The Realisation Japanese Concept Just In Time - Essay Example

Just in Time (JIT) of the group members of the and logo of the Contents Executive Summary 3 Introduction 3 Methodology 3 Body of the Study 4 Conclusion 8 Bibliography and Referencing 9 Executive Summary Over the years Just in Time has become a talked about matter as far as the manufacturing sector is concerned. This Japanese idea has attracted global attention. The importance of the strategy was first felt after the Second World War. JIT is a manufacturing or production strategy through which organization tries to achieve various objectives like continuous improvement, reduction of wastage and increased profitability. The study has shown that the strategy has been successful in Japan. The study has also shown that various fundamental techniques like lean, kanban and kaizen are being used in JIT. The strategy can be applied in UAE also. Gorica Group can implement this in their organization but there are some difficulties that the organization can face to implement this strategy. Introduction Just in time is a famous concept introduced in Japan in 1950. This business concept has significant contributions in the domain of production strategy or manufacturing business. Before the advent of JIT big manufacturing or product based organizations across the world were facing significant difficulties to manage their inventories. Companies across the world were storing high amounts of inventories in their warehouses. Inventory related problems were eating into their profitability. It was a significant matter of concern for the organizations. Returns on investments were low and inventory carrying costs were high. Philosophy of JIT is simple but it has utter importance as far as the inventory management is concerned. After the Second World War, Toyota President raised his voice and asked the Japanese automobile industry to pull up their shocks to compete well with the American automobile industry. During that period, American automakers were manufacturing nine times higher than the Japanese counter parts. It was the time when Japanese people first came up with this idea. With the help of this essay JIT will be discussed. Here in this study JIT will be defined in an elaborate fashion. The paper will also discuss various fundamental techniques related with Just in Time. The essay will analyze whether the concept is successful in Japan or not. In addition to all these it will also try to find whether the concept can be implemented in UAE. The concept will also be discussed on the context of an organization. Methodology Methodology is an integral part of any research paper. Importance of methodology cannot be denied at all. Methodology brings proper structure to a report. It is the way or process through which information and data are collected. Methodology is a process through which researcher tries to conduct the whole study. Without selecting methodology it is impossible to collect data for the researcher. To manage a paper in systematic way it is highly required to select a methodology that can guide the researcher about the whole research. Here in this case, due to the descriptive nature of the subject qualitative research method has been chosen where several secondary academic resources will be used. It is an important factor related with any project. As far as cost effectiveness is concerned, secondary research is properly suitable and highly effective. With the help of this methodology information can be collected easily without spending too much money. Time is also an important factor related with any paper. Generally primary research takes much more time than the secondary research. Keeping the importance of time in mind secondary research has been chosen as the methodology. With the help of secondary research information or data related with the subject can be accessed easily. Now with the advent of online books and other online sources it is significantly easy to grab information with the help of internet. Secondary research can bring extensiveness to a report which is perfectly suitable with the nature of this subject. All data and information are going to be collected from the secondary source like books. Only the related information with subject will be taken. Information collected from the secondary sources will be analyzed critically in a detailed fashion. Body of the Study Figure 1: Just In Time Process JIT is a process through which companies order their inventories only whenever those are required. With the help of this strategy organizations across the world do not store unnecessary inventories in their warehouses. This process helps the organization to reduce their stock holding costs. With the help of this process inventories are rotated properly. This strategy eliminates the scope of outdated inventories and inventory wastages. JIT is a model related with production. The model is perfectly suitable with meeting the current demands. This model is not at all suitable for advance or surplus demands. As far as increasing productivity is concerned JIT is significantly useful. The process gives comprehensive stress on the continuous improvement. Result of the continuous improvement is higher return on investments. The process cannot work alone without the assistance of other components. The process has to depend on components like Kanban, Lean manufacturing, Kaizen and etc. The whole concept of JIT has been created on the basis of simple philosophy, i.e. storage of unused inventory is nothing but the wastages of resources. The process has categorically identified several hidden costs related with the storage of inventory (Simkins and Maier, 2010). The process has defined clearly that how inventory should be considered or viewed by managements across the world. With the help of this process only essential stocks are being obtained whenever they are required. The process has reduced required working capital related with the inventory management. JIT has significant influence on the ROI of the organization