Just‐in‐Time Concepts: Applicability to Logistics/Transportation

Successful manufacturing applications of the Just‐in‐time(JIT) management philosophy have been well documented in the literature. Utilisation of JIT techniques within manufacturing offers the potential for significant operational improvements beyond inventory reduction. JIT‐related improvements include increases in quality,improved employee productivity, decreases in stockouts, and reductions in customer response time. Relatively little research has focused on the transferability of JIT concepts to other functional areas. The article explores the application of JIT concepts to a specific logistics function – transportation. Although review of the literature suggests that JIT systems significantly impact on the transportation function, no methodology was identified for incorporating the just‐in‐time philosophy within a transportation firm in a totally integrated manner. Therefore, two models are proposed illustrating the authors′ conceptualisation of the phased development and implementation of JIT.