Mumbai University > Mechanical Engineering > SEM 8 > Automobile Engineering

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JIT philosophy

Just in Time (JIT) production is a manufacturing philosophy which eliminates waste associated with time, labour, and storage space.

Basics of the concept are that the company produces only what is needed, when it is needed and in the quantity that is needed.

The company produces only what the customer requests, to actual orders, not to forecast.

JIT can also be defined as producing the necessary units, with the required quality, in the necessary quantities, at the last safe moment. It means that company can manage with their own resources and allocate them very easily.

The primary goal for the company is customer's satisfaction and if company cannot reach perfection in this area then all the processes are worthless.

All parts of the value chain and everything in the enterprise must be healthy for realization of competitive business processes.

If the company wants strong and long-lasting value chain all the links within the chain must be prepared to overpass all existing problems.

One of the most important links inside that value chain is definitely logistics.

Logistics is concerned with the physical distribution and storage of products and services.

During the 20th century several approaches of implementation of logistics were

Developed surely, one the most famous and most important logistics concept is the Just-In-Time concept.

JIT as a Philosophy

Elimination of waste

Any activity that does not add value to the product or service in the eyes of the

Customer is a waste.

Poor product design such as the inclusion of fancy functions not required by the customer is a waste.

A product design causing difficulty in manufacturing is a waste.

Standardization reduces the planning and control efforts, the number of parts, and the inventory required.

A poor product design without enough standardization leads to waste.

Continuous improvement/One Less at a Time

As we have mentioned before, JIT improves the manufacturing system gradually rather than drastically, as in business process reengineering (BPR).

This gradual continuous improvement is defined by APICS Dictionary as “one less at a time”: a process of gradually reducing the lot size of the number of items in the manufacturing pipeline to expose, prioritize, and eliminate waste.

“One less at a Just-In-Time Manufacturing time” is a constant, step-by-step methodology for making JIT work in any manufacturing environment.

JIT is a never-ending series of small, controlled steps, not one great leap forward.

In the JIT philosophy, not the same product is produced over and over again; instead, the same process is used repeatedly to produce different products.

Problems as opportunities

JIT philosophy sees the problems as the opportunities. A problem is an opportunity to improve. JIT exposes problems rather than covering them.

Quality at the source

Defects may occur at the design stage, any workstation in the production line, or the suppliers’ plants. Quality does not come from inspection. It does not come from manufacturing either. Quality comes from good design.

The quality of a product is determined at the design stage, including product design and process design.

A poor design will never result in good quality.

In a production line, it is not adequate to inspect the products at the end the line. Inspections should be executed by the operators themselves at each step of the line before the parts are passed on to the following process.

The operator in the next workstation has no obligation to inspect an incoming part.

A defect must be screened out immediately after it occurs.

For purchased parts, the inspection should be completed before delivery. Incoming inspection is not required.

Simplification

Simplicity is a key to successful manufacturing.

Products should be designed to be easy to manufacture, install, and repair.

Only 2 or 3 levels should exist in the bill of material.

Suppliers deliver the materials regularly and purchase orders are not required.

Materials are stored at the point of use (POU), and picking orders are not required. Work centers produce the items when they are consumed and shop orders are not required.

Material inventory records are not updated until the finished goods are reported complete.

Simplifying the system is central to the philosophy of JIT.

Visual Control

Visible control tools are used wherever possible.

Cards attached to the materials, containers at sight, tags in stock indicating order points, etc. are examples of visual control tools.

These signals are processed by human intelligence at the speed of light, and are superior to any computer in the world.

JIT philosophy reminds us that natural human senses are effective tools but are frequently ignored.

Focus on Customer Needs

In JIT philosophy, only values in customers’ eyes are real values.

Values perceived by engineers but not accepted by customers are wastes.

All activities from production design, material procurement, fabrication, assembly, distribution to after service, focus on customer needs

Any motion of the operator on the shop floor not adding value to customer needs is a waste.

