Introduction
With the growth of fierce competition the companies globally are looking for the way of increasing their competitive advantages on the market. Despite of the expensiveness, the JIT is one of most useful tool that create a significant returns via cost saving for years to come by the improving operational metrics via eliminating non-value added activities.
Despite of the absence of clear determination of the JIT elements and their effect on the overall performance companies all over the world integrate JIT into their business and it brings them benefits. To investigate the real effect of JIT implementation and the influence of each element of practice on all aspects of company's operations meta-analytic investigation was performed. Based on the literature review the elements of JIT practices and measurement variable are presented in table 1,2.
Davy et al. (1992)
Mehra and Inman (1992)
Sakakariba (1993)
Operating Structure and Control
Management Commitment
setup time reduction,
Production scheduling
JIT Production Strategy
small lot sizes,
Quality Implementation
JIT Vendor Strategy
JIT deliveries from suppliers,
JIT Education Strategy
supplier quality level,
multifunction workers,
small-group problem solving,
training,
daily schedule adherence,
repetitive master schedule,
preventive maintenance,
equipment layout,
product design
simplicity,
kanban,
pull system,
MRP adaptation to JIT a
accounting adaptation to JIT
Table 2 - Measurement variables
plant/firm size
age of the plant
unionization
industry type
simultaneous use of JIT practices with quality programs
organizational culture
employee development
technology investment
strategy integration
delivery performance
inventory level
manufacturing cost
cycle time
quality level
Meta-analysis allows getting close to zero average sampling error by the effective cancelation of sample errors that are related to population. For such purposes non-significant correlations of the sample are included into the analysis to reduce the potential bias in the outcomes. Ten JIT practices considered for using in meta-analysis, represented in Table 3. Performance is conceptualized in terms of: quality performance, manufacturing cost, inventory, cycle time, manufacturing flexibility and delivery performance. Multiple operationism and differing operationalization were used to leverage the variance of the differences of each study.
Table 3 - JIT practices
Setup time reduction: Extent to which the plant is reducing setup times in production;
Small lot sizes: Extent to which the plant is utilizing or working towards using small lots in production;
JIT delivery from suppliers: Extent to which the plant is receiving shipments from vendors on a JIT basis;
Daily schedule adherence: Extent to which the plant is producing to schedule as well as utilizing time buffers to guard against unexpected stoppages in production;
Preventive maintenance: Extent of proper maintenance of machinery such that the production machinery downtime is limited;
Equipment layout: Extent of use of cellular manufacturing design including close proximity of machinery;
Kanban: Extent to which operations in the plant utilize the concept of kanban;
JIT link with customers: Extent to which the plant provides JIT deliveries to customers;
Pull system: Extent of existence of a pull production system and the related supporting systems;
Repetitive nature of master schedule: Extent of consistency of production scheduling, as well as the variation in product volumes.
The citation analysis was conducted across published articles from 1992 to 2008, to include all available information related JIT practices. The detailed computer search utilizing search terms "just-in-time", "JIT", and "LEAN" was conducted in numerous, empirically investigated the direct relationship between JIT practices, journals in the area operational management, management, marketing, logistics. From each appropriate article study sample size was extracted, reliabilities of dependent and independent variables, correlation between independent and dependent variables. The number of articles that were found was limited to 25.
The meta-analysis was conducted in two stages: (1) examination of the relationship between practices and performance outcome, (2) examination of the relationship between individual JIT practices and performance. Two heuristics developed by Hunter and Schmidt were used to guide the analysis.
According to the results, the positive effect to aggregate performance from the implementation of JIT is proved. Some of the elements of JIT practices may present no effect by itself, but contribute to the other practice. Related to the LEAN production, JIT practices are important component and have a great effect on the overall performance. The level of impact varies, and future research has to examine all possible interactions of effects of elements.
