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1. Introduction
??Just-in-Time'' (JIT) means different things to different people. Some believe it to be an approach to manufacturing production, control and purchasing; to others it is a methodology to achieve manufacturing excellence (Schonberger, 1986); some businesses even view JIT as a winning strategy in the highly competitive market place of the 1990s (Schniederjans, 1992). As an operational philosophy JIT has been developing extensively in the manufacturing sectors, from its early development in Toyota Motor Co., to today's wide spread employment.
However, the JIT philosophy is being increasingly and seriously questioned by some academics and practitioners. For example, the slow demand and simultaneous surge in inventories during the second quarter of 1994 was interpreted, by the Wall Street Journal as an end to the "wishful nature" of the JIT theory of production management (Norris, 1994).Roy Shapiro, Professor of Operations Management Harvard Business School, states that "companies run into trouble" when they stress "squeezing out the last iota of inventory" above the more important goals of quality and process improvement (Bleakley, 1994). Shapiro also notes that even firms in Japan, where JIT practices were first heavily developed, increased their inventory levels as they learned more about the inefficiencies of small order/lot quantities (Bleakley, 1994).
In the first part of this study, definition of Just-in-Time, how it works and its benefits are examined. The second part of this study is focused on the constraints and discussions regarding the benefits and successes of just-in-time practices.
2.1 What is Just in Time (JIT)?
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