Introduction
According to scientific study JIT (Just in Time) is a philosophical term which is focused on eradicating various sources of industrial wastes through the production of the required parts within the stated time and place. The main objectives of the JIT systems are mainly to increase profits and company’s investment process through minimizing various inventory channels, plummeting variability, increasing the quality of a product, and lastly reducing product cots. Within the JIT systems, the unused opportunities are utilized during the buffer accounts which are used in evading certain risks that would emanate. JIT approach is highly applicable in the production sector involving frequent manufacture of similar product over a long period of time. Thus the main brought about by the JIT is to institute various flow procedures through the linkage of different plant for evenness (Dinsdale and Bennett, 2015). Additionally it aids in facilitating the flow of items all the way through the manufacturing process familiar to one used in the assembly processes. In order to achieve all these further efforts have been initiated in order to achieve the objectives of motivating these lines near the zero value which enables achievement of the stated lot size per unit.
JIT’s objectives are reducing the occurrences of the non-valued operations and the stagnant inventories within the production lines. As a result it will lead to reduced throughput duration, effective release execution process, use of advanced tools, minimal usage of space, higher profit gain, and low expenses rates. Just in Time approach was designed with the aim of achieving every consumer’s needs within the stated timeline without any inconveniences such as delays. Therefore, in the past years, JIT was used by industries in order to meet the customer’s stated timeline rather than the reduction of production wastes (Green et al., 2014). Just in Time strategy is also referred to as the Lean production/Stockless production due to the fact that the core reason following a fruitful realization of the JIT approach is minimizing the inventory channels within several centers within the production stages to a complete least amount. Thus it demands effective management amid these centers so that each respective plant will only generate the stated volume required by the subsequent plant.
Benefits/Costs of JIT in a production strategy at FORD Motors
JIT’s aims at acquiring high valued commodities and timely production process and also getting rid of various sluggish stocks and wastes in the production process. Despite the fact that various JIT execution processes comprise of comparable objectives and principles, various additionally techniques used can be at variance depending of the type of industry operating from. Ford Motors has effectively implemented the JIT approach which enables the company select effective methods and techniques which aid it in minimizing various obstructions within the supply chain. With the help of JIT, Ford is able to attain higher efficiency levels within the automotive industry.
It comprises of different firms in Valencia which has instituted the use of JIT which other sub-branches are also seeking to implement (Jadhav, Mantha and Rane, 2015). Aside from other substantial merits mentioned in these papers, with the use of JIT approaches in the manufacturing process it will increase customer satisfaction rates by providing abrupt replies and reduced time limits in taking action of the marketplace development. Despite the fact that there are not information explaining about JIT strategy benefits, still an evaluation of the Ford Motors helps in acquiring substantial benefits and recover the initial investment in no time. The below table exhibits the benefits and cost achieved by Ford Motors in using JIT strategy, they include:
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Costs
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Benefits
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ü Extending outsourcing (losing control)
ü $500 million pilot plan and analysis
ü Building aerial tunnels
ü Setup Direct Automated Delivery DAD
ü $16 million delivery system
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ü Less handling = less damages / costs
ü Less conventional transport dependent
ü Time saving
ü Manufacturing seamless integration
ü Further interest from more suppliers
ü Saving $6+ million per year on transport
ü 25% shorter time production time needed
ü Accuracy of production on plan
ü Speed-up production process 8 weeks
ü Smaller number or manufacturing parts
ü Concentrating on core business functions
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Effect of JIT with its introduction
Talking of the JIT approach, you may question yourself of the outrageous firms that has been successful in using the type of technique. Thus the most effective answer is Ford Motors. Not exclusively did Ford Motors exploit the JIT strategy but also obtained huge advantages within the company’s daily operations. The term “Just in Time” was acquired with the manufacturing schemes and activities instituted by Ford Company which exhibits effectual manufacturing processes along with the production of higher quality products and cheap products (Jadhav, Mantha and Rane, 2014). Due to this fact it is deduced that these systems are effective and abide by customer necessities. The abilities of the Ford Company are shown below. Therefore JIT effects on Ford productions process is also shown below:
- Standardized work
- Manufacturing Cells
- Manufacturing Lines
- Facility Layout
- Technology Development
- Simulation of processes and systems
- Quality Improvement
- In Process Inspection
- Experimental Design
- Process Development
- Continuous Improvement
For Instance:
The production process of Ford Company involves the routing of the commodity within the whole plant and thus directed to other plants where the work is now ready for processing. Putting into operation the production cells normally augments the company income radically while minimizing the time cycle by 50% (Mirzoev & Brockman, 2013). Thus the price incurred during the structuring and execution process of always gained during the initial year of inventory reserves. The papers thus has highlighted various advantages acquired through the assembling of various processes and events and also analyzes various simulations which aid in structuring and forecasting the trend noticed before the execution process thus reducing the risk incurred by the firm.
