I worked in manufacturing (semiconductors) just long enough to see JIT go out of fashion, and get replaced by bottleneck optimization. The idea is that you dis

I worked in manufacturing (semiconductors) just long enough to see JIT go out of fashion, and get replaced by bottleneck optimization. The idea is that you distinguish between those cases where it's ok to have extra stock (because it's cheap, durable, and not bulky), and those where it's not. Then, you have a small number of bottlenecks that you have to watch like a hawk, because having extra capacity there would be expensive. You can react quickly to problems at a bottleneck, because your attention is always there, but most of the items you don't try keep the least possible inventory. It was a sort of optimized compromise between the older system (lots of extra stock for all steps) and JIT (minimal stock for all steps).