Just-in-Time

We talked about ‘The Toyota Way’ in our discussion in Kaizen. Just-in-Time is another concept originated and developed in Japan, particularly at Toyota. Toyota used this methodology in manufacturing and it came to be known as Just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing or Just-in-time production or the Toyota Production System (TPS).

Just-in-Time basically means maintaining only the inventory that you need. So instead of maintaining a large inventory of parts to be used in manufacturing, you only keep the number of parts that you would need in a day.

This can help you reduce cost. It can go even further to help get rid of warehouses altogether! Some companies have perfected the art of Just-in-Time manufacturing to the point that they take in parts into the production line right off the trucks!

There are some downsides of Just-in-Time too. The production rate should not fluctuate i.e. you cannot aim at increasing production rate without prior planning. Another point to note is that there isn’t extra inventory that means mistakes are not affordable.

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