This topic has drifted off the original frustration-rant.
Still, it produced both possible solutions for the original
poster, and some intelligent comment on amateur business and
manufacturing, in general.
The last comments:
Is there such a thing as true JIT for everyone? N2TK
You also need someone at the end of the food chain who doesn't
believe in JIT. Somehow, car dealers for Japanese brands built
per JIT still had big car lots supplemented by "bull pens" the
customer didn't see. If JIT really worked, none of this should
have been necessary. Rick N6RK
Perhaps one further comment, to close it out?
JIT works, but often has small buffer stocks to handle statistically
outlying events. The size and place of the buffers depends on the
variability in demand, supply, and transportation. The auto industry
uses its dealer network as its ultimate buffer, incenting dealers to take
extra
stock when they overbuild. AES and HRO do this for amateur manufacturers,
but where a mfr sells direct, he doesn't have the warehouse-buffer.
JIT doesn't work, if it isn't supported by mathematical analysis of
the process. Winging it results in discovering the statistics, one
disaster at a time. Most small manufacturers land in this space, because
they can't afford an Operations Management consultant. Amateur antenna
manufacturers are no different.
In addition, putting labor into finished goods inventory makes little
sense where you can't see the orders. A firm with multiple models is
better off with raw material, which can be flexibly applied to varying
demand, as it arrives. And what gives? Delivery time.
OH...and in poor implementations, employee morale. No fun working under
that pressure.
N2EA
Jim Jarvis, President
The Morse Group, LLC
We create high-performance organizations.
732 548 5573 office
jimjarvis@themorsegroup.net
www.themorsegroup.net
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