Turning just-in-time concepts into reality: successful examples of change

The author presents the progressive changes which have been made in five areas of material flow methods and procedures to incorporate just-in-time methods and total quality control through all areas of a business. The five areas are: (1) request and delivery of materials from the storeroom to each of the focused factories, (2) the elimination of make items in the storeroom, (3) the direct movement of material from the dock to the using shop, bypassing the storeroom and the communication to suppliers of how much and when to ship more material, (4) the delivery of hardware items directly to production lines by a local distributor, and (5) the implementations of formal pull systems which link what is consumed to what should be built next. The purpose is to explain the changes made in each area of material flow and outline the implementation steps, the acceptance, and the results of the changes