JIT APPLICATIONS TO FANS BETHORA- Sashi.

Prabhu

Planning for just-in-time (JIT) Management

Basically JIT is a programme directed towards ensuring

that the right quantities are purchased or produced at the
right time, and that there is no waste in terms of material
or money anywhere in our supply chain. JIT fits well under
the TQM umbrella, for many of the ideas and techniques
are very similar and, moreover, JIT will not work without
TQM in operation. It is essentially:
• A series of operating concepts that allows systematic
identification of operational problems.
• A series of technology –based tools for correcting
problems following their identification.
An important outcome of JIT is a disciplined programme
for improving productivity and reducing waste. This
programme leads to cost-effective production or operation
and delivery of only the required goods or services, in the
correct quantity, at the right time and place. This is
achieved with the minimum amount of resources –
facilities, equipment, materials, and people. The
successful operation of JIT is dependent upon a balance
between the suppliers’ flexibility and the users’ stability,
and of course requires total management and employee
commitment and teamwork.

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JIT APPLICATIONS TO FANS BETHORA- Sashi.Prabhu

AIMS OF JIT

The fundamental aims of JIT are to produce or operate to

meet the requirements of the customer exactly, without
waste, immediately on demand. In some manufacturing
companies JIT has been introduced as ‘continuous flow
production,’ which describes very well the objective of
achieving conversion of purchased material or service
receipt to delivery, i.e. from supplier to customer. If this
extends into the supplier and customer chains, all
operating with JIT, a perfectly continuous flow of material,
information or service will be achieved. JIT may be used
in non-manufacturing in administration areas, for example,
by using external standards as reference points.

The JIT concepts identify operational problems by tracking

the following:

1. Material Movements – when material stops, diverts

or turns backwards, these always correlate with an
aberration in the ‘process.’

2. Material accumulations – these are there as a

buffer for problem, excessive variability, etc., like
water covering up ‘rocks’.

3. Process flexibility –an absolute necessity for flexible

operation and design.
4. Value-added efforts – much of what is done does
not add value and the customer will not pay for it.
JIT APPLICATIONS TO FANS BETHORA- Sashi.Prabhu

THE OPERATION OF JIT

The tools to carry out the monitoring required are familiar
quality and operations management methods, such as:

• Flowcharting
• Method study and analysis.
• Preventive maintenance.
• Plant layout methods.
• Standardized design.
• Statistical process control.
• Value analysis and value engineering.

But some techniques are more directly associated with the

operation of JIT systems:
1. Batch or lot size reduction.
2. Flexible Workforce.
3. Kanban or cards with material visibility.
4. Mistake- proofing.
5. Pull-scheduling.
6. Set-up time reduction
7. Standardized containers.

In addition, joint development programmes with suppliers

and customers will be required to establish long-term
relationships and develop single sourcing arrangement
that provide frequent deliveries in small quantities. These
can only be achieved through close communications and
meaningful certified quality.
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THE OPERATION OF JIT
There is clear evidence that JIT has been an important
component of business success in the Far East and that it
is used by Japanese companies operating in the West.
Many European and American companies that have
adopted JIT have made spectacular improvement in
performance. These include:
• Increased flexibility (particularly of the workforce).
• Reduction in stock and work-in-progress, and the
space it occupies.
• Simplification of products and processes.

These programmes are always characterized by a real

commitment to continuous improvement. Organizations
have been rewarded, however, by the low cost, low risk
aspects of implementation, provided a sensible attitude
prevails. The golden rule is to never remove resources –
such as stock –before the organization is ready and able
to correct the problems that will be exposed by doing so.
Reduction of the water level to reveal the rocks, so that
they may be demolished, is fine, provided that we can
quickly get our hands back on the stock while the problem
is being corrected.

Successive phases of JIT may well become self-financing

by rapid simplification of systems and work flows, JIT must
never be regarded at the intermediate stage as the ‘quick-
fix’. Management must contemplate:
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THE OPERATION OF JIT

1. Long implementation times – typically 2-3 years.

2. A total or company- wide quality and just-in-time

management programme.

3. Never ending improvement and reduction of waste.

The primary objective of JIT is the improvement of quality

through elimination of waste. It demands that inventory is
kept minimum, for inventory costs (insurance, interest,
obsolescence, etc.) can be as high as 26 per cent of stock
value, and significant improvements in costs and quality
can be achieved by the reduction of inventory. Defective
parts, materials, and workmanship are detected promptly
and quickly fed back to the producing process. Where the
problems are identified and corrected on the spot. In
addition to quality improvement, there is no requirement
for a profusion of warehouses, fleets of forklift trucks, rows
of racks, scores of employees, and piles of cash to
purchase, handle, and move the inventory.
JIT APPLICATIONS TO FANS BETHORA- Sashi.Prabhu

THE OPERATION OF JIT

In some engineering and process industry applications the

major obstacle in producing small lots is the set-up times
of equipment and machines. Long set-up time make the
small lot size uneconomical so, clearly, cutting set-up
times is one of the first tasks. This will also reduce
equipment downtime; work-in-progress costs associated
with obsolescence, materials handling and control, and
quality control. Shorter set-up times also result in shorter
lead times, which provides greater flexibility for processes
to adapt to changes in the market demand and
requirements.
JIT APPLICATIONS TO FANS BETHORA- Sashi.Prabhu

