Evaluating just-in-time implementation implications in an Indian manufacturing industry

The manufacturing sector has witnessed severe challenges due to increasing customer demand, cost competitiveness and rapid innovations in processes and technologies. This has forced the manufacturing industries to look out for innovative process management tools and techniques having competencies to drastically transform the manufacturing operations to significantly enhance the business operations capabilities. Just-in-time (JIT) production systems, International Standards Organization (ISO) 9000 certifications and total quality management (TQM) are few major techniques adopted by manufacturing organisations to cater to aforesaid business objectives. JIT is a technique of producing product at high quality at a rapid response by considering the various strategies during the implementation in the company. This research presents a detailed case study in an Indian manufacturing organisation to depict the JIT initiatives taken by the organisation for realising significant manufacturing performance improvements for meeting stringent competition. This case study reveals that JIT implementation has facilitated the manufacturing organisation to reap significant benefits like productivity enhancement in various plants, removing congestion in parking areas, difficulties in loading and unloading products from the trucks, difficulties in quality check of product while unloading, and ensuring on-time delivery of the raw materials when needed.