Summary 2: JIT production, JIT supply and performance: investigating the moderating effects (Pamela Danese, Pietro Romano, Thomas Bortolotti)
The difficult economic situation and a growth of the global competition create the necessity of the finding the way of allocation of all resources in the best possible way to increase profit and reduce investment. JIT practices are one of the tools to do it. Investigation and emphasizing of the importance of the relationship between JIT practices and finding the moderating effects between JIT supply, JIT production and their impact on the efficiency , delivery and performance together and separately are the primarily goals of the research. The main ideas of JIT productions are (1) reorganization of shop-floor to increase operation performance, (2) streaming production flows within production plant; JIT supply is (1)to receive from suppliers frequent deliveries (based on delivery date) of small lots according to pull production.
The main effects of each JIT production and JIT Supply practices are listed in the Table1. Generally JIT practice is a powerful tool to reduce waste and inefficiency, speed up production processes, and increase delivery performance.
Table1 - Anticipated Effects of JIT Production and Supply Practices.
JIT Production
JIT Supply
Decrease inventory level
Frequent on-time delivery of a small lot sizes
Fasten throughputs
Vendor-Kanban Systems
Decrease set-up time
Develop a continuous flow of raw materials
Develop daily schedule adherence
Integrate Kanban pull systems
Use U shaped layout (cellular production)
Use of Heijunka Boxes
JIT delivery be suppliers
Based on the provided information 6 hypotheses were developed. Four of them are associated with main effects of practices and two with synergetic.
Hypotheses are as follows: (H1) JIT production is positively related to efficiency performance; (H2) JIT production is positively related to delivery performance; (H3) JIT supply is positively related to efficiency performance; (H4) JIT supply is positively related to delivery performance; (H5) JIT supply positively moderates the relationship between JIT production and efficiency performance; (H6) JIT supply positively moderates the relationship between JIT production and delivery performance.
To conduct a research 207 manufacturing plants in mechanical, electronics and transportation industries were randomly chosen from High Performance Manufacturing Project. To incorporate national, cultural and economic differences the plants locations were Finland, USA, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Italy and Austria. Half of the plants were high performing and others were traditional manufacturing plants belonged to different parent corporations and had at least 100 employees. The method of gathering information was questionnaire answered by production control managers, inventory and plant managers. The inter-agreement level of answers was 0.7 that is acceptable based on Interclass Correlation Index. The mean number of employees for the sample was 608.44. The variables are JITpro, JITsup, EFF, DEL; control variables were the types of a plant (mechanical sector - baseline/comparison group) and delivery. Using ANOVA was found no biases between countries (p-value >0.05) neither in aggregate terms nor in pairwise comparisons. CFA was used to assess the reliability and validity of constructs. Discriminant Validity was assessed by the Huang Method. Severity was assessed by the common method variance. After all calculation the evidence was found that all correlation and other variables were chosen correctly.
To test hypotheses the procedure recommended by Jaccard and Turroso was chosen. The hierarchical regression procedure that was used was SPSS 17.0. Three experts gave their opinions about the results of research (Table2).
Table 2 - Results of the research
H1
H3
H5
H2
H4
H6
JIT pro
+
+
JIT sup
-
-
-
+
Industry
-
-
Size
+
-
The conclusions were as follows: (1) JIT production positively affect both efficiency and delivery performance; (2) JIT supply doesn't affect both efficiency and performance directly; (3) implementation of JIT supply effects on the efficiency and delivery of JIT production; (4)to achieve higher result some part of JIT supply must be developed in the early stage of integrating JIT production into plant.
Because of the limitation of the study not all possible impacts were discovered. Future research is considered and needs to be realized.