THE KANBAN SYSTEM

Kanban is a Japanese word meaning visible record, but in

the West it is generally taken to mean a card that signals
the need to deliver or produce more parts or components.
In manufacturing, various types of record cards, e.g. job
orders or tickets and route cards, are used for ordering
more parts in a push type, schedule-based system. In a
push system a multi-period master production schedule of
future demands is prepared, and a computer explodes this
into detailed schedules for producing or purchasing the
appropriate parts or materials. The schedules then push
the production of the parts or components, out and
onward. These systems, when computer-based, are
usually called Material Requirements Planning (MRP) or
the more recent Manufacturing Resource Planning
(MRPII).
JIT APPLICATIONS TO FANS BETHORA- Sashi.Prabhu

THE KANBAN SYSTEM

The main feature of the Kanban system is that it pulls

parts and components through the production processes
when they are needed. Each material, component, or part
has its own special container designed to hold a precise,
preferably small, quantity. The number of containers for
each part is a carefully considered management decision.
Only standard containers are used, and they are always
filled with the prescribed quantity. There are two cards of
Kanbans for each container. The production or P-Kanban
serves the work centre producing the part, whereas the
conveyance or C-Kanban serves the work centre using it.
Each container travels between the two work centres and
one Kandan is exchanged for another along the way. No
parts may be made at any work centre may come to a halt
rather than produce materials or parts not yet requested.
The operators will engage in other activities, such as
cleaning, maintenance, improvement or quality-circle
project work when no P-Kanbans have been submitted.
These hold-ups often help to identify and improve
bottleneck situations.
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PLANNING JUST-IN-TIME (JIT) MANAGEMENT

• JIT fits well under the TQM umbrella and is essentially

a series of operating concepts that allow the
systematic identification of problems, and tools for
correcting them.

• JIT aims to produce or operate, in accordance with

customer requirements, without waste, immediately
on demand. Some of the direct techniques
associated with JIT are batch or lot size reduction,
flexible, standardized containers.

• JIT implementation requires the foundations of

quality, low cost, minimum lead times, high flexibility,
through the core techniques of pull scheduling, JIT
purchasing, buffer stock removal, multifunction
workforce and enforced improvement.

• As with TQM, a steering committee, a project

manager and project teams are enforced
improvement.

• Purchasing is an important feature of JIT. Long-term

relationships with a few suppliers, or ‘co-producers’,
are developed in networks of trust to provide quality
goods and services.
JIT APPLICATIONS TO FANS BETHORA- Sashi.Prabhu

KANBAN- STOCK RE-ORDERING SYSTEMS

The word ‘kanban’ is Japanese for ‘advertising hoarding’.

A kanban card, described later, is merely an advert giving
the message ‘Produce Components for me.’

The premise of the system is simple- your supplier will not

manufacture components unless they are wanted by
yourself. This is a ‘pull’ system, where goods are pulled
from further upstream as required, as opposed to a ‘push’
system where you make goods and send them to the next
stage, where required or not.

Therefore this leads to less inventory, less risk of large

scale quality defects and eliminated panic production.
(Likewise, you should not be looking to produce unless
your customers require the stock.)

However, as with most things, there is a slight variation.

Your supplier may hold a small amount of stock in order to
supply you immediately but as soon as that stock is
starting to move then they will trigger production.

Remember- your supplier is the person one up the line,

not necessarily a separate company, just as your
JIT APPLICATIONS TO FANS BETHORA- Sashi.Prabhu

customer is the person one down the line, not the end
user.

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KANBAN- STOCK RE-ORDERING SYSTEMS

THE BRIEF OVERVIEW

1.Manufacturing 1 2 3 4
cell number
2. Number of 3 4 3 2
components
types
3. Capacity per 1.5K 2K 1K 1.5K
8-hour day
4.Requirements 2.5 2.5K 1.6K 3.75
for 5-day week
per component
[(Item 3*5)/
Item2]
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KANBAN- STOCK RE-ORDERING SYSTEMS

GETTING THERE

If the demand is fairly constant, it can be averaged out

over a long time span, or at least regularly modified, and
the company can take the decision to follow a set
production plan. This entails producing enough of each
component to allow every other component to be
manufactured before the stock of the first component runs
out. For instance, for one weeks rolling manufacturing
plan, with components being removed on a daily basis, the
weekly demands are as follows:

Cell 1 2 3 4
Components 3 4 3 2
Order 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Amount 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 1.6 1.6 1.6 3.75 3.75
(000s)
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KANBAN- STOCK RE-ORDERING SYSTEMS
What do the cards look like?

There are a number of different card types-triangular,

circular, rectangular, metal, paper etc, every type that you
can think of. Do what best suits your needs. However, all
of them contain a standard range of information:

• Part description
• Part number
• Quantity per container /card (This is the re-order
quantity)
• Area where the card is used

They may look like the following:

Casting stock
Part
50 per container
description
Rocker cover
Part Number
FXZ-1234-WL
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