Inventory is not necessarily "evil"

If you give it a title like this, you might understand that it's suspicious, but in light of the idea of the origin of the Toyota Production System, this is correct.

The Toyota Production System is famous for "inventory is bad."

TPS is not necessarily evil because it is based on "meeting the needs of our customers."

If you memorise only the surface of this word, you may be misunderstood.

JIT (Just In Time) is operated with the basic idea of ​​"procuring what you need when you need it, and in the amount you need."

Seeing how semiconductors are being collected worldwide and somehow connected to production due to the recent shortage of semiconductors.

Isn't it a contradiction to continue JIT production while having a lot of inventory?

If you understand the essence of the Toyota Production System, the phrase "inventory is bad" is not always accurate.

The idea that "the manufacturing industry exists for our customers" is the starting point of TPS.

The word "inventory is bad" is said in a very narrow sense.

Customers do not want wasteful inventory.

→ That's why inventory is terrible.

It only captures one aspect of it.

The origin of Toyota Motor Corporation is the idea that it exists to build cars that meet the needs of many customers.

However, the current situation of Toyota Motor Corporation is that it keeps customers waiting for customers who want to get on Toyota cars as soon as possible.

Toyota Motor announced that it would take four years to deliver the new "Land Cruiser" released in August 2021 because of its overheating popularity as of January 2010.

However, the parts and materials needed to assemble a car are tight at our feet. Therefore, no matter how small a car is, it cannot be assembled if even one of them is not enough.

In such an "emergency", we give priority to the idea of ​​"inventory that should be" to deliver the car to the customer in the shortest time.

This idea is not new to this time, and the word "appropriate inventory" has been around for a long time.

The concept is a kind of this idea, but to make the cooperation of parts with the post-process smooth inline production. There is an idea to have a work in progress between the processes. It is called the word "standard handheld".

Inventory has the concept of "meaningful inventory" in this way.

Satisfying the customer's needs of "getting on a Toyota car as soon as possible" is our top priority, and the inventory required for that is "appropriate inventory."

For example, suppose parts are stacked on the line side.

At first glance, anyone can tell that something is wrong.

However, to have an appropriate lead time for line production, it is necessary to have an appropriate standard stock inventory.

It's not evil at all.

For example, if you know that the manufacturer of the part you are dealing with has a problem and there is a high probability that parts procurement will stop after one month, keep one month's worth of parts in stock.

For example, when a city blockade occurs in China and the factory shuts down, there is also a method of mass-producing in Vietnam and continuing to supply parts and materials worldwide while keeping inventories.

That doesn't mean that we can tolerate extra inventory.

Even if you don't know if a product will sell, you can buy it cheaply, but you can procure many parts and materials or build up because you can afford to operate personnel and machines. It is a stock called.