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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