9.1 Just-in-Time and Lean Manufacturing Concepts

Imagine ordering a pizza for dinner from a restaurant that advertises a delivery time of six hours. Clearly, such a prolonged wait would be unacceptable, as the pizza would arrive cold and stale, failing to meet the customer’s expectations. Conversely, a restaurant that promises to deliver a cold, stale pizza within five minutes would also be unsatisfactory. To truly satisfy consumer needs, a pizza shop must be capable of providing customers with the desired number of fresh pizzas at the precise time they are wanted.

Preparing pizzas in advance would be wasteful, as most consumers are unlikely to purchase a stale product. Conversely, an excessively long delivery time would result in the loss of customers to more responsive competitors. The concept of just-in-time (JIT) focuses on producing goods or services to meet customer demand only when they are needed. For a pizza delivery shop, this translates to delivering a fresh pizza to the customer’s doorstep within approximately 30 minutes.

This philosophy can be applied to a wide range of operations, from simple tasks like washing a car to the complex manufacturing of aircraft. Similarly, the concept of lean manufacturing refers to the elimination of waste in the manufacturing process. The Toyota Production System serves as a model for modern manufacturers seeking to control and minimize waste.

The core focus of Lean system is to tackle waste. By definition, any activity in a process that does not have any value for the customer is waste. As a result, the customer will not pay for these activities, yet resources have been allocated to those activities at a cost. In this unit, we will explore seven types of waste as shown in the following video and later we will look at the processes for controlling them.

Additionally, we will delve into the origins of the Just-in-Time (JIT) philosophy and the use of pull systems to control inventory effectively. By embracing the principles of just-in-time and lean manufacturing, organizations can streamline their operations, minimize waste, and enhance their ability to meet customer demands promptly and efficiently, ultimately improving customer satisfaction and operational performance.

“Just-In-Time and Lean Systems” from Introduction to Operations Management Copyright © by Hamid Faramarzi and Mary Drane is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.—Modifications: some paragraphs rewritten; added additional explanations.