Jit - Just in Time

In face of the challenges of global competition, business firms are concentrating more

on the needs of customers and seeking ways to reduce costs, improve quality and

meet the ever-rising expectation of their customers. To these ends, many of them have

identified logistics as an area to build cost and service advantages. On the other hand,

the Just-in-Time (JIT) management approach, which has long been proven effective in

the manufacturing sector in increasing quality, productivity and efficiency, improving

communication and decreasing costs and waste, might enhance the chances of firms

to achieve cost and service advantages through logistics. However, the potential of JIT

has not been widely recognized in logistics as compared to in manufacturing. Similar

to manufacturing, logistics employs processes that add value to the basic inputs used

to create the end product. As the focus of JIT is on business processes, not products,

the management principles of JIT can be replicated and applied in logistics. This book

sets out to explore the possibilities of employing JIT to manage logistics activities, and

provide an introduction to the application of JIT in the major areas of business logistics,

which mainly deals with inter-organizational move-store activities. These move-store

activities in business logistics can, in general, be categorized into four core elements,

namely 1) customer service; 2) order processing; 3) inventory management; and 4)

transportation management, and a number of supporting elements including materials

handling, packaging, purchasing, warehousing and so on. This book concentrates on

illustrating how the JIT principles can be applied in business logistics with a focus on

the four core elements. 'Logistics', 'business logistics' and 'logistics management' are

used interchangeably in the text to collectively represent inter-organizational move-store

activities.

The expanding global competition, emerging new technologies and improved

communications have increased customers' expectation of full satisfaction with the

products and services that they purchase. These changes have, in recent years, brought

to many manufacturing and service firms the challenges of improving the satisfaction of

their customers and the quality of their products and services. Faced with these challenges,

business firms worldwide are prompted to look for ways to reduce costs, improve quality

and meet the ever-escalating demands of their customers. One successful solution has

been the adoption of JIT manufacturing systems, which involve many functional areas of

a firm such as manufacturing, engineering, marketing and purchasing, among others.

In the past decades, JIT has been primarily applied to manufacturing. Its obvious

application with measurable outcomes in manufacturing has made JIT relatively easy to

employ in a manufacturing environment. Although JIT has achieved a strong foothold

in manufacturing, its application in business logistics is relatively recent for many firms.

Yet, many developed and developing economies are experiencing a rapidly growing

service base. For instance, in Hong Kong, logistics has evolved as one of the pillar

business sectors. Logistics