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I seem to recall that as originally conceived in the Toyota Production System, suppliers of Just In Time inventory were supposed to be sited in the same locatio

• cptskippy 6y ago
  When I was working with a logistics firm who did JIT for Seagate/Hitachi, the warehouse was across the street from Hitachi and they could handtruck deliver hard drives if need be.
• rtkwe 6y ago
  Even that probably wouldn’t save you from an event like this if you’re in Europe because your supplier’s supplier (or your supplier’s supplier’s supplier, you get the gist) probably sends things through the Suez.
• Jenk 6y ago
  Yes, JIT inventory meant delivered "from the warehouse to the workstation" and not "intercontinentally shipped with extremely slim margins." But that's not what has happened here. Continually increasing demand (read population growth + geo-conglomeration of industries) has stretched the global supply network(s) to fragility, necessitating JIT in absurd distances and quantities, in turn requiring ships 400mx50m to squeeze through canals they barely clear the bed of at speeds slow enough for them to not cause over-swell but not fast enough for them to have enough thrust to overcome crosswinds.
  • ckdarby 6y ago
    Sounds like an opportunity for the country to start on another canal. They'll be able to take advantage of the clear demand, solve the issues of the existing, have a redundancy plan if either canal has an issue or needs repairs and I don't think it'll have a hard time getting support considering everything going on at the moment.
• brightball 6y ago
  If I remember correctly, one of the early bits of hype around Dell was basically having all of their suppliers right there next to them.
• bluGill 6y ago
  They don't have to be in the same location. However the farther you are from the site of production the more product needed in queue. Toyota stocks the parts bin on the assembly line from a warehouse on site. The warehouse is stocked less often than the parts bins. Depending on how long it takes to get an order the warehouse has more of some parts than others. Toyota also has extra parts as risk management where they determine that there is a high risk of the part not being available to order. Toyota also shares their order predictions with suppliers well in advance so the supplier can plan ahead what they need to deliver. Toyota also knows their supply chain 6+ level deep, if mine workers go on strike they prepare backup plans for 6 months out. Toyota also does a lot of other things that I'm not aware of to ensure that when they need something it arrives, not a moment sooner or latter. Toyota isn't the only company that does this. If you supply Toyota they require you to do this in some form, including making your suppliers do it. (this is part of knowing their suppliers 6 levels deep - something they also do to ensure they don't use slave/child labor even indirectly). There are other companies that don't supply Toyota that have also taken this same lesson. The point is just in time is hard to do right. The simple elevator pitch has many obvious problems that those who do it are careful about ensuring they don't happen.
• Scoundreller 6y ago
  Too bad so many automakers failed to understand that continuous delivery means continuous purchasing. You cannot just stop buying your chips for a year and then complain when manufacturers re-tooled around you.
• moonbug 6y ago
  local buffers need to be sized to the bandwidth-delay product. come on computer people, you should know this.