Summary 3: JIT Based Quality Management: Concepts and Implications in Indian Context (VIKAS KUMAR)
In the global competitive business environment the quality of the end product along with speed of the delivery are the important element of the success. In order to achieve it companies have to pay high attention to ongoing processes of improvement with allocating of all recourses at the best possible way. One of the tools for achieving that is JIT practice that includes the basic management techniques, existing improvement efforts and technical tools. As a result of implementing such principles as quality control, purchasing functions, work culture with a philosophy that encompasses cost, meeting delivery schedules, employees's empowerment and skill development, supplier relationship and low level of in-work-inventory will reach the best performance. Moreover the defective items step-by-step will be reduced to near zero level. Operating in a developing country, Indian manufacturing companies faces every day with opposite to listed above characteristics of the success company. An action need to be taken to develop an efficient manual for CEOs.
The key component of the successful implementation of JIT practices are human resources, who need to be motivated, valued, encouraged to contribute and allowed to make own decisions by the top management. Top-management as a main power has to be involved and pay a close attention to all philosophical changes in the organization. The list of the elements of JIT and possible benefits are shown in Table 1,2
Table 1 - Elements of JIT
Buffer stock removal
Cellular Manufacturing
Continual Quality Improvement
Kanban System
Error Prevention (Poke-yoke)
Group Technology
High QC Visibility
Kaizen
Layout improvement
Long term Contract
Long Term QC Commitment
Multifunctional Worker
Preventive Maintenance
Quality certification of supplier
Quality Circles
Quality control authority to worker
Quality culture
Quality development program
Quality oriented training
Regular Quality and reliability auditing
Self -correction of defects
Set up time reduction
Short lead-time
Simplification of quality control processes
Small lot size
Standard containers
Process control
Statistical Quality control
Total quality control
Vendor rating
W.I.P. reduction
Worker motivation
Zero defect
Zero deviation schedule [1,7,11,12,13,26]
100% quality inspection [1,27,28]
Table 2 - Potential benefits of JIT
Reduced set cost
Reduced labour cost (Both direct and indirect)
Reduced move distances
Reduced paper work
Reduced number of parts
Reduced job classification
Reduced scrap and rework
Reduced material handling
Increased process quality
Increased product quality
Increased process flexibility
Increased communication
Increased productivity
Increased team work
Increased innovation
Increased efficiency and responsiveness
Increased resources utilization
Improved worker motivation
Integrate different manufacturing activity
Lower overhead
JIT practices and TQM combine all necessary techniques to reach the quality objective, such as detecting and eliminating the defects of outputs or machines at the early stages by the trained workers, appropriate workplace and discipline. According to the results of Delphi method (Prem vrat et. Al) in Indian context to rich the quality circles and good communication is not an issue, the main problems there are the lack of the multifunctional workers, long term relationships with vendors, support from labor unions and top management attitude. The participation of employees in decision-making, corporate spirit and motivation are some factors which impact on the success of JIT implementation. Suggested by the Padukon and Subba rao, the implementation process in Indian context has to be separated into two parts: (1) achieving simplicity, flow quality, fast set-up and layout; (2) Kanban, JIT purchasing, buffer stock removal, multifunctional worker, pull scheduling, enforced improvement and visibility. These and other evidences allow making a conclusion that all benefits of JIT can be achieved in Indian context.
Human resources are the key components of the JIT success. Some of the essential elements of work culture related to JIT are as follows: flexible workforce, cross training, long-term employment, job enlargement and labor unions, workforce involvement, visibility. Other features of JIT are: efficient decision-making, involvement of employees in constant quality improvement process, training of workers, statistical analysis and control, long-term relationships with suppliers.
