Originally Posted By: eljefino
Yeah, sliding off topic, I don't get "just in time". It seems like something the Japanese were doing, so we started doing it too. Except they know why they're doing it.
Look at Autozone blowing out their oil for $1/qt; they have to dump it by a self-imposed artificial deadline to make some MBA's balance sheet happy.
I know someone who drove a regular truck route from Maine to Florida with premium unconcentrated lemonade in glass bottles. Seems wasteful but it's a premium product so the consumers don't mind, I guess. We also truck LOTS of Poland Spring water out of here. For "Public Relations" the trucks are plain white and don't advertise that they're taking "our" water elsewhere and beating up the roads in the process. It's a short drive to Rigby Train Yards but these trucks hit the Turnpike instead...
"just is time" pertains primarily to manufacturing, usually not some sale item or grocery store items, but it could somewhat be applied to promotional items. A retail outlet having to "dump" product at a low cost is primarily due to the fact they bought too much and are having to store it, tying up a warehouse space. Better to dump the product and move on. That isn't "just in time" logistics. That is classic incompetence.
If you are, say, making autos. You could either spend gobs of money on buildings to warehouse parts, or you could just have the parts come in as you need them to build your cars. It is more cost effective to do the latter. Especially so, if a design change needs to be made to correct a design flaw. So, have the supplier make components and ship them as you need them for assembly, or "just in time". And problems that might crop up in the design can be quickly changed before you stockpile dozens of truckloads of the same parts. It keeps the amount of physical property needed to store components to a minimum and that keeps costs down as well. Imagine buying and having shipped to you, a million valves for your engine builds. Then you find out, the valves are defective and you need new valves. What a waste and a mess. If he valves were shipped in as you need them, you could catch the design flaw and make the necessary correction early and avoid tearing apart thousands of engines, having to repair engines under warranty that already made it into consumer hands, and have millions off useless valves sitting in the supply warehouse.
Food production is another situation where this comes into play. It is impractical to store days worth of the necessary components that go into making many food products. There is the greater risk of contamination or product going bad before you use it. Having it brought in as you need it is much more effective, eliminates waste, and ensures quality control. And again, if you find that that food component is bad or doesn't meet your needs, then you are not out a train car load of product, the truck can be returned quickly to the shipper, and reloaded with product that meets the need. Needless days of time and disruptions in production are eliminated.
If either of these examples used rail instead of truck, you would still have a lot of product that is "warehoused" on rail cars and such. Food product could go bad or be contaminated, thousands of wasted, useless parts that don't meet design control are still warehoused on the train. There are many examples where rail is not going to be a viable alternative to the truck.
It is really no different than what the average consumer does. The consumer usually doesn't buy cases and cases of oil, filters, parts, washer fluid, tires, brakes, etc to service their personal auto only. They will use that much over the life of their vehicle, but they don't want to tie up a big chunk of their garage storing this stuff till they need it, and shell out thousands of dollars at one time purchasing all of this stuff. Manufacturing and production saw the consumer model and realized it would work effectively and keep cost down and improve quality control. All true.
So there are many reasons to do it this way. And all of them cut unnecessary waste and keep costs down for the consumer. Even if one is doing it this way, or the old way by warehousing product, there is still going to be similar use of the roads to some extent. It is partly to manage balance sheets, but it also has to do with quality control and other factors. Just in time is a very valid business technique that makes things a lot better for all of us.
Yeah, sliding off topic, I don't get "just in time". It seems like something the Japanese were doing, so we started doing it too. Except they know why they're doing it.
I know someone who drove a regular truck route from Maine to Florida with premium unconcentrated lemonade in glass bottles. Seems wasteful but it's a premium product so the consumers don't mind, I guess. We also truck LOTS of Poland Spring water out of here. For "Public Relations" the trucks are plain white and don't advertise that they're taking "our" water elsewhere and beating up the roads in the process. It's a short drive to Rigby Train Yards but these trucks hit the Turnpike instead...
"just is time" pertains primarily to manufacturing, usually not some sale item or grocery store items, but it could somewhat be applied to promotional items. A retail outlet having to "dump" product at a low cost is primarily due to the fact they bought too much and are having to store it, tying up a warehouse space. Better to dump the product and move on. That isn't "just in time" logistics. That is classic incompetence.
If you are, say, making autos. You could either spend gobs of money on buildings to warehouse parts, or you could just have the parts come in as you need them to build your cars. It is more cost effective to do the latter. Especially so, if a design change needs to be made to correct a design flaw. So, have the supplier make components and ship them as you need them for assembly, or "just in time". And problems that might crop up in the design can be quickly changed before you stockpile dozens of truckloads of the same parts. It keeps the amount of physical property needed to store components to a minimum and that keeps costs down as well. Imagine buying and having shipped to you, a million valves for your engine builds. Then you find out, the valves are defective and you need new valves. What a waste and a mess. If he valves were shipped in as you need them, you could catch the design flaw and make the necessary correction early and avoid tearing apart thousands of engines, having to repair engines under warranty that already made it into consumer hands, and have millions off useless valves sitting in the supply warehouse.
Food production is another situation where this comes into play. It is impractical to store days worth of the necessary components that go into making many food products. There is the greater risk of contamination or product going bad before you use it. Having it brought in as you need it is much more effective, eliminates waste, and ensures quality control. And again, if you find that that food component is bad or doesn't meet your needs, then you are not out a train car load of product, the truck can be returned quickly to the shipper, and reloaded with product that meets the need. Needless days of time and disruptions in production are eliminated.
If either of these examples used rail instead of truck, you would still have a lot of product that is "warehoused" on rail cars and such. Food product could go bad or be contaminated, thousands of wasted, useless parts that don't meet design control are still warehoused on the train. There are many examples where rail is not going to be a viable alternative to the truck.
It is really no different than what the average consumer does. The consumer usually doesn't buy cases and cases of oil, filters, parts, washer fluid, tires, brakes, etc to service their personal auto only. They will use that much over the life of their vehicle, but they don't want to tie up a big chunk of their garage storing this stuff till they need it, and shell out thousands of dollars at one time purchasing all of this stuff. Manufacturing and production saw the consumer model and realized it would work effectively and keep cost down and improve quality control. All true.
So there are many reasons to do it this way. And all of them cut unnecessary waste and keep costs down for the consumer. Even if one is doing it this way, or the old way by warehousing product, there is still going to be similar use of the roads to some extent. It is partly to manage balance sheets, but it also has to do with quality control and other factors. Just in time is a very valid business technique that makes things a lot better for all of us.