Production to Customer Demand

In JIT philosophy, only immediate customer demands are produced.

Extra items not required immediately by the customers are not put into production. Without customer demand, there should be no production.

Respect for Individual

Each individual in a company is an important asset.

Education and training are frequently conducted to enhance the capability of the employees.

Employee involvement and empowerment are part of JIT philosophies.

Employee involvement is the concept of using the experience, creativity, and intelligence of all employees by treating them with respect, keeping them informed, and including them and their ideas in decision making processes

Employee empowerment is the practice of giving non-managerial employees the responsibility and power to make decisions that can affect their jobs or tasks.

It allows employee to take responsibility for tasks normally associated with staff specialists, such as scheduling, inspection, etc.

TQM and BPR

Total quality management (TQM) consists of organization-wide efforts to install and make permanent a climate in which an organization continuously improves its ability to deliver high-quality products and services to customers

1. Customer-focused Organization:

   Organizations depend on their customers and should, therefore, understand current and future customer needs, meet customer requirements, and strive to exceed customer expectations.

2. Leadership:

   Leaders establish unity of purpose and direction of organizations. They should create and maintain the internal environment in which people can become fully involved in achieving the organization’s objectives.

3. Involvement of People:

   People at all levels are the essence of an organization and their full involvement enables their abilities to be used for the organization’s benefit.

4. Process Approach:

   The desired result is achieved more efficiently when related resources and activities are managed as a process.

5. System Approach to Management:

   Identifying, understanding, and managing a system of interrelated processes for a given objective improve the organization’s effectiveness and efficiency.

6. Continual Improvement:

   Continual improvement should be a permanent objective of an organization.

7. Factual Approach to Decision Making: Effective decisions and actions are based on the analysis of data and information.

8. Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships:

   It requires immense efforts, time, courage, and patience to successfully implement TQM.

   Businesses successfully implementing TQM can witness improved quality across all major processes and departments, higher customer retention, higher revenue due to improved sales, and global brand recognition

   An organization and its suppliers are independent, and a mutually beneficial relationship enhances the ability to create value.

   Successful TQM requires both behavioural and cultural changes to fulfill the commitments of an organization towards fulfilling customer satisfaction.

   Hence, TQM principles themselves become a management system, which can be categorized into the following three types:

• Organization management systems
• Human resource management systems
• Total quality management systems

For organizations, successful implementation of TQM, therefore, requires integration of organizational behavior, human resource development, and organizational development issues with the quality management practices.

BPR

Business Process Reengineering involves the radical redesign of core business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in productivity, cycle times and quality.

• In Business Process Reengineering, companies start with a blank sheet of paper and rethink existing processes to deliver more value to the customer.
• They typically adopt a new value system that places increased emphasis on customer needs.
• Companies reduce organizational layers and eliminate unproductive activities in two key areas.
• First, they redesign functional organizations into cross-functional teams.
• Second, they use technology to improve data dissemination and decision making

How Business Process Reengineering works:

Business Process Reengineering is a dramatic change initiative that contains five major steps. Managers should:

• Refocus company values on customer needs
• Redesign core processes, often using information technology to enable improvements
• Reorganize a business into cross-functional teams with end-to-end responsibility for a process
• Rethink basic organizational and people issues
• Improve business processes across the organization

Companies use Business Process Reengineering to:

Companies use Business Process Reengineering to improve performance substantially on key processes that impact customers. Business Process Reengineering can:

• Reduce costs and cycle time. Business Process Reengineering reduces costs and cycle times by eliminating unproductive activities and the employees who perform them. Reorganization by teams decreases the need for management layers, accelerates information flows, and eliminates the errors and rework caused by multiple handoffs.
• Improve quality. Business Process Reengineering improves quality by reducing the fragmentation of work and establishing clear ownership of processes. Workers gain responsibility for their output and can measure their performance based on prompt feedback