TOWARDS JUST-IN-TIME

It should be evident that total quality management (TQM) is a tool that can be used in isolation, achieving results in its own right. TQM is an ideal that may never be attained, but it should be our intention to get closer and closer to the optimum. Like TQM, just-in-time (JIT) is also an ideal, the holy grail in this case being stockless production, but, unlike TQM, installing JIT in isolation is potentially very dangerous. The route towards JIT is therefore one that must be planned and understood if we are to avoid costly and potentially disastrous errors.