As a manager of a manufacturing facility, it is more necessary than ever to improve the overall productivity of the operation. While such improvement requires an integrated effort involving all functional areas of the facility, specific actions are required within each functional area. This paper focuses on one of the functional areas in a manufacturing operation that is critical to the overall productivity of the facility·materials management. Materials management involves purchasing, supplier management, materials handling within the facility, and extensive coordination among all functional areas of the facility in conjunction with materials management (Scapens, Jazayeri, & Scapens, 1998).
The best solution for the problem facing the manager of a manufacturing facility in relation to the materials management function involves the joint application of three important concepts·just-in-time (JIT) supply management, supply-chain management, and the application of information technology (IT) to the materials management process. JIT, supply-chain management, and IT support must function in conjunction with one another (Taninecz, Lee, Feigenbaum, Nagle, & Ward, 1997). For purposes of discussing the solution to the problem facing a manufacturing facility manager, however, JIT, supply-chain management, and IT support are considered separately.
The introduction of high-tech concepts into manufacturing processes, in most instances, is accompanied by a significant shift in emphasis in manufacturing management. In the recent past, the emphasis in manufacturing management was on materials inventories, ordering and production lead times, labor and material efficiency, work-in-progress (WIP) levels, finished goods inventories, and so forth. The emerging emphasis in manufacturing, however, is on JIT techniques. JIT production techniques emphasize the elimination of waste, which is defined as any activity performed within a manufacturi...