JIT : it's happening in Singapore

• Main Authors: Koh, Eng Hui, Poh, Lee Hoon, Toh, Poh Chen
• Other Authors: Loi Soh Loi
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Business::Management
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/62957
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

JIT was developed in the 70s by the Japanese. It is a manufacturing philosophy that emphasises on producing only the necessary amount. Thus JIT can be used as a strategic tool to enable firms to gain a competitive advantage. Since minimum inventory is maintained in a JIT production system, it allows firms to be more flexible in respenking to market changes. Furthermore firms will have a better control over cash flow as it is bot substantially tied to the holding of huge amount of inventory. To summarise, JIT aims to achieve excellence for many aspects of firms and thus is an important tools for firms to remain competitive. As Singapore is a small and open market with limited resources, it is very critical for firms to stay competitive in order to survive the tough competition. One of the ways to gain a competitive advantage is to increase the efficiency of the production system by changing it to a modern one such as JIT. This project seeks to give a greater insight into the JIT production system in Singapore to assist non-JIT local firms to have a better understanding of JIT. Thus this project has concentrated on the technical issues of JIT and the authors have tried to present them in a simple and concise manner that can be readily understood by a layman. In addition, the authors hope to present a realistic view of JIT in the local context. Therefore the research methodology chosen was to conduct interviews on firms that have a successful system. Lastly this study had also consolidated the recommendations of various interviewees which might be useful in encouraging and guiding non-JIT firms to implement JIT.