Being one of the largest industrial power in the world, India by means of the total government control under economic sector is impeded to work and produce at the best possible way. By using JIT practices all manufacturing sector in India will be changed and become more competitive on the global market. Government should pay more attention to education and eliminate illiteracy. Some of other reasons of slow implementation of JIT in India are shown in Table 3:
Table3 - Reasons of Slow Implementation of Just-in-Time (JIT) in India
High cost of implementation
Informal and casual quality auditing
Lack of Communication at various levels
Lack of customer awareness about product quality
Lack of support from R & D department
Lack of teamwork
Lack of top management participation in QC Programs
Lack of training
Lack of understanding about JIT Techniques
Negative attitude, traits & beliefs of Indian work force
Poor and inadequate maintenance
Shortage of multifunctional workers
Traditional methods of quality control
Correct implementing of JIT practices into small business environment will result in the allocation of all resources at the best possible way, detection and elimination of the causes leading to defective products. It will bring an opportunity for the Indian manufactures to compete on the Global Market. Representatives of Top -Managers in Indian industry should take an action to changing their existing production systems for getting better results from JIT Based Quality Management.
Summary 4: JIT implementation in Egyptian manufacturing firms: some empirical evidence (Salaheldin Ismail Salaheldin)
Egypt's industrial sector struggles with a huge amount of obstacles such as: high scrap, market share losses, high level of inventory, low quality of products and labor, long lead time, etc. Evidences show that successful implementation of JIT practices helps to avoid such problems. But in order to achieve it some modifications must be done in people's attitude and work habits. An investigation of the effect of human resources on the success of JIT implementation in Egypt with further formulation of strategies and tactics for developing countries are the main objects of this research work.
JIT practices are one of the most used nowadays. To mention some of its benefits: improving quality of products, minimizing level of inventory, reducing lead time, full utilization of human resources, increasing of customer satisfaction, etc. In order to achieve the results, some modifications have to be done prior an implementation of JIT. These modifications are related to management, network and quality of suppliers, transportation, organizational structure and human resources. Technical modifications and improvements, training of human resources, modification of a material flow through changing inventory and order policies are one of the crucial steps forward to getting advantages from JIT implementation.
JIT operation and implementation can face with obstacles related to human resources, such as lack of formal training, low level of communication between employees and management, absence of JIT expert or resistance of employees. All aspects of JIT implementation have to be considered. An appropriate solution must be found for Egypt manufacturing firms. In order to complete this goal two questions, four objectives and two hypotheses were developed. They are listed below:
Questions:
(1) Does JIT philosophy work equally well in Egyptian manufacturing firms as in their peers in developed countries like Japan, USA and the Far East?
(2) If so, how can JIT philosophy be implemented successfully in Egyptian manufacturing companies?
Objectives:
(1) To delineate a set of human resources modification efforts to be undertaken in preparation for the JIT implementation process in Egyptian manufacturing firms.
(2) To discern the benefits obtained from JIT implementation based on the viewpoint of Egyptian manufacturing firms.
(3) To identify the problems that Egyptian manufacturing companies typically encounter in implementing JIT philosophy.
(4) To explore the relationship between human modification efforts that should be undertaken prior to JIT implementation and JIT success.
Hypotheses:
H1. Manufacturing firms which are more willing to undertake human resources modification efforts prior to JIT implementation attain a higher level of JIT benefits.
H2. There is no difference between the non-JIT companies concerning the obstacles that impede the implementation of JIT philosophy in the Egyptian industrial sector.
For accomplishing above tasks, the questionnaire was developed in Arabic language and sent to 200 manufacturing companies in Egypt. Questionnaire included questions related to company characteristics, human modifications need to be made prior JIT implementation, JIT benefits and problems. Target respondents were production or material managers. Both JIT and not-JIT firms were included into the sample. A total amount of usable responses of 94 (56 JIT, 38 considering JIT) were obtained with 47% response rate. A pilot study was conducted to verify the appropriateness of the questionnaire.
In order to confirm hypothesis 1, the sample was divided into 2 categories: most willing and less willing to undertake human resources modification effort prior to JIT implementation. Factor analysis was used to identify relationship among the interrelated variables. The statistical significance was measured by the Bartlett's and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin tests. All values were determined to be in statistical significance. The results of the factor analysis are shown in Tables 1 and 2.
