Hi Greg,

Just in time is a great concept for reducing inventory.  It depends on both
you and your supplier being able to predict your schedules fairly
accurately.  It also requires that any changes in your demand or their
ability to supply be communicated a reasonable period in advance.  This
means that your supplier must either have very reliable component and bare
board suppliers or be willing to inventory parts for you.  Does this
describe your situation?

The just in time system works best when the design of the assembly is
stable, all processes are qualified and all supplier relationships are
tight.  If a component on your assembly suddenly becomes short
industry-wide, will your supplier go to bat for you?  Or will they call you
the week before a scheduled delivery and ask you to find and qualify an
alternative part that someone has 10,000 pieces of on the shelf?  Similarly,
is your company willing to give your supplier adequate warning on
engineering changes or does your business require the ability to make last
minute changes?

This system is a thing of beauty when it works and your worst nightmare when
it doesn't.  The potential cost savings can be easily eaten up and then some
if either party does not keep their end of the bargain.  Make sure your own
purchasing department doesn't think this is a way to reduce inventory with
no extra work on their part.  Then ask your supplier to show you how their
processes and supplier relationships give them the ability to reliably
deliver within a given time window.  If you can, negotiate a bonus if they
stay within the window and variable penalties of they go outside it.

Finally, you need to consider if the electronics cost is a large enough
fraction of your total product cost to warrant the risk that you won't be
able to deliver to your customers on time?

Regards,

Seth Goodman
Goodman Associates, LLC
tel 608.833.9933
fax 608.833.9966


> -----Original Message-----
> From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
> [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2002 12:43 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [TN] Just In Time deliveries
>
>
> Schindler Elevator Corp is moving to a just-in-time delivery system for
> PWB's.  Can anyone provide me with some
> advice and/or publications on the do and dont's of a just-in-time service?
>
> Thankyou
>
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Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail Archives
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