Why wouldn’t you want to go for a methodology aimed at reducing flow times for you within the production system and at the same time cut short the long response time you get from contractors and suppliers? That’s what just-in-time (JIT) will do for you if you adopt it, helping you to control variability in your processes and allowing you to increase productivity while lowering costs.
The beauty of JIT as an inventory management method is that you don’t need to crap up the whole place with materials, goods, and labor. You schedule the arrival or replenishment of your need to coincide with their time of demand in the production process.
Product quality is one area that co-joins the business and the consumer. The consumer wants to have the best of the bests, while the organization does not want wastes to occur especially as regards the rejection of products as a result of poor quality.
These are 7 benefits you derive from adopting the JIT method
1. Smooth production flow
With the JIT method, you are certain of a uniform production process. Right from the time your raw materials arrive to when you will deliver your products to your consumers, the JIT system ensures that you have a steady production rate.
You completely do away with fluctuating production rates. There is nothing like delays and excess work-in-process inventories.
2. A full-fledged pull-method
You enjoy the pull-method which goes a long way to contribute to your smooth production process, as a key feature of the JIT system. With the pull-method in operation, you only produce goods in stages as they are needed as precursors for the next stage.
This system completely removes the work-in-process inventory between production steps, thereby doing away with waiting times and associated non-value-added costs. The pull-method also prevents wastage as you no longer have to produce goods that may be defective since you will be employing total quality management, whereby the output at every stage of production is inspected before passing on to the next stage.
3. Reduction in storage and waiting time
Why do you need to litter the whole company with bits and pieces that are not required at a particular point in time? Why don’t you go for materials as at when needed?
You couldn’t do this because you didn’t know of JIT. With the JIT system, you purchase materials and go on to produce goods only as required.
There is absolutely no need to build up stocks for future use. You save the money you spend for space for holding products and materials, and results in less time wasted waiting for large amounts of materials and products.
And what more? You won’t have situations where your products get expired for long storage due to the fact that you don’t have immediate buyers.
Another thing you enjoy along this line is that the JIT system encourages faster setups of production machinery. Producing small lots of product only as required demands a faster set up of machinery, resulting in more efficiency and reduced costs.
You end up with higher quality raw materials and finished products.
4. Your equipment will be in top gear form
You will have a very high maintenance culture inasmuch as you are adopting the JIT methodology. The nature of production and distribution of product demands that you will avoid costly downtime from machine breakdowns.
For this reason, you must ensure that your machinery are in top gear form and are ready to go at very short notice.
5. Building a stronger relationship and satisfaction among employees
You are able to create room for your workers to be multi-skilled, dynamic, with the opportunity to be exposed to flexible facilities and an atmosphere of teamwork. When all these are in play, you succeed in improving the production system and afford your company a bigger chance of having a competitive edge thereby, upping your products or services.
At the end of the day, you end up running a more efficient operation which translates to the total elimination of wastes that lead to non-value-added costs. The JIT system also encourages stronger relationships between suppliers and producers.
The system as well enhances a free and open exchange of information and communication between the supplier and producer, this breeds a strong level of trust and understanding which supports strong supply coordination. These relationships are enhanced by long-term contracts.
6. Automation in play
What you witness under the JIT system is absolute automation. Any time materials are required, you simply send electronic messages to your suppliers to come up with the required materials.
This improves efficiency and reduces downtime. This opportunity at engaging in automated purchasing deems it necessary that all your existing inventory levels and production levels are no longer done manually.
The automated calculations are undoubtedly more efficient and even make the work easier.
7. Optimization of vendors
Since you don’t need raw materials erratically, the number of vendors you need must be limited in the JIT system. With this, you can optimize the suppliers you have and also reduce the amount of time you spend building relationships with suppliers.
You will discover that this approach will ensure that the firm works with only reliable suppliers who can deliver high-quality goods on time
Conclusion
JIT makes it absolutely possible for you to fashion out a long-term concentration on production, growth, and supply requirements. It’s very easy to synchronize changes in raw materials specifications with suppliers which eventually provides many long-term benefits to the business. Some of the long-term benefits you gain from JIT are lower production costs and better customer satisfaction.
