Just In Time in the Workplace - 
Aspen Business

During the eighties, many companies saw their overall margins shrink,
and made moves to change product lines to get into markets that
appeared to have better margins. For some, these moves only served to
create more debt service and caused over capacity in some of the new
markets, leading to reduced margins. 

The fact is that for a lot of small to medium forms plants, the road to
better profitability may be right in their own market with their existing
equipment. The forms industry is an old industry, with a lot of old ideas.
The company that goes ahead in the nineties will be the one that looks
outside of their industry for ideas, and implements them in to their own
operations. 

Take an overview of the average forms manufacturer. Most jobs are
quoted for a three to six week delivery. In the store room there are rolls
and rolls of paper. Usually enough inventory on hand, in dollars, to
produce two months worth of forms. In the prep area, there are stacks of
tickets, the camera stack is the biggest. As you look into the pressroom,
there is a staging area for rolls behind the presses. The more rolls, the
better everyone feels. The same is true of the rolls at the delivery end of
the press, waiting to be collated. The more there are, the better. This has
been the attitude in manufacturing for years. 

Let me introduce the concept of JIT, or just in time, and show how it can
be utilized in the average plant. JIT is not new. It is most thought of
when dealing with supplies. Most small to medium sized sheet printers
have been using JIT for years. The stock is delivered from the paper
house the day it is to be printed, or the day before. Why not initiate a
similar program for your roll stock? There are many ways you can set
up a JIT program with your roll supplier. It may cost more, but does it
compare with the cost of maintaining a current inventory of two months?
Now comes the part that can set you apart from the rest of the pack. Can
JIT work in production? Yes it can, and it could open a new sales
avenue for you. 

Time studies in several industries have shown that by comparing the
actual time spent working on a job, to the time that job was in
production, there was a lot of unaccounted for time. By cutting down
this dead time, many companies were able to tighten delivery times with
no additional strain on production. This led to increased sales, better
customer confidence, and actually brought about increased production
per each employee. We have always accepted three to six week
turn-around time in the forms industry as the way it has to be. But, does
it? Look at this example. The factory receives a purchase order from a
distributor for 20 thousand three part, carbonless, black, one side,
numbered 8-1/2"x11.75" forms. The customer is given a three week
delivery time. 

Guestimated time in job: 

Then why are we quoting three weeks delivery time? Maybe it's just
because we have always done it this way. Or do the people in
production think the job needs to rest for a while before they work on it.
Actually, I do know why. It's called back log. We must run with a back
log. If we totaled all the work in back log, we would probably not have
to do any order entry for the next month. 

If we adopted a Just In Time attitude in production, the only difference
would be that the back log would be cut down, and there would be less
dead time on each job. Here is the new market I spoke about. The rush
market . . . and you don't have to work any faster. Just produce the job
with the same amount of production time, but with the dead time cut to a
minimum. The rush market has always had better margins. 

Take the sample job with six hours of actual production time and add
five times that amount for dead time, it would still result in a five day
turn-around. You could sell it for more, make a hit with your customer,
and project a new company image. 

JIT in the workplace takes a commitment to simply cut out the dead time
in the manufacturing process, at all work stations. By doing so, you may
open new avenues of sales and profitability for your company. 

Running a forms company with the normal three to six week weeks back
log does give production a better chance to group jobs, and can also
smooth out the highs and lows in sales, but considering the new
company attitude, work should be easier to find in a slow period. Your
customer service team could then address the more pressing needs of
your customers, creating more sales. 

A major point that you must consider is that you cannot sell at the same
pricing. You must get your value added for the rush service. Don't give
away the niche you work hard to create. 

BOB BECKER has worked in the forms industry for many years,
from machine operator to general manager. He has also started
three printing companies, two of which are continuing to operate
under other ownerships. One of his new starts, began in 1985,
enjoyed growth of 40% per year through the time he left the
$3,000,000 organization in 1990. He is currently involved in a
new venture, RKB Printing, Inc., Denver Colorado, selling sheet
printing through forms distributors. 

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