Table 1 Factors related to human resources modification efforts
Table 2 Factors related to JIT implementation benefits
Hypothesis 2 was tested by the Kruskal-Wallis test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA).
According to survey, JIT practice is more common at large electronic and engineering industries with "make-to-orders" or "make-to-stock" manufacturing environments, continuous and repetitive manufacturing processes and with sufficient databases. Human resources modification is a key element of the success implementation of JIT. Survey showed that not only internal human resources have to be considered but also external ones, such as suppliers.
The results of the implementation of JIT are shown in Table 3 (higher rating - higher benefits):
Table 3 - The benefits obtained from JIT implementation reported by the companies.
After careful study, Hypothesis 1 was confirmed and the following suggestion was made: increase of investments into manufacturing structure effects on performance effectiveness. The data related to the Hypothesis 2 had significant variation that is why the Hypothesis 2 was only partially confirmed. The lack of education about JIT technology and not reliable suppliers are the main obstacles for the Egyptian companies willing to implement JIT. In order to be able to use and achieve positive results from high-end operational management technologies business system in Egypt should be subjected to serious modifications and improvements.
Summary 5: The perceived impact of JIT implementation on operations performance: Evidence from Chinese firms (Zhi-Xiang Chen, Kim Hua Tan)
Since 1950th after Toyota Company developed and implemented a new manufacturing philosophy with the main idea of eliminating of all non-value adding activities for reducing the cost of the end product and creating the ongoing improvement process of the quality, delivery and customer satisfaction with simultaneous increase of profits, manufacturers in all developed countries have begun the implementation of Just-In-Time practices.
Literature offers us a variety of information about experience and results of JIT's implementation in developed countries, but there is a lack of data from developing countries. Being a world manufacturing center and the biggest developing country, China has an unbalanced developing manufacturing industry with a high to zero level of manufacturing control but there is no information about the experience of JIT implementation from Chinese companies.
The objective of this research is the examination of relationship between elements of JIT practices and production operations performance with further developing of suggestions regarding JIT implementation in developing countries in the China context.
A huge interest in JIT across industry and academic circles was burnt in 1970s. Since that time a literature continuum has been analyzed to emphasis the effect of JIT implementation and to determine its elements. Overall agreement has not been achieved. Based on literature review and industry experience, 10 elements of JIT were sorted out and examined in Chinese enterprises. Those elements are shown in Table 1.
Table1 - JIT elements
Setup time reduction
Small lot size
Quality control
JIT purchasing
JIT facility layout
Total productive maintenance
Kanban and visual management
Level of scheduling
5S campaign
Multiple-skill employee
The effects of JIT on operational performance (OP) of the firm vary from author to author. After experts' opinions were carefully analyzed 4 main characteristics of JIT related to OP were highlighted. They are: (1) operational cost, (2) quality level, (3) on time ratio of product delivery (OTD), (4) WIP inventory level.
Chinese market differs from others a lot. That is why despite the fact that a variety of studies have already clearly determined the benefits and losses associated with JIT implementation, in order to justify the effect of implementation in China the following hypothesis's were stated:
(1) Implementation of aggregate bundle of JIT elements can improve production operations performance. This is effective for all types of industries and their scales of sales.
(2) For Chinese firms with implemented JIT systems, different elements of JIT have different contribution to operational performance.
A questionnaire was chosen as a method of gathering data, that includes (1) basic information of surveyed companies and respondents, (2) information about JIT implementation situation in surveyed companies, (3) production operations performance. Data collection was conducted through 2 ways: (1) post mail, (2) on-site form filling in MBA classrooms. The response rate was low because of the distinctive feature of the Chinese business. Totally were obtained 224 effective questionnaires. The summary of obtained data presented in Table 2.
Table2: Summary of Obtained Data
Conduct construct validity (Factor analysis), reliability analysis, a principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation, correlation analysis and Cronbanch were conducted to test the reliability of questionnaire design and an acceptance of results that were obtained. Only a small lot size was discarded in the analytical model.