According to Eldenburg and Wolcott (2009), there is an improvement in profit and the reduction of time cycle of the production cells and the simulations. The main focus of the analysis was to bring forward how companies should utilize the JIT approach without incurring any implications in the manufacturing process. His strategy was effective for manufacturing units in the implementation of waste disposal, which is clearly identified by the Ford Company (Phogat and Gupta, 2017). It is thus postulated that the JIT approach is much effective compared to the traditional productions approaches used initially. Hoskin’s theory was helpful to many manufacturing since they were able to identify the suitable position of commencing the execution process, which required critical evaluation of various performance based operations.
Issues and problems experienced with the implementation of JIT into FORD business
There are many issues and problems experienced with the use of the JIT approach in Ford Motors. The institution of the JIT approach in the automotive industry is dissimilar to the manufacturing industry as a result of its features. This huge disparity between these two industries is due to that fact that there are different production levels with higher intricacy and vagueness in the automotive industry. There exists vast number of reasons as to why there are vagueness and multi-faceted concepts in the automotive industry (Shnaiderman & Ben-Baruch, 2016). There are many individual in the automotive industry comprising people with extensive skills and knowledge. Additionally, prospective partners in the automated industries consist of their own aims and goals they ought to achieve within a specified duration. Thus, such circumstance becomes very daunting for one participant’s action, thought, and personality would bring significant impact towards the final scheme. Aside from the number of player in the automotive industry performance, inadequacy of proper consistency, number parts, and other additional limiting features create difficulty in the productions process of the automobile during the production process.
How might this concept work in automotive?
As specified before in this part, the automotive advancement is an intricate errand. Hence, it must be efficient by the administration with the end goal to accomplish the most extreme execution in the task. In any case, the all-around organized timetable given by the administration isn't just the one key factor of task effective. The other party should remain on their piece of the calendar with the end goal to have a smooth work process and limit the issues amid the entire procedure of car venture. In actuality, it is uncommon that the undertakings perform decisively to their unique timetable (Singh, 2010). This circumstance occurred because of changes on inside and outside variables identified with car advancement, for example, business conditions change, conveyances slip; a plan requires amendment, and so forth. The progressions made by the gatherings may not affect the end dates if the first calendar has adequate slack in the affected exercises. The circumstance will be distinctive contrasted with the car venture which is the calendar has a practically no slack. The players are influenced to make it up in quickened generation. Actually, this circumstance may made postpone car venture which is could bring misuse of times, cash, vitality, labor and so on. With the end goal to execute the utilization of JIT, the need goal of this application is to dispense with or limited the variety and wastage.
In reference to the facts illustrates above, is JIT implementation on automotive possible?
Generally, the automotive sector is regarded as the third company in terms of danger, demand and dirt. This analysis will deal with the ‘dirty’ part since this item significantly relates with the JIT’s philosophy (Sukarma, 2014). For instance, in 1998, the agency on environmental protection in the United States projected that approximately 136M tons of building-concerned wastes are produced in USA, which represent 25%-40% of the country’s solid stream of waste. According to an update given in 2003, there was an increase to approximately 164,000M tons years, whereby 9% is summed as automotive wastes, 38% as renewal wastes and 5% as the destruction debris (River and Mojica, 2014). The situation indicates an excessive increase of automotive waste over a particular timeframe. However, the figures are in the United States only, hence signifying its influence to other nations too.
