A Review of Literature Relating to JIT

A review of recent literature is presented relating to general Just‐in‐Time (JIT) philosophy, its supply bases and on the formalised and mathematical models. JIT has become a subject of much interest and some little controversy in recent years and has attracted the interest of many major manufacturing organisations in the West as well as in Japan where it was originally developed. A growing and developing literature on this subject has been published particularly since the late 1970s. An attempt is made to draw major conclusions regarding benefits and relevance to Western manufacturing industry.