Methods of Increasing Productivity Utilizing Inventory Control Systems

VI. Summary
Neither JIT nor MRP can be considered to be simple procedures or techniques that will work for every company. JIT is not always a well-defined coherent management strategy. JIT tends to be more associated with attitudes, philosophies and methodologies that collectively form into the JIT system. Additionally, MRP cannot always be considered an easy alternative to JIT. Both systems work very effectively for their associated business models. Most major manufacturing firms use MRP, however, many in repetitive manufacturing attempt to incorporate JIT techniques to improve operations. With the progression of MRP into ERP, companies in repetitive manufacturing are able to more easily incorporate the JIT "pull" methodology into the execution phase. I.E. use MRP to plan and schedule but use JIT down on the shop floor. This allows MRP companies to utilize JIT practices to control when vendors should deliver material, when product should be produced, and when completed product should be distributed. In this system the shop schedule and kanban system is the interface coupling the MRP and JIT system along with the capacity control and group planning. Regardless of the specific system being used, the common thread between these two systems of management is minimizing company inventory and consequently increasing overall productivity.
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