Is it possible to imagine about the affordability of our land for automotive wastes?
Automotive waste disposal requires an extensive land scale even though the world faces a major shortage of land to meet the demands of agriculture, accommodation, education, manufacturing among other human necessities. C&D disposal of wastes triggers an arrangement of antagonistic properties that are not ostensible to building competencies (Ballou, 2007). These comprise of wasted resources, diminishing of fundamental properties, generation of the green energy and other ecological stressors connected to the production of novel materials other that utilizing the present materials. The amount of C&D landfills is diminishing hence implying that options for disposal will be fewer, hauling will be greater and the consumption of fuel and motor emissions will increase (Danese, Romano, & Bortolotti, 2012). Closing, capping, landfills monitoring and cleansing of contaminated or leaking landfills consumes public resources. Up to that juncture, it is clear that JIT implementation in the automotive sector may seem unclear since the application of different methodologies taken from other companies may be implemented in the automotive firm.
The automotive sector is uncertain and complex hence requiring drastic enhancement is different aspects like, party coordination, control of waste products, and planned system of management among other (Alcaraz, and Maldonado, 2015). The analysis indicated above related to waste materials and how it is categorically adverse according to the selection priority of JIT objectives and application. The FORD’s automotive process plants like chemical, petroleum, food processing, paper and pulp for the automotive industry starts before designing is finalized. In that case, the demands of contractors to get early distribution will reduces the available duration for engineering and drawing process to end (Blocher, 2009). The issues exist because of later distribution of materials and drawings, which lead to more delivering demands and issues. To eliminate and shield the contractors to the implication of late deliveries, an extensive schedule buffer, between the automotive and suppliers, is necessary.
Conversely, nothing is impacted when addressing the initial causal factor of variation in the automotive schemes. Moreover, shielding is expensive and time-consuming; which necessitates the recommendation of a rule by Gregory and Glenn (Jadeja, Khandare and Batish, 2009). These two individuals suggested that schedule placement buffers after processes considering variable outputs. For instance, the management issued schedule buffers between fabrication and engineering instead of installation and fabrication. The process of fabrication and delivery is predictable, except if the drawings were incomplete or incorrect. Moreover, fabrication and delivery is unpredictable if the drawings are pulled from fabrication yet to be analyzed (Nahmias and Olsen, 2015). Engineers are allotted much time to do their works efficiently in case schedule buffers are available over fabrications. This action also favors the fabricators since they will have the chance to choose their work bundle that meets the demands of production efficiency, sequence and quantities. Gregory and Glenn recommend resizing schedule buffers to a particular degree of variation and uncertainty under management. According to research, schedule buffers are resized regardless of the projects’ stiffness.
The other implementation issues of the JIT are relation to supply chains. As universally known, the company’s supply chains in the production sector is regarded as a long-term concern instead of a competition-based bidding. This form ensures that tasks are constellated to partners. The supply chains that last long in the manufacturing sector imply that supply chain members enhance their activities collaboratively to deliver novel products, but at pocket-friendly prices in reference to potential clients. A structure on incentives to consider supply chains as a single integration makes one of its superior than others (Primrose, 1992). For automotive actors, each task happens once whereby the structure on incentives motivates constructors to reap off profits in every task. As such, disjointedness is disadvantageous in automotive task productivity, which is changeable through an alteration of the composition in automotive chains. The automotive chain could possible aim at establishing a strategic relationship with the actors and materials’ value chains.
Why is the supply chain in JIT very significant?
