Just-in-time is arguably one of the most transformational, yet mysterious and (consequently) misquoted business management philosophies in today’s industrial economy.
Rooted in the arrival of the Japanese car industry, JIT (as it is known for short) quickly became infamous as a method of operational workflow innovation that enabled minnows to fearlessly swim with sharks.
And today, I share the unique advantage JIT offers to your poultry business.
In fact, I’ll go as far as to say that Just-In-Time as an operational philosophy has the potential to completely revolutionise the way you think about and profit from your poultry enterprise – permanently…for life.
Now, if you’ve never studied postgraduate business, then this is probably the first you’ve heard of ‘Just In Time’ management.
But like so many academic theories…’Just-In-Time’ didn’t start as a doctrine.
It’s far more organic. It’s a fruit. A natural phenomenon.
The result of what happens when you put a team of committed people under considerable constraint, challenge and prompt their overcoming. Total obscurity gradually becomes flawless, multifacted clarity.
(…just think lumps of coal into diamonds and such like)
In post-war Japan (circa 1946), the Toyoda Motor Company (…no typo, the family from which the now Toyota car manufacturer orginates is indeed…Toyoda) faced an almost insurmountable challenge…
…nearing bankruptcy and being dwarfed competitively by the US car giants, who had much larger cash piles and colossal inventories…
Toyoda sought to carve out a means of survival.
With very little access to competitive resources (financial and material), their President issued a directive to explore how ‘greater efficiency’ might give them an edge.
In fact, he decreed to his staff:
“Catch up with America in three years. Otherwise, the automobile industry of Japan will not survive.”
Enter Taiichi Ohno, a mechanical engineer and Nagoya Technical High School grad – who rose through the Toyoda ranks and become elected as the key ‘problem solver’ in this internal transformation process.
Taiichi immediately made his mark as protagonist and lead tactician for steering this turnaround.
His viewpoint was that although Toyoda were smaller in size, compared to US manufacturers, the only excuses they had for producing less than the competition were wastefulness and inefficiency.
Remove inefficiency and you gain productivity. And greater productivity equals greater potential for sales and profit = survival.
But perhaps this was easier said than done?
…Or not (as the case may be):
The birth of Just In Time management…
“Through necessity, Ohno had developed a contrasting approach to the mass production of the US firms. Competitive advantage could not be won by Toyota through taking on the American giants at their own game – by competing to achieve economies of scale.
Through experimenting firstly with simple die-change techniques (ways of stamping metal sheets), Ohno was able to perfect the whole process until it could be reduced from taking one day down to 3 minutes.
In doing so, he made the first of a series of counter-intuitive discoveries: it cost less per part to make small batches of stampings than to produce in large batches.
Ohno sought to understand more as to why fewer units and greater variety actually meant lower costs. He found that true costs of production were end-to-end, and that more variation in his line left fewer parts tied up in inventories and work in progress.
Whilst the unit cost for each product was higher, the total production costs were considerably lower (Womack et al 2007 p52). As Ohno said,
To think that mass-produced items are cheaper per unit is understandable, but wrong.
Ohno was able to realise over time that economy of flow was superior to economy of scale, and to see this flow, he needed to understand his organisation as a system.”
Interestingly (and ironically) enough, this very Japanese innovation arose from a very American inspiration (and one far closer to our poultry passion than the car industry)…
The Just In Time lightbulb moment
“Ohno was famous for experimenting with various ways of setting up equipment to produce items in a timely manner. But he got a whole new perspective on ‘just-in-time’ production when he visited the US in 1956.
Ohno went to the US to visit automobile plants, but he was most impressed by the US supermarkets that he had been researching since the late 1940s (Ohno 1988 p26). Japan did not have many self-service stores yet, so Ohno marvelled at the way customers chose exactly what they wanted and in the quantities that they wanted.”
And then the penny dropped…
…nothing more, yet nothing less.
Precision.
Zero-wasted and consistent satisfaction.
Taking an order and delivering with exactness and speed.
The secret to optimising productivity, nullifying waste and maximising profit in business.
This applies to ANY industry – including our beloved poultry.
In fact, many expert contributors in Master Poultry Passes reveal how a just-in-time approach to poultry production can completely turn around a failing poultry enterprise and even further excel profitable ones.
- Feed milling: rather than stockpiling feed supplies, run batch production to preserve freshness and nutritional potency for optimising FCR (feed conversion ratio).
- Flock rearing: multiflock rearing programs enable a multilayered approach to production, smoothing the output and enabling a more varied schedule of delivery and regulation of cash flow.
- Catch and processing: tighter coordination of catch, transport and processing preparation to minimise injuries, mortalities and costly end-stage losses.
- Customer segmentation: discern the individual preferences and requirements of each customer and align production to deliver individualised results for maximum satisfaction.
More feed conversion, smoother cash flow, fewer lost birds & more satisfied customers…
…did this email arrive ‘just in time’ for your poultry turn around?
Want to implement the ‘Just-In-Time’ methodology within your poultry business?
Here’s how JIT is practically achieved, in the words of Taiichi Ohno:
- Mentally force yourself into tight spots (something like a weapon held to the head concentrates the mind).
- Think hard; systematically observe reality.
- Generate ideas; find and implement wise, ingenious, low-cost solutions.
- Derive personal pleasure from accomplishing kaizen
- Develop all peoples’ capabilities to accomplish steps 1-4.
Get started today.
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