Tuesday, September 28, 2010

In Golf Times and Bad Times

The Just-in-Time (JIT) inventory philosophy has been touted as a model of efficiency, its development being credited to Taiichi Ohno in Toyota production facilities in the 1970's. But golf supply professionals aren't all on board. Long before Ohno was streamlining car assembly lines, there was a saying, "The early bird catches the worm." And some golf courses are favoring early ordering over just-in-time models for their pesticide purchases. (2)

Manufacturer rebates often entice golf courses to order pesticides months before they are needed. The largest benefit is that the rebates are a direct cost savings to the organization. However, other advantages are being noticed as well. Payment terms for early orders are often more favorable than would otherwise be seen in this industry. Scheduling is a convenience too. Pesticide treatments are scheduled long in advance which reduces the chance of conflict. When emergency pesticide treatments are required, they are easier to arrange since ordering and payment have already occurred.

The early ordering is helping suppliers too as they see more normalized sales patterns and have plenty of lead time to prepare their inventories.

So it seems that as long as enticing rebates and payment terms continue, the early birds on the golf course might not just be the guys carrying their sticks, trying to get in a round before work.

2) http://www.golfcourseindustry.com/gci-0910-cover-early-order-just-in-time.aspx

Sample Test Question: Task 1-E-3

The core of the JIT philosophy is:

A) cost effectiveness.
B) faster delivery times.
C) elimination of waste.
D) supplier cooperation and performance.

3 comments:

Satyam Jakkula said...

The answer is C). JIT philosophy is identification & elimination of waste in entire Supply Chain.

[Debbie, as always, I like your post. The Golf course industry blog is good too.]

Deborah Gamble, CPSM said...

Satyam,

You are correct. Answer C is right.

Cost effectiveness and faster delivery times may be hoped-for benefits of JIT inventory philosophy. But they are not the core of the philosophy.

Supplier cooperation and performance is absolutely necessary for a successful JIT program, but it is not the core of the philosophy.

And I'm very glad you enjoyed the article.

Debbie

Satyam Jakkula said...

Debbie,

Cost effectiveness may be regarded as the least important for JIT among the options given in the question. Although, Inventory carrying cost is avoided by the Supply management organization but the cost may be switched and has to pay higher price for the purchases.

Your views please!

Satyam