The Need for Organisational Resilience Chapter-6

The major difference between JIC and JIT is in the responsibility of logistics. With JIC, the

producer takes responsibility for ordering and storing inventory. The sole duty of the supplier

is to deliver stock when requested. In respect to JIC, the supplier needs to provide storage

(even mobile storage as in trucks or freight cars), needs to maintain depots, and is required

to supply a producer on a much shorter notice. As a consequence, the producer is more

dependent on a functioning supply chain than he would be under JIT. Such difference in

logistical dependence is associated with distinctive advantages (see Table 6.2):

Just-in-Case

Just-in-Time

Less planning required

Less waste

Less vulnerable to sudden spikes in

Less vulnerable to sudden changes in

demand

customers’ wants and needs

Less dependent on suppliers to ensure

Less dependent on production to ensure

supply

supply

Greater lead time

Shorter lead time

Table 6.2: Advantages of Just-in-Case and Just-in-Time

A major advantage in pursuing a JIC philosophy is the greater operational robustness in enabling

continuous logistics. With having contingent stock in place, unexpected sudden hikes in demand

or potential abrupt drops in supply can be absorbed for longer periods of time than are possible

under JIT.

Nevertheless, JIT provides greater logistical efficiency and enables more production

flexibility. In regards to the former, waste is being reduced to a minimum. Storage, for example,

does not need to be maintained. Reduced inventory costs go hand in hand with better use of

cash flow. Shorter lead times also allow production flexibility, as new stock imperatives for

producing novel products and services can be acquired quickly.

Towards Organisational Resilience: The Fallacy of ‘pure’ Just-In-

Time

The importance of logistics has been associated in modern management theory largely with the

emphasis on increasing efficiency gains by reducing inventory. JIT inventory management, also

at times referred to as lean-manufacturing or Toyota Production System (TPS), also has a dark

side in that it tends to be ill-prepared for disruptions in the supply-chain.

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