In engineering companies, the schemes of operation are centered on sustaining the process of production and maintain the products as long as the customers establish more demand. As long production is maintained, the utility of the same distributers is necessary. This step is fundamental to facilitate coordination with one distributer since its will be easier to evaluate the quality of a single worker compared to many. Meanwhile, fluctuations are evident in automotive supply chains as denoted earlier on. The minimal timeframe of supply chains leads to observable uncertainties. New tasks also denote new consultants, supplier and contractors in the automotive sector. The transition of parties in each tasks influenced by the relation between different parties is for a minimal timeframe (Chen and Wang, 2018). However, this illustrates novel projects, which implies that participants have to familiarize themselves with each other. Participants need to know their major roles in the company, quantity of projects to be produced and any other fundamental aspects, which might affect the company.
Establishing a long-lasting relationship with distributers is a major factor influencing the automotive scheme. The novel record tracking of distributers is recommendable to consecutive projects to attain the desired aims of the tasks. Conversely, this scenario rarely occurs in the automotive industry since it engages other influencers like minimal resources and transportation among others. Consequently, to undertake automotive tasks considering the allocated resources, the management team needs to eliminate particular expense, mostly in the aspect of access the best materials from amount-specific suppliers. This scenario relates to a particular JIT concept, which denote about the production of the best part at the right time and place.
It is fundamental to ensure that distributers deliver the best parts of project materials as the project demands. Moreover, suppliers can assure the supply of those materials at the best time. In addition to that, the automotive industry needs to have a strategic locate for the storage of strategic materials to eliminate any form of damages and unexpected expenses. The process of materials delivery from distributers is dependent on the means of transport that engages less speculated traffic. In that case, it indicates that many factors need to be considered when implementing JIT application in the automotive sector.
Factors within the JIT system that affect supplier and inventory control.
An effective implementation process of JIP depends on the flexibility of distributers, stability of users, management and the commitment of workers to working as a team. By eliminating waste, JIT obliges to enhance the quality of products and the overall process of productivity. Waste does not add any value to a certain activity like how work does. In that regard, motion is denoted as a means of waste (Singh, & Chand, 2010). Waste precisely includes component overproduction, material delay, product information, material transformation, irrelevant processing, and production of excess stocks, defects in information or materials and irrelevant human actions.
The seven JIT principles to overcoming the issues mentioned above are:
Waste elimination
The JIT central philosophy to dealing out waste under the concept of JIT is classified into the categories below. These are:
- Waste due to over-manufacturing
- Waste due to delays
- Waste due to movement
- Waste due to irrelevant processing
- Waste due to over inventory
- Waste due irrelevant motion
- Waste due to defects
The automotive industry is driven based on schedules. With a well-organized schedule and when every individual participant effectively, the running of projects is smooth hence improving the performance (Rushton, Croucher and Baker, 2014). However, the performance of projects might not correlate with the initially planned schedule. Moreover, the conditions of businesses transform, supplies slip and designs might necessitate corrections. When schedules have effective slacks in an impacted happenings, changes have less impact to dates. With little to no slack, participants are pressurized to enhance the production rate.
Recommendations
In this research, we analyzed the application of JIT methodology in the Ford Company in reference to its latest KA model. This is a major and interesting revolution whereby industries engaged in the production process are assimilated in their physical plants and business activities (García and Maldonado, 2015). JIT has revealed its success in the delivery of novel products within a minimal timeframe with less or no expenses incurred from various parties. A vigilant planning for production, cost-effective analysis, satisfactory outsourcing planning and client orientation are applauded as fundamental influencers of JIT.
A significant different between the JIT and traditional strategies is evident in the methodology realized in intermediate production stages. A traditional concept assumes a purposeful company formulated to limit manufacturing expenses of specific components. The JIT scheme evaluates transitional process that respond directly to affect the demand in the later production stages. The distinction process can be denoted from the alteration between the demand-pull and cost-push. This paper illustrates a baseline concept model of manufacturing for benefit and cost comparison of two fundamental methods. In that case, the JIT methodology is the best and largely desired unless manufacturing economies are connected to the traditional method, which affects the extensively changing system.
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