Lean in Enterprises for more profitable. Since the premise of Just-in-time is to reduce waste and make sure that the supply chain is working efficiently to meet the customer demand. Just-in-time inventory is the minimum inventory necessary to keep a perfect system running. In Operation Management Heizer and Render define JIT inventory as the exact amount of the good arrives at the moment it is needed. (p. 2010) The ability to implement this strategy in Quarter 2 and Quarter 3 would have been very beneficial to the company expenses. The Just-In-Time strategy would have help the company avoid the $8,163 holding cost an excess capacity cost of $491,524. Just-in-time strategy would have prevented additional production after the product had low customer demand. Just-in-time would have also prevented the same waste
Lastly, the just-in-time (JIT) approach is an operating philosophy that requires that all resources, including materials, personnel, and facilities, be acquired and used only as needed (Mazumder, 2007). The JIT approach works great for manufacturing companies because of their common classes of material that they use which are raw materials, work-in-process, and finished goods (Mazumber, 2007). According to JIT concept raw materials are received just in time to go into production, manufactured parts are completed just in time to be assembled into products, and products are completed just in time to be shipped to customers (Mazumber, 2007). The
The JIT approach to manufacturing involves timing the delivery of resources so that they arrive just when needed. Inventory optimization models help the firm determine how many of which items in which sizes should be delivered to each specific store during twice-weekly shipments, ensuring that each store is stocked with just what it needs. Trucks serve destinations that can be reached
Reduced need for higher capacity at the supplier. This would be reduced because suppliers would not need to size their operations to deliver on the “one shot large volume order” and would be able to space these in time with orders at
As argued by Lubben (1988), JIT allows businesses to have better management since this ensures that there is no loss as there is sufficient number of clients requiring the equipment. This reduces her to deal with huge deliveries when the clients’ numbers are not increasing. (Lubben, 1988, p.4) also suggested the idea of JIT that “... major elements of manufacturing – capital, equipment and labour are made available only in the amount required and at the time required to do the job.” So it is a good practice by utilising JIT approach as it reduces wastes and ensure the correct amount of equipment is available (Lubben,
A third disadvantage of applying JIC manufacturing operations is having lower quality assurance methods and even further, lower customer satisfaction (“Just-in-case and just-in-time…”). While the just-in-case system is beneficial in
JITD can lower the distribution cost, inventory cost and even the manufacturing costs. Distribution can be more efficient as the delivery is not based on the order from distributors. It is based on the forecast from Barilla. Barilla can better utilize and arrange the distribution team by planning a more efficient route and schedule to deliver the require product to each distributor on time. Barilla become more proactive in controlling the delivery schedule and so lower its distribution cost.
While the JITD program has many beneficial it also has its drawbacks. One of them is the perception that the power will be transferred to Barilla, as one of the distributors was quoted “we would be giving Barilla the power to push product into our warehouses just so Barilla can reduce its costs.” Another drawback is that some of the distributors are not comfortable or willing to share their warehouse data, which is a vital piece in order for JITD program to work. Furthermore, it might be hard for some retailers to report daily sales simply because they might not have the point-of-sale technology at their stores.
These gains come at the cost of more tightly coordinated manufacturing processes—both inside a company and with supplier firms that produce under JIT" (Vollmann, 2005).
4) Exploring the possibility of implementing JIT (Just in Time) system that can reduce the finished goods inventory at
Axsäter, 2006). In this area only large scale multi-national companies have set a number of
A common way of decreasing the amount of inventory a business holds on a daily basis is implementing a just-in-time inventory process. A Just-In-Time inventory system means that the business gets the materials for a product, as they are demanded. “The electronic data
Honda was among the pioneers in using JIT (Just-in-Time ) inventory model. Honda used this model successfully without large amounts of inventory. Honda mostly focuses on only purchasing what is guaranteed to be used and sold so that it doesn’t remain in inventory for extended time. Honda lower its month to month inventory costs in order to compete with the North American counterpart who have large amounts of inventory holdings. Honda uses JIT model because that will enable the company
According to [5], Just-in-Time (JIT) inventory management enables an organization to gain competitive advantage by not having a large or excessive amount of inventory in warehouse. The organization only needs to order the parts when they are actually needed and new materials are produced only when old materials have finished. One advantage of adopting this strategy is that there will be no excess of inventory that needs to be stored and hence the inventory levels will be reduced as well as the cost of carrying and storing goods. One major disadvantage of this is that the organization will expose it in the risk of ordering problems for example a supplier is not able to provide parts on time. The result of this is that the organization cannot fulfill the order and contributes to customer dissatisfaction.