with the help of this process ROI can be increased. In today’s business world market demands are significantly volatile in nature (Lai and Cheng, 2012). This concept of production works on demand pull basis. This production strategy is being followed on the basis of an assumption that, all the goods that are made are going to be sold. right first time is a concept significantly interrelated with this strategy. According to the process of JIT, during the time of production process only products related inspections are completed. It helps the organizations to adjust any of the production issues during the time of the production only (Monden, 2011). This idea reduces inspection costs and minimizes the cost of reworking. With the help of JIT organizations across the world can eliminate or reduce the problem of overproduction. JIT is a production strategy which assists organizations to reduce their overhead expenses. This strategy provides significant support to the companies for managing their supply chain in more effective way. It helps the organizations to mange close relationship with the suppliers or vendors. There are lots of fundamental techniques used in JIT. Lean manufacturing is a fundamental technique used in JIT. According to the concept of this technique, usage of resources other than the direct value creation of the customers is considered to be wastage. As far lean manufacturing is concerned all these wastages of resources should be eliminated from the manufacturing process (Wilson, 2009). The whole concept of lean production has come from the Japanese manufacturing sector. This technique encourages doing more thing with the help of least possible resources. This technique talks about the continuous effort to reduce “muda” i.e. waste. For this technique waste can be any kind of like waste related with idle workers, keeping the storage of high inventory and waste related with rework. Figure 2: Kanban Kanban is a scheduling technique used in the JIT manufacturing process. Kanban is a technique used for controlling logistic chains. This technique is not at all an inventory control system. In 1950’s the technique was introduced by the Japanese automobile giant Toyota. The main idea behind this technique is to maintain and improve high level production. With the help of Kanban technique JIT is being achieved by the organizations. It is a significantly effective tool for promoting production improvement (Anderson, 2010). Kanban provides visual expressions to the employees related with a JIT process. Due its visual expression the technique is far more effective than the text guidelines related with manufacturing process. It has been observed that human brain process visual information 60000 times faster than the text information. This factor has made Kanban an effective and fundamental technique for JIT. With the help of this technique employees can control the whole manufacturing process in better way. Figure 3: Continuous Improvement through Kaizen Kaizen is a Japanese word and meaning of this word is continuous improvement. This is also an important technique of JIT. With the help of this technique employees irrespective of any level of the organizations are encouraged to come up with some improvement suggestions in their business process. The basic concept of this technique is to bring little changes on regular basis. That change must bring continuous improvement in the manufacturing process. Due to its all round nature, the technique is significantly used in the JIT (Kato and Smalley, 2013). According to this technique, operational changes are not the results of the major initiatives; it can be achieved with the help of ongoing process. All the above factors have made this idea a fundamental technique of JIT. The concept of JIT was introduced in 1950’s in Japan. During that period of time American manufacturing systems were losing its popularity. Due to its most advanced and efficient manufacturing technique the idea of JIT has become significantly successful in Japan. Over the years JIT technique has exposed all the hidden limitations related with the overall manufacturing process of the nation. The process has helped the organizations to identify that how wastage of resources can reduce the profitability and the effectiveness of an organization (Karan, 2005). In last several decades, Japanese manufacturing strategy specially JIT strategy has attracted the foreign business organization. With the help of JIT Japanese organizations has able to come up with high quality and low cost products. This idea has assisted the Japanese organization to increase their productivity. With the help of JIT, Japanese manufacturing sector has able to reduce their wastages significantly. It has helped them to come up with simple but effective manufacturing procedure. After the implantation of this technique, Japanese companies have successfully checked their stock holding costs. Due to the more free storage space various Japanese organizations like Toyota and Canon have able to utilize their warehouses in more profitable ways. The whole concept of JIT is significantly interrelated with the Japanese culture. Before the usage of JIT, Japanese companies were significantly suffering from over production. Over production was resulting in high numbers of out dated products but with the implementation of JIT organizations have able to eliminate this problem. With the help of this technique Japanese organizations have able to manage their inventory in better way. Japanese organization set their minimum reorder levels, once organization reaches that reorder level, only then they provides fresh orders to the suppliers (Heenan, 2014). It reduces required working capitals for the companies. By implementing this technique Japanese organizations are using their resources in more profitable ways. Japanese organization like Toyota has reduced their lead time considerably with the help of this strategy. Before the introduction of JIT, Japanese organizations were facing serious issues