J.I.T. Grace

Companies that rely on huge inventories don’t like to keep it all on hand. They want to deliver product “Just in Time.” So does God.

J.I.T.

Jeremiah In Trouble. Or, Jesus In Time.

Maybe, but in fact, J.I.T. is short for “Just in time.”

That’s the term for how many manufacturers handle the inventories of materials they use to create their products. In fact, J.I.T. is a major shift in inventory management.

In the old days, to ensure that their production lines were always running, manufacturers acquired substantial quantities of materials and kept restocking those supplies as the parts were used. But here’s the problem with that:

• Huge amounts of money must be kept in flow and this adds costs for the use of that money as well.

• Warehouses are needed to store all that material.

• Standing inventories have built-in risks from fire, theft, flood, wind, infestations and obsolescence.

• These risks raise the cost of manufacturing even if the materials were insured, which itself is an additional expense.

• The possibility always exists that innovations to the manufactured items might have to be delayed until the existing...