A Vendor′s View of the JIT Manufacturing System

Just‐in‐time (JIT) is a Japanese concept which has revolutionsed manufacturing management. It has reduced product cost, and improved productivity, product quality and delivery time by as much as 80 per cent in some companies. Manufacturers are anxious to implement this system but it requires a high level of co‐operation and support from the vendors. Rooted in a tradition of adversarial game‐playing with the manufacturer, vendors are prone to thinking that much of the benefits of JIT to the manufacturers accrue at their expense. This mode of thinking has proved to be counterproductive and needs to be changed. The role of vendors in a JIT system must be properly evaluated and efforts should be made to make them more co‐operative.