Key Term : Just For Time Productions Or Systems

Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Volume 7, Number 5, 2002, pp. 271 – 282;

Success for many organizations depends on the firm’s ability to balance product and process changes while exceeding customer expectations for improved cost delivery and quality. In lieu of these issues firms have started to implement principles of supply chain management. Supply chain management mainly involves managing the flow of incoming materials, manufacturing operations, and downstream distribution has to be in alignment that is responsive to change in customer demands eliminating a surplus of inventory.

Businesses benefit from having a good relationship with their suppliers of raw materials and components. In manufacturing, companies are adopting “Just-in-time” manufacturing. This means that businesses only produce when they have an order, and they only get materials delivered when they are needed. Businesses require reliable and efficient suppliers to be able to order their stock last-minute.

Just-in-time (or JIT) manufacturing is a way of managing manufacturing systems that could reduce waste, and lower cost, thus increasing profit. Just-in-time can also be defined as a philosophy of manufacturing based on planned elimination of all waste and on continuous improvement of productivity. It has been described as an approach with the objective of producing the right part in the right place at the right time, hence the phrase Just-in-time. JIT should improve profits and return on investment by reducing inventory levels, reducing variability, improving product quality, reducing production and delivery lead times, and reducing other costs, such as those associated with machine

‘McDonaldisation’ of society has led to reduced costs, but at the risk of reduced customer service and individuality. Driving down costs is often associated with reduced quality, wastage, idle time, and lack of attention to the individual needs of customers (cimaglobal.com). These factors contradict the philosophies associated with Total Quality Management (TQM) and Just in Time (JIT). JIT aims at zero wastage and increasing efficiency.

Advocates of just-in-time espouse that its principles are adaptable to any productive system. Beyond manufacturing these principles have been utilized in transportation systems, supermarkets, fast-food restaurants, wholesalers, quality assurance, and express delivery services for a significant amount of time. One study in particular shows that the productivity improvements that accompany a just-in-time system are possible in any productive system that has member’s which possess an open mind to change and improvement (Kamei, et al., 2012; Daugherty, Rogers, & Spencer, 1994; Winston & Heiko, 1990). There have been five specific studies which analyzed the application of just-in-time

Total quality management (TQM) is the organization-wide effort to install and make permanent a climate in which it continuously improves its ability to deliver high-quality products and services to customers. While there is no widely agreed-upon approach, TQM efforts typically draw heavily on the previously-developed tools and techniques of quality control. As a business phenomenon, TQM enjoyed widespread attention during the late 1980s and early 1990s before being overshadowed by ISO 9000, Lean manufacturing, and Six Sigma

Supply chain management is the business of overseeing the flow of materials to manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and consumers. It is an external process that involves supply chain managers communicating with other vendors to ensure a product flows through the supply chain smoothly. Once a product reaches the consumer, it has already flowed through multiple organizations – these organizations collectively are referred to as the supply chain. Effective supply chain management should result in a relatively seamless production process while also minimizing costs on a continuing basis. Operations management, by definition, is the development, execution and

Supply Chain Management seeks to guarantee that “merchandise is produced and distributed at the right quantities, to the right locations, and at the right time. . .” (Stock, Boyer, & Harmon, 2010). It is the management of a company’s supply chain by coordination and integration of the multitude of supply chain partners that a company interacts with. Initially, the concept focused on how to make a relationship between supplier and purchaser more efficient but has now been broadened to include the management of many activities, functions, and organizations. In some industries it may include a company’s entire supply chain, including all of its customers, suppliers, and strategic partners (du Toit & Vlok, 2014; Walker & Jones, 2012). The concept has expanded so far today that many argue that there is no longer any competition among individual companies but instead competition among separate supply chains (Brun & Moretto, 2012).

There are many researches showing that total quality management is the predominant factor to remain business organizations’ sustainable competitiveness and generate the best result (e.g., Easton & Jarrell, 1998; Hendricks & Singhal, 1997; Lemak et al., 1997; Samson & Terziovski, 1999; Shetty, 1993). What is quality? How could a good total quality management dedicate to organization? Are they the same in any organizations? Understanding the importance of quality, many organizations have appointed a Quality Manager to manage quality operation as a whole. In order to study the contributions of TQM, take a medium-size manufacturing as an example, what should a quality manager do to improve the overall performance? In this

This paper articulates that supply chain management is all about providing the right products, at the right time, to customers at low cost. To attain competitive advantage, organizations should think radically about business process optimization to maximize profits and gain new customers. Forward looking companies are going beyond improving customer service, partnering commitment and improved quality controls in service supply chain. Successful companies are managing warranty costs, improving their product through upgraded service supply chain operations, which generate more revenues. Firms must identify what the company can do to improve their practices and services while classifying what their employees are capable to perform at

In all Total Quality Management programs the ultimate effectiveness criterion is customer satisfaction. According to the research, to reach this ultimate goal of effectiveness requires that the organization measure several other criteria on a continual basis (Weaver, 1991; Hackman & Wageman, 1995; Dahlgaard, 1999; Clark, 2000). The appropriate criteria to measure depends on the type of organization, and whether they deliver a product or a service. In a production-based organization, the effectiveness criteria are divided into product measures and employee measures. The possible measures for the product include: increases in production, increases in sales, increases in market share, increases in stock prices, reductions in the product cycle time, reductions in the number of reworks, reductions in the inventories, and reductions in customer returns. The employee measures include: satisfaction with the company,

Total quality management is defined as a companywide effort to continually improve the ways people, machines, and systems accomplish work. Management gurus William Edwards Deming, Joseph Moses Juran, and Philip Bayard Crosby and their philosophies on improving quality and performance excellence lead to frameworks. The U.S. Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and the international ISO 9000 certification and the Six Sigma concept are frame works known worldwide. By implementing these frameworks and concepts, companies have improved overall quality from the products and services as well as improving the employees and customers standard of living. When the company goes to implement total quality management, some of its core values are driven in order to improve the quality of the company. Those values are having “methods and processes designed to meet the needs of internal and external customers, giving every employee in the organization training in quality, having quality designed into a product or service so that errors are prevented from occurring, rather than being detected and corrected in an error-prone product or service, the organization promotes cooperation with vendors, suppliers, and customers to improve quality and hold down cost, and managers measure progress with feedback based on data.” (Page 41 – 42, Noe)

Total Quality Management (TQM) is an operational perspective dedicated to consumer satisfaction and continuous advancement; accordingly, TQM is devoted to the superiority and to remaining the finest in all occupations. Since TQM objectives are to decrease expenditures and enhance quality, it can be utilized as a course to implement a comprehensive inexpensive or a differentiation corporate strategy. (Wheelen, T. L., Hunger, J. D., Hoffman, A. N., Bamford, C. E., 2015)

Supply Chain Management(SCM) is defined as a set of approached utilized to efficiently integrate suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses and stores, so that merchandise is produced and distributed at the right quantities to the right locations and at the time in order to minimize system wide costs while satisfying service level requirement.(Simichi-levi et al., 2008). Increasingly organisations are taking advantage of modern communications and transportation technologies in order to increase their