JIT – The Backbone of Lean Manufacturing

JIT is the backbone of the lean manufacturing. Actually the concept grew first with the Toyota system was the JIT,

then it developed to the lean manufacturing.

JIT is one key way to get read of most of the wastes.JIT concepts are based on the pull demand model. Everything is done when they are actually needed.

JIT has three main areas.

 JIT purchasing

 JIT Production

 JIT distribution

Either the operator is alerted when a mistake is about to be made, or the yoke device actually prevents the mistake from being made. In Shingo's

former implementation would be called a warning poka while the latter would be referred to as a control poka -yoke.

Shingo argued that errors are inevitable in any manufacturing process, but that if appropriate poka-yokes are implemented, then mistakes can be caught quickly and prevented from resulting in defects. By eliminating defects at the source, the cost of mistakes within a company is reduced.

Poka yoke system is generally known as PKS.

Implementation in Service Industries:

also be implemented in service industries. Call Centers have long had a challenge with compliance. Poor training, fatigue, forgetfulness, and the limits on human consistency all can lead to agents skipping key steps in the process. Disclosures are a good example. When a consumer makes a purchase of some kind, the call center agent is often required to provide the customer with key information. What the customer purchases dictates the disclosures that are required. It can be hard to train the agents in all required combination of disclosures or the agents can sometimes forget to read the disclosures. Using Agent-assisted automation, the agents can provide the customers with all the required disclosures using pre

audio files. By integrating the Agent-assisted Automation with the customer relationship management software, you can ensure that the agent cannot process/complete the order until the required disclosures are played

The Backbone of Lean Manufacturing :

JIT is the backbone of the lean manufacturing. Actually the concept grew first with the Toyota system was the JIT,

developed to the lean JIT is one key way to get read of most of the wastes.JIT concepts are based on the pull demand model. Everything is done when they are actually needed.

JIT has three main areas.

JIT purchasing JIT Production distribution

Page 63 Either the operator is alerted when a mistake is about to be made, or the

yoke device actually prevents the mistake from being made. In Shingo's former implementation would be called a warning poka -yoke, Shingo argued that errors are inevitable in any manufacturing process, but

mistakes can be caught quickly and prevented from resulting in defects. By eliminating defects at the

Poka yoke system is generally known as PKS.

also be implemented in service industries. Call Centers have long had a challenge with compliance. Poor training, fatigue, forgetfulness, and the limits on human consistency all can lead to agents skipping key steps example. When a consumer makes a purchase of some kind, the call center agent is often required to provide the customer with key information. What the customer purchases dictates the disclosures that are required. It can be hard to train the agents in all the required combination of disclosures or the agents can sometimes forget to

assisted automation, the agents can provide the customers with all the required disclosures using pre -recorded assisted Automation with the customer relationship management software, you can ensure that the agent cannot process/complete the order until the required disclosures are played

JIT is the backbone of the lean manufacturing. Actually the concept grew first

JIT Purchasing is done when the goods are actually needed by the production. No large stocks are maintained. Often purchasing is done in small batches continuously. This allows production to run smoothly. This will also reduce the costs due to storage, and also will minimize the degrading of the goods. This way it is easy to monitor quality defects and correct them if there are any in the subsequent batches. Also this will help to achieve shorter lead-times in the production.

But achieving this has problems to overcome. First of all the supplier base of the organization should be manageable. Then they have to agree to produce in small batches and send them in the continuously. Minimum order quantity issues must be solved. The supplier must be able to adjust to the changes fast and also he must be able to keep the correct quality from batch to the other. And there may be much more problems to overcome. To overcome this corporate level involvement is very much required. When achieved this will mutually benefit both you and your supplier.

JIT Manufacturing might be the most talked topic of all lean manufacturing techniques. This requires very good internal coordination and planning. Even within the manufacturing area, pull demand concepts are used. The items are produced only when they are required by the process following it. No stocks are maintained. This will reduce the costs due to WIP. This will also reduce the cycle time of the product, and therefore will improve the flexibility of the

Page 65 Achieving JIT manufacturing is again not an easy task. Most of the time this requires a radical change in the organization. Work will change from the conventional departmental thinking to the new team thinking. Manufacturing will change from the line system to the module or work cell based manufacturing. Every problem will cause the system to stop since there is no WIP to work with. All the problems hidden in the WIP will be revealed. Some people might not like the system. In short there will be tons of problems to be solved. This requires some courage and temperament.

JIT Distribution is to achieve a smooth production without any delays in production and to distribute the goods in small batches to the buyers in continuous basis, it is very important to keep a good transportation management system. Generally this is known as the JIT distribution.

Without this any of the lean objectives might not be possible. Most often this function is given to a third party logistic company, who will take care of JIT distribution. On time, uninterrupted data exchange is very vital in this.

Therefore it is advisable of using electronic way of data interchange. It is also very much necessary to automate this data transfer function to avoid any delays and mistakes in duplication.

3.6.4 Kaizen(改善)^:

Kaizen is another pervasive tool since it is a focused methodology that uses teams for making improvements. Analysis indicates that this is the best systematic approach for an improvement project. It is a continuous improvement process that empowers people to use their creativity; Kaizen can be used to fix specific problems, workflow issues, or a particular aspect of a business.