Please see below of the paper for week 7. No words limit. Q1. ‘Things that are running smoothly should not be subject to any control. If you commit yourself to just finding and fixing problems, you’ll be able to carry out effective control (within an organization) with fewer personnel’ (Minoura, 2003). -Discuss what the above statement means and whether you agree with it. -Describe how an organisation that you have experience of, or have researched, has benefitted from just-in-time (JIT) techniques and with special reference to inventory control. -Also discuss whether the potential benefits—and drawbacks—of such JIT techniques are limited to large manufacturing businesses or whether they have wider applications for other organisations. Reference: Minoura, T. (2003) The Toyota production system. Available from http://web.archive.org/web/20121116134758/http://www.toyotageorgetown.com/tps.asp Thank you very much

Week 7 Discussion

According to Minoura (2003), efficiency demands little no control considering that all factors of production are in place and there are no flaws in the production chain that could lead to need to implement some controls. However, there is one law that determines how operations within an organization can run smoothly which making commitment to fix problems.  In any given working set-up, there exist problems that are caused by various factors that include; insufficient capital to facilitate investment which can be fixed through selling of stock or borrowing from financial institutions though secured borrowing is advised. Insufficient labor supply or skilled labor and this can be fixed through guided labor outsourcing procedures that focuses on employees’ skills and ability to deliver rather than academic qualification. Another issue is competition and this problem can be fixed by ensuring product diversification, promotion and differentiation in order to increase firm’s competitiveness and enhances effective control. Therefore, I do agree with this statement that ‘things that are running smoothly should not be subject to any control. If you commit yourself to just finding and fixing problems, you’ll be able to carry out effective control (within an organization) with fewer personnel’

Just-in-Time (JIT) techniques has various benefits and in this case, having experience the operation the American Express company, the firm uses this technique to manage its inventory of credit cards that it produces and issues to its customers globally. The technique helps AME to save on space needed to store the cards, reduces wastage since cards are only produced and store on demand and cost effective since the company mostly involved in online business and thus it only need to invest little in the storage of the cards. However, JIT has various drawback that include; risk of running out of stock since the firm does not need store its stock  and also lack of time to control over time frame between demand and supply of the inventory and lastly, the technique only work effective for small organizations that has little or no space for storing its stock.

Reference:

Minoura, T. (2003) The Toyota production system.

http://web.archive.org/web/20121116134758/http://www.toyotageorgetown.com/tps.asp