Disadvantages of JIT

Disadvantages of JIT
Aynul Hoque, Bangladesh
JIT is only effective where no exogenous factors. Rather it should be blended with environmental factors.

Great in theory - but challenging in todays economic crunch
Greg Gardner, USA
JIT - the concept is on shaky grounds these days. There once was a day when businesses would plan and inventory ordered and delivered on a timely basis. Nowadays, forecasting and inventory management delivery systems are essential - but processes must be managed with a back delivery plan. Otherwise we get MAJOR breakdowns by not having what we need on time.

Paradigm Shift
Hassanali Rassouli, Iran
Viewing productivity from the old paradigm point of "mass production" leads to concern for full management control rather than customer satisfaction.
Lean management and manufacturing is a system and JIT is only one element of this system and is not effective and should not be viewed isolated from other elements of this system such as TPM, One Piece Flow, SMED, Poka-Yoke etc.

Combine JIT with business continuity planning
seyi, Singapore
I think all value chains in production system are split into a part which makes-to-forecast and a part which could, by using JIT, become make-to-order. JIT is not a stand-alone philosophy; and its application should be combined with business continuity planning to help to alleviate some of the aforementioned problems.

JIT metaphors
Dr. Michael D. Kull, USA
I agree. Planning for contingencies and creating a system with some slack allows for flexibility and efficacy even if it means it may be less efficient. The organic model is a good one. I like the brain metaphor (Morgan, "Images of Organization") as it actually suggests massive redundancies that can be repurposed as the environment changes. Depends on the company/industry of course.

JIT metaphors book
Oluwaseyi Solomon, Partner, Singapore
Is Morgan "images of organization" a book?

JIT is an efficiency improvement tool
Prakash Rao, INDIA
JIT is one of the lean tools. Made available when required. It is an efficiency improvement tool, benefit is no waiting, hence the cost is less. To satisfy customers, most suppliers are managing JIT by putting one godown near customer premises. They oversee the efficiency improvement actions in this way.

Misunderstanding JIT
Dr. R. Varadarajan, India
JIT is not just about matching production and supply so that there is no waiting time, leading to inventory reduction. I would say it is about agility of the entities to respond to changes in the in the environment with which the supply chain has a symbiotic relationship. The agility is implicit and hence not easily assimilated. That is why many suppliers end up accumulating inventory to satisfy the manufactures demands for supply as and when required. If the entities in a supply chain can reengineer their working methodology to incorporate agility to respond quickly to changes all these would not look like a problem.

JIT is only one Element
Nako Stefanov, Bulgaria
I fully agree with the opinion of Hassnali Rassouli from Iran that JIT is only one element within whole system, including TPM, etc. Today of course JIT must be the object of further improvement, especially integration with ICT. If such integration will take place it means a bright future for TPS - Toyota Production System or Total Production System. This last term I think is better to use because one feature of the system is all employees creative involvement by SGA and continuous improvement as one of the basic principles.

JIT is relevent
A.K.Bhargava, India
JIT if used properly is the most effective tool in present downturn of the economy. Only what required is to use it judiciously

Misunderstanding JIT
Jason Schlott, Other, USA
I have to agree with most of the respondents on this matter. JIT should not be utilized as a singled out process. The methodology should be used in conjunction with several other processes so that a business can minimize loss. There are several outliers that may not be a good fit for JIT; however, there are processes within the business that might be suitable for JIT and thus, minimize loss. The technology field is a perfect example for JIT. With technology changing so rapidly, it would be to no ones advantage to stock pile inventory.

Limitation of JIT: Not for Developing Countries
Samuel Nduati Mbugua, Kenya
JIT is a good and powerful tool in the value chain management since the efficient use of resources contributes towards the management of costs. Nevertheless, as a management tool, it can only be used by organisations with highly developed management systems and which are using advanced technology making it of limited use to organisations in the developing countries.

Disadvantages of using JIT
Mayra Martinez, Ecuador
According to some of the above opinions JIT depends on exogenous factors which cannot be controlled. However nowadays JIT is one of the best tools used to manage stock, inventories, and the manufacturing process, but this method depends too much on time and if there are small failures, the entire system breaks and this is a great disadvantage.

Disadvantages of JIT
Bruno, Peru
JIT is directed to minimize inventory cost but JIT must consider two parameters: risk exposure and cost/value. This means that not all materials must be included in JIT policies because there are strategic materials with high risk exposure and high value, others which are critical with high risk exposure and low value, or tactics materials with low value and low risk exposure. This is important to know because JIT entails to assure supply chain as a whole this means from supplier of supplier in that way successively..