For hypothesis 1 testing, the defined elements of the JIT implementation along with four operational performance variables were joined to represent a holistic view of dependent variables. Then the dependence of industry scale on JIT implementation effect was tested. Regression model was built and it proved that the size of industry and its scale of sales have no impact on the performance of JIT practices.
Hypothesis 2 was tested by a Multiple Regression Model. It was found that different elements of JIT have different impact on the operation performance. (1) In order to increase the level of performance of WIP, JIT uses JITP and 5S activities. (2)A significant positive influence on OTD can be obtained by the implementation of the 5S, JITP, MSE. (3) QC and 5S campaign give the best impact on QL. (4) JIT effects on OC reduction by MSE and 5S activities.
The findings of the research suggest that implementation of JIT practices has a positive effect on operational production performance. Different elements of JIT have different level of contribution. An implementation of JIT should be initiated on internal processes of organization and then expanded to external ones. Because of the low response rate of the survey, conclusions that were made reflect the situation of China's manufacturing industry only. According to statistical methods research should take into account case studies and more elements of JIT.
Comparison and Contrasting
Based on the reviewed information the main concern in China, India and Egypt related to the success of implementation of JIT is a lack of professional and multi-skilled manpower. Being the key component of the implementation, training programs were developed in each country based on the level of education of the employers. As more powerful developing country, China has the highest level of education. Related to the element of JIT Set-Up-Time reduction, all of the companies attempt to standardize the assembly, subassembly using different technology, but depending from the type of the industry different levels of success was reached. Generally, it depends from the company's capability to invest funds to the new equipment and research to enhance the standardized properties of the parts. Moreover, distinguished evidence of impaction of the government to the successful implementation of the JIT has been observed in all three countries. In order to achieve the effective results companies need to be supported by government. Long-term relationships with suppliers are more often observed in China than in India and Egypt, because of the more business partnerships with companies from developed countries. KANBAN was noticed as the most popular of the visual methods. The highest in China and the lowest in India. This can be explained by the cultural peculiarities of Chinese people. The level of employees participation plays a significant role in maintaining newly implemented management system based on JIT. Depends of the type of the industry, the different techniques of determining the inventory level are used, and the most popular are MRP and reorder-point techniques.
Conclusion
JIT effectiveness has been proved by the numerous case studies of companies in the USA and other developed countries. But its implementation in developing countries is associated to certain difficulties. In this paper these difficulties and obstacles were determined on example of China, India and Egypt. One of the most common problems found in these developing countries is the absences of the government support. In the context of JIT implementation government support plays a significant role as all aspects of countries' business system are involved in the process. Another aspect that effects on JIT implementation and operation is the level of education and scientific research. They should be funded by the government. Free trade is also a key to the successful use of JIT. Some corrections have to be done regarding the quality of the end product and to be controlled by the government instance. State support programs should be offered for business development.
The role of managers is to pay a proper attention to developing organizational culture with respect to all employees. It includes the growth of all possible abilities of employees by subjecting them to appropriate training programs. Investments should be directed to the implementation of high-end technologies and to the purchasing of new equipment. Decision making should rely on further looking strategic development plans. Order sizes and the suppliers have to be determined by the utilization of sophisticated methods such as MRP, MRP2 and ROP. The requirements for the quality of outsourcing products have to be identified and mentioned in the contracts. The consequences of supplying the products that do not match the quality standards should be severe. Related to the production sequences, the U-shaped layout will be the best and the less expensive type. Responsibilities have to be clearly assigned to each employee and descripted in the workers manual.
The manufacturing industry of developing counties will benefit less than developed countries in the aspect of overall performance of JIT. That is associated with poor developed relationship with suppliers, government contribution to the economic sector, the obsolescence equipment and so on. The implementation of sophisticated management tool will bring advantages not only to companies' owners but also to the general state economy.
