Just In Time

Just in Time application

The basic concept of Just In Time (JIT) in a manufacturing process is to have “the right material, in the exact amount,  at the right place and at the right time”, so the storage of inventories waiting to be processed, which means waste of resources, is avoided. 

JIT practice includes the use of many disciplines as Statistics, Industrial Engineering, Materials and Production Management, Costs and Planning.

The idea is to see the inventories as a way to generate waste and cost, so it should be eliminated as soon as they do not contribute to manufacturing process issues. Also, it should be removed the idea of keeping inventories to hide problems related to the production processes as machines availability and reliability, production process variability and capacity and low flexibility of employees and equipment to switch production conditions.

Main benefits of JIT include the improvement of the flow of goods from warehouse to shelves, the reduction of the set up time,  minimization of storage space and reduction of possibility for inventory breaking/expiring, a more efficient use of employees with multiple skills, a better synchronization of production scheduling with the demand, improvement of supplier and customer relationships, elimination of waste and support for improvement in quality and productivity.