With this in mind, just-in-time manufacturing is the idea that companies should have manufacturing and purchasing strategies that reduce the time between the beginning of the manufacturing process and shipment to the customer. However, the actual development and implementation of these strategies are of difficult tasks (APCIc 1-6)

One significant idea about just-in-time manufacturing is throughput time. This is the time between the start of the manufacturing process and the end, where the product is ready to be shipped. Five key elements are involved in throughput time. The first element is processing time, or the time actually spent working on the product. Next is inspection time and moving time.

According to recent studies, just-in-time systems have helped keep inventories of American companies down. Ratios of inventory-to-sales have been declining for the past four years. However, due to the economy growing very slowly, finished goods inventories have increased over the past year.10

These basic ideas are not unique to Just in Time Manufacturing; however, they are essential in training employees about the just-in-time philosophy. Most companies have realized that the philosophy is an important component in the idea, development, and implementation of total quality management. TQM is similar to JIT in regards to goals, however, it hunt for as few errors as possible between each stage of production. Just-in-time philosophy is a tool that top-level managers use to implement total quality management (Ontario 1-4).

There are numerous companies that attempt to implement this type of philosophy successfully, and the steps that they follow are as followed. The first step to implementing TQM/JIT manufacturing is to train the top management then form a top-level team. The responsibilities of the team will include deciding upon an organizational structure and developing a plan to implement TQM/JIT within their organization. This plan to implement the strategy should include the organizational goals in regards to production and methods of how employees will be implemented with in this plan. The employee area must also include methods in regards to motivation and discipline. After all of this information is obtained and formed, then a plan ought to be used to begin the overall philosophy.

Just-in-time systems are being implemented in most companies, though some more than others. Those companies that acknowledge just-in-time philosophies and implement them fully as part of a complete total quality management system are quickly becoming players in the world market. Those companies that do not implement total quality management with an emphasis on just-in-time systems may be left behind as we go into the twenty-first century.

Just-in-time philosophy was first used by Toyota in Japan. Since that time, many companies around the world have begun to successfully implement just-in-time processes, including several companies in the United States. The implementation of just-in-time processes has taken on a familiar pattern in these companies. Usually training everyone in the company about the just-in-time philosophy begin

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