Abstract

Abstract With the development of faster means of communication, better quality computers and rapid transportation systems, manufacturing is no longer restricted at local level, but has become global in character. As a manufacturing company has to become competitive for its survival, it has to supply products of consistent high quality at reliable and reduced delivery time. Market also demands more product variants that means reduced lot size and high flexibility in operations. Manpower cost has also risen. All these factors tend to increase the product cost. But the industry has to maintain the cost at a reasonable level. Confronting these challenges, companies world-wide are forced to find ways to reduce costs, improve quality, and meet the ever-changing needs of their customers. One successful solution has been the adoption of Just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing strategy in which many functional areas of a company such as manufacturing, engineering, marketing, and purchasing etc. are involved. This paper first reviews literature on JIT and then literature on JIT in developing countries like India and identifies some research issues. Keywords JIT, Manufacturing, Quality, Cost I. Introduction JIT may be described as an extension of the original concept of managing the material flow in a factory to reduce the inventory levels. In fact, there is much more involved in a manufacturing organization than reducing inventories to control costs. Manufacturing has to deal with other issues, such as process control, level of automation, flexible manufacturing, machine set up times, direct labor productivity, Overhead, supplier management, engineering support, and the quality of product delivered to customers. A modern manufacturing Organization has to deal efficiently with these issues in order to operate a smooth, productive, and quality minded department. II. Literature Review There is reasonable consensus among researchers that Just in Time (JIT) is a philosophy of continuous improvement in which non-value adding activities are identified and removed in order to reduce costs, improve product quality, improve performance, improve delivery, add manufacturing flexibility and stimulate innovation in the workplace Advocates of JIT view inventory as a waste and a source of all evil because inventory build-ups tend to hide production problems rather than solve them Elimination of waste in production and materials [34, 58] 1. Improving communication internally (within organization) 2. and externally (between the organization and its customers and vendors) organizations [18] Integration of the different functional areas in the organization. 6. It especially bridges the gap between production and accounting [36, 46] The JIT benefits do not just happen. Before an organization enjoys the fruits of JIT, it must accept JIT as an organizational philosophy. This requires the organization to change or modify its operating procedures, production system and organizational Gunasekaran & Lyu [27] analyzed the case of JIT implementation in a small company in Taiwan that produces different kinds of automobile lamps such as rear combination lamps and front turn signal lamps. Continuous improvement, involvement of all people in the organization, reductions in throughput time and elimination of non-value adding activities and simplification of essential activities were the elements of JIT on which the company placed emphasis. The company proved that with JIT system, the company could survive with lower manufacturing costs and higher quality. Education of workers about JIT concepts and top management commitment were proved essential to ensure the effectiveness and success of implementing JIT Deshpande and Golhar [16] examined human resource practices of JIT firms in Canada through an empirical study. Worker flexibility; ability to work in groups, self-inspection and a concern for a firm's success were some extremely important characteristics of some of JIT firms. Without these workforce qualities, continuous improvement in the workplace will be difficult. Recruitment practices indicated that the JIT firms preferred to recruit from within organization. There was a strong commitment of the JIT firms in upgrading employee skills and, therefore, the number of training programs and training budget had increased significantly. There was also a significant increase in group incentive programs, teamwork and communication within the organization. JIT firms also made concerted efforts towards employee retention by providing better work environment. The firms that had adopted JIT were benefiting from its implementation. Productivity, product quality increased significantly with a significant decrease in the overall inventory, lead time to meet customer demand, and the labor cost/unit. These benefits further helped the JIT firms in successfully competing in the global environment. Resistance to change, production scheduling, and union resistance were the most often cited problems by firms during JIT implementation managers. Chang and Lee [10] presented the results of an empirical study to see the impact of critical success factors of JIT implementation on organizational performance. Based on literature review, some variables selected to measure organizational performance included inventory turnover, work-in-process inventory turnover, quality, flexibility etc. were the dependent variables. Factors required for successful JIT implementation served as independent variables and were identified from review of relevant literature. Finally, five independent variables were selected for multiple regression. Multiple regression models based on dependent variables and independent variables were employed to find the most significant factors among JIT requirements. Communication between the production and marketing departments was determined to be a critical success factor for increasing inventory turnover in JIT firms. Employees' participation and bottom-up management were identified as the critical factors for improving quality and flexibility. Contrary to previous studies, however, a negative correlation between integration of MRP and JIT, sales in dollar per employee and inventory turnover was identified, and top management support was not determined as a critical factor for successful JIT implementation. The results of this study further suggested that in JIT environment, personnel management practices, such as bottom-up management encouraging employees' participation, and organization management, such as a communications linking the production and marketing departments should be enhanced. The next section reviews the literature related to JIT in developing countries like India. problems in implementing JIT, and expecting an overall benefit on an average 59.8% if JIT purchasing is fully implemented. Tests confirmed that the scope of JIT implementation in India was fair and it was independent of the type of industries, layout, and number of employees. Small industries were more optimistic than large and medium scale industries about JIT implementation. Kumar and Garg [38] took a closer look on JIT implementation problems and benefits in Indian context. A survey of Indian industries was conducted to identify those JIT elements which are highly difficult to implement, those which are easy to implement in Indian context and to identify the most expected JIT benefits in Indian context. It was found perfect JIT implementation may not be feasible in most Indian industries due to lack of resources, lack of technology, non availability of multifunctional workers etc. However, some elements such as continuous improvement, layout improvement, quality circles, small lot size etc. are easy to implement as reported by Indian industries. Therefore maximum weightage must be given to these elements to reap maximum benefits. The elements which found to be difficult to implement included zero defects, automation and autonomation, JIT purchasing, kanban system, set up time reduction etc. Reduced work in process, reduced purchase lot size reduced production lead time, improved competitive position etc. were found some of the high ranked expected benefits as a result of JIT implementation. Prem Vrat et al. III. Concluding Remarks and Directions for Future Research Just-in-Time concept has changed the way manufacturing organizations do things. Some of the JIT concepts are completely opposite to traditional ways of thinking. It is human nature to resist change, and the implementation of JIT system is typical of this. People resist these new ideas and call them risky. But it is important to realize that JIT will not work if it has to be forced against everybody's will. Voluntary participation and training is necessary. Being a philosophy, JIT does not restrict itself to high technology manufacturing environments which make extensive use modern technologies like flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) or computer integrated manufacturing (CIM). JIT philosophy is valid in any manufacturing environments, regardless of the level of automation in the technology hardware. Similarly, the philosophy is not limited to any specific type of industry nor does the size of the organization matter. Organizations of different sizes, in a variety of industries, have successfully implemented JIT philosophy. Indeed, some applications References [12] Crawford, K.M., Blackstone, J.H., Cox, J.F.,"A study of JIT implementation and operating problems", International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 26, No. 9, 1988, pp. 1561-1568 facts or fiction?", Lessons from Japan, Vol. 59, pp. 65-75, 1999. 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