Just‐in‐time is not just for manufacturing: a service perspective
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570010286104 |
| Pages | 51-60 |
| Date | 01 March 2000 |
| Published date | 01 March 2000 |
| Author | Cem Canel,Drew Rosen,Elizabeth A. Anderson |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
Just-in-time is not just for manufacturing: a service
perspective
Cem Canel
The University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Wilmington, North Carolina, USA
Drew Rosen
The University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Wilmington, North Carolina, USA
Elizabeth A. Anderson
University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA
Introduction
Expanding global competition, emerging
new technologies, and improved
communications have increased customers'
expectations for full satisfaction with
products and services they purchase.
Consequently, in recent years, many
manufacturing and service companies have
been challenged to increase their focus on
customer satisfaction and quality of
products and services. Confronting the
challenges of global competition, companies
world-wide are forced to find ways to reduce
costs, improve quality, and meet the ever-
changing needs of their customers. One
successful solution has been the adoption of
just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing systems,
which involve many functional areas of a
company such as manufacturing,
engineering, marketing, and purchasing.
JIT was developed in Japan in the 1950s and
subsequently achieved considerable success
at Toyota. JIT can be defined as an
operating concept designed to eliminate
waste (Chase et al., 1998; Hernandez, 1989;
Krajewski and Ritzman, 1999; Schlesinger
and Heskett, 1991). Waste is defined as
anything other than the minimum amount
of equipment, materials, parts, space, and
workers' time, which are absolutely
essential to add value to the product or
service.
The JIT process has been primarily
applied to the manufacturing industry. Its
obvious and measurable applications for
manufacturing make it relatively easy to
employ in a manufacturing environment. A
more elusive area for application of JIT is
the service industry. Yet, the US economy
is experiencing a rapidly growing service
base. It is estimated that the percentage of
personal consumption expenditures for
services is near 50 percent. Increased
growth and competition in the services
industry will mandate that businesses
work toward some applications of JIT
principles.
When JIT is used in the context of services,
the focus is often on the time to deliver the
service. Examples of fast delivery are
Domino's Pizza, Federal Express and Express
Mail, fast-food restaurants, and emergency
services through 911 (Stevenson, 1999).
Service environments with repetitive
operations, with high volumes, and with
tangible items such as mail, checks or bills
are expected to benefit more from application
of JIT principles (Krajewski and Ritzman,
1999).
Services are much like manufacturing,
in that both employ processes that add
value to the basic inputs used to create the
final product. JIT focuses on the process,
not the product. It can therefore, be applied
to any group of processes, whether
manufacturing or service. The philosophy
behind JIT is to continuously seek ways to
make processes more efficient. The
ultimate goal of JIT is to produce a good or
a service without waste. This goal is
approached by testing each step in a
process to determine if it adds value to the
product or to the service. If the step does
not add value, then, it is examined closely
to determine possible alternatives. In this
way, each process gradually and
continually improves. Thus, one of the
key requirements of JIT is the constant
and continual testing of processes,
whether they are in manufacturing or in
services.
The purpose of this paper is to provide a
framework for the integration and
application of JIT principles in the service
sector. The next section will discuss JIT
concepts in manufacturing. In section
three, issues involved in service operations
are presented. The fourth section focuses on
the integration and application of JIT in
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available
at
http://www.emerald-library.com
[ 51 ]
Industrial Management &
Data Systems
100/2 [2000] 51±60
#MCB University Press
[ISSN 0263-5577]
Keywords
Just-in-time, Service,
Globalization,
Process management
Abstract
Confronting the challenges of glo-
bal competition, companies are
focusing more on the needs of
customers to improve product
quality and customer service. The
manufacturing sector has long
been aware of the need to reduce
waste as a means to reduce costs
and improve product quality. Just-
in-time (JIT), the formalized pro-
cess of waste reduction, has
achieved a strong foothold in the
manufacturing sector. The service
sector, however, has not been as
quick to recognize the benefits of
JIT. Services are much like manu-
facturing in that both employ
processes that add value to the
basic inputs used to create the
end product. JIT focuses on the
process, not the product. It can,
therefore, be applied to any pro-
cess within manufacturing or ser-
vice operations. This paper
provides a framework for applying
JIT to processes in the service
sector, with the goal of investi-
gating how JIT principles can be
implemented in services.
To continue reading
Request your trial