related with their warehouses. They were finding it difficult to store their finished goods it was hampering their economy of scale. With the help of this strategy Japanese manufacturing industry has been able to eliminate the problem of economy of scale. There is no shadow of doubt that this strategy has tested significant successes in Japan. Various countries across the world already have replicated or trying to replicate this Japanese success pills. There are certain requirements for successful application of JIT. Applicability of JIT in UAE would be analyzed on the basis of certain requirements. People of UAE consider man power as the vital resource for the firm. Managements of the country provide adequate training to the employees. In UAE, continuous training and development of the employees are given significant importance. Various managements across the country try to build team of multidimensional talented workforce which is significantly required for applying JIT. Being a long term process continuous improvement is an integral part of JIT (Gitman and McDaniel, 2008). Over the years manufacturing industry of UAE has given significant importance towards the continuous improvement. This factor is making this strategy suitable for the country. JIT requires multifunctional workers. (Hirano, 2009) Managements in the UAE manufacturing sector are overall supportive in nature. Complete management support is required for implementing JIT. In UAE that support is present from the sides of the managements. The manufacturing sector of UAE prefers cellular layout based on group technology which is significantly suitable for the application of JIT. All the above factors are clearly indicating that JIT is applicable in UAE. Gorica Group is a Dubai based leading manufacturer of the trailer and concrete mixer. Apart from these two products the organization has several other products. Due to its large scale business operation the organization deals with high inventory. Dealing with the high inventory has made this company suitable for JIT. The Dubai based company gives significant importance towards the continuous innovation in their manufacturing process. Customer satisfaction with the help of quality products is an integral part of the company’s business operation. To achieve this JIT would be absolutely suitable. Management of the organization is supportive and experienced enough. So management of the company is also suitable for implementing this technique. The organization has almost 500 skilled workers with multifunctional abilities. This ability of the workers has made JIT suitable with the company. But the company does not follow cellular layout in their manufacturing process, it would be difficult for the company to adjust this factor to implement JIT in their business operations. Workers are multifunctional but this new concept can bring fear of unknown in the minds of the worker. Due to this fear, the management of the company can face significant difficulties to apply JIT in their organization. For implementing JIT state of the art infrastructure is required. In terms of infrastructure also the country has limitations. It can be a serious problem to implement JIT in UAE. Conclusion JIT is a production process or strategy which drives a business to improve its investment returns. It is an organizational strategy which is used by the organizations across the world to enhance their business efficiency. With the help of this process companies try to decrease their wastes by accumulating inventories when they are required. This production strategy reduces inventory carrying costs. The basic idea of Lean is to provide customer satisfaction as well as to maintain business profitability. This technique gives significant focus on the customer value and always tries to increase it with the help of continuous improvement in their manufacturing process. The Kaizen technique focuses towards productivity, safety, waste reduction and effectiveness of the organizations. It helps the organization to gain competitive advantages, improved commitment from the workers, waste reduction, increased customer satisfaction and it also provide problem solving attitudes to the workers. JIT strategy has brought about huge amount of cash into the Japanese manufacturing industry. It has happened due to the build and sale of in-process inventory. JIT has reduced response time of Japanese factory by almost one day. It has resulted in significant customer satisfaction as the customers are getting their deliveries more quickly without any shipping delay. All the above arguments and discussions are clearly indicating that JIT is an out and out success in Japan. This manufacturing strategy has changed the outlook of Japanese manufacturing industry. The above paper is indicating that in UAE the technique can be applied in general. But in some cases organizations may face some isolated difficulties. Bibliography and Referencing Anderson, J. D. 2010. Kanban. New York: Blue Hole Press. Gitman, L. and McDaniel, C. 2008. The Future of Business: The Essentials. London: Cengage Learning. Heenan, P. 2014. The Japan Handbook. Berlin: Routledge. Hirano, H. 2009. JIT Implementation Manual -- The Complete Guide to Just-In-Time Manufacturing: Volume 1 -- The Just-In-Time Production System. Tokyo: CRC Press. Karan, P. P. 2005. Japan in the 21st Century: Environment, Economy, and Society. Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. Kato, I and Smalley, A. 2013. Toyota Kaizen Methods: Six Steps to Improvement. New York: CRC Press. Lai, K. H. and Cheng, T. C. E. 2012. Just-in-Time Logistics. New York: Gower Publishing, Ltd. Monden, Y. 2011. Toyota Production System: An Integrated Approach to Just-In-Time, 4th Edition. Tokyo: CRC Press. Simkins, S and Maier, M. 2010. Just-in-time Teaching: Across the Disciplines, Across the Academy. New York: Stylus Publishing, LLC. Wilson, L. 2009. How To Implement Lean Manufacturing. London: McGraw Hill Professional. 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