When you buy bananas, all you want is the fruit, not the skin. But you have to pay for the skin also. It is a waste. And you, the customer, should not have to pay for the waste.”

Shigeo Shingo, the Japanese industrial mastermind who helped pioneer the famed Toyota Production System and the just-in-time manufacturing model might have been talking about fruit, but this metaphor he coined in the 20th century bears as much relevance to today’s print trade as it ever has done. Business buzzwords may come and go, but the
fundamental philosophies seem resilient to the ebb and flow of fashion as a well-tailored suit.

Call it what you like, but the waste-reducing, efficiency boosting just-in-time philosophy (which later begat the ‘lean’ movement) shows no sign of going out of style. In fact, the system, which was widely adopted by industry in the western world in the 1980s has entered the digital age with aplomb.

Not so much a method of manufacturing, but an entire philosophy to build an efficient, profitable and reliable business, it’s an attractive way of running an operation, but one which requires the entire company being in-sync to execute to maximum effectiveness.

For Laurel Granville, managing director of Coventry-based Macfarlane Packaging, the enduring merits of a just-in-time system are clear. “I think because the value is so strong for manufacturers and retailers – it allows flexibility and keeps costs down.

“As a distributor, we’ve been working with just-in-time for a while. It allows us to adjust stock to meet demand. There’s a reduction in space, so you save on rental and insurance costs. There’s less capital tied up in stock, and less stock perishing.”

Waste is a one of the print trade’s single biggest enemies, so stripping things back is good for everyone – of course, savings can be passed on to customers as well. But wastefulness in the just-in-time philosophy doesn’t just refer to excessive materials and a reduced inventory – it can apply to wasted staff hours and resources too. According to Jacky Sidebottom-Every, sales director at Stockport-based Glossop Cartons, “You’d be foolish not to embrace it… I think the benefit is that it comes straight off the wagon and into the
manufacturing area. It is fast, and it is furious.”

London-based point-of-sale specialist Creo has been using this method since it was established in 2007, and still does. “We’ve continued to see the speed to market increase and therefore our business needs to be agile,” says managing director, Richard Saysell.

“Taking this approach allows us to reduce extra administration of information and streamline our processes. We are therefore stripping out unnecessary workload to maximise the time we have to react to clients’ requirements. The system also enables us to reduce the finished goods we keep in the warehouse by shipping out in a timely fashion.”

The right technology for the job
The era of digital printing has made for short runs and quick turnarounds. And therefore  made the just-in-time model easier than ever. “Digital technology has helped us with smaller, more frequent runs,” says Sidebottom-Every. “Back in the day it was normal to keep stock for six to 12 months in advance.”

One company which takes the concept to a logical conclusion is Lightning Source, a subsidiary of US-headquartered publishing services company Ingram.

The book printer allows publishers to have anything from one to a million books in their inventory, and operates a print-to-order model, which means publishers don’t have to keep big reserve stocks of books which don’t sell. Instead, the book gets printed to order.

Additionally, having facilities dotted around the world means that the cost of getting the end product to the customer is drastically reduced. “It is a solution that means publishers can
significantly reduce their inventory,” says Andrew Bromley, international marketing manager for Ingram.

Away from the presses, many other developments, particularly in the field of software, are helping printing and associated businesses get leaner and be better informed of what they need, when they might need it and how to get it to its ultimate destination on time with the
least possible fuss.

Macfarlane Packaging uses Paragon route planning, a routing and scheduling software specifically made for logistics. It claims to reduce operating costs and deliver increased performance. “It means we can deliver effectively, on time and efficiently,” says Granville.

“We also use customer relationship management systems which are helping us manage demand on customer expectations, and an enterprise resource system to manage supply.”
However, technology also has the potential to scupper an operation. “You’ve got to get the correct management information system,” says Sidebottom-Every. “It’s so important that the physical stock and what’s on the screen match up – otherwise it can be very  embarrassing.”

Look to the future
Making the just-in-time model work means that printers need to make as accurate predictions as they can in order to make sure that they’ve got the right materials in place to get goods out, on both sides of the supply chain.

It’s not always the simplest of tasks, and one which requires plenty of communication with suppliers and clients alike. “We work with clients on forecasting – but it is not an exact science,” says Granville. “It’s a combination of  forecasting and history.”

The company offers clients remote access to their inventories through an online system, meaning they always have access to what’s on hand. “It gives them peace of mind about delivery when they need it,” she says.

Making just-in-time work
For Creo, it hasn’t always been a system which has been easy to implement. “We have faced difficulties in terms of the general resistance you would expect when processes change – there is always ‘the way it used to be done’ challenges,” explains Saysell.

“We have managed this through collaboration with teams and have over time showed colleagues – and clients – the improvements that can be achieved.  Our colleagues also understand the pressures our clients face and the fact that we as a business need to respond to this.”

To ensure that the just-in-time model delivers for your business, some important steps need to be taken, Saysell advises making sure that the entire operation is kept abreast of arrangements.

“Communication and simplicity is key – colleagues need to be informed of any  process changes and what the benefits of the change are,” he says. “A good knowledge of all departments and the full  process is required to understand where improvements can be made to drive the just-in-time logistics.”

Sidebottom-Every agrees. “It is no good management being for it if it does not filter down to the supply chain.”
As befits an approach that puts so much precedence on items not outstaying their welcome, the just-in-time approach is a philosophy that requires constant re-evaluation and  re-appraisal to get the best out of it. “Be prepared to keep making changes to achieve a streamlined approach,” says Saysell.” It won’t be right the first time and will need to be continually adapted to suit the environment or circumstance.

LEAN LINGO
A beginner’s guide to the just-in time model, TPS, and the philosophy behind it

Muda Japanese word roughly translated as ‘futility’, wastefulness’ or ‘uselessness’. It’s one of the key types of waste identified in the Toyota Production System. ‘Muda’ can take the form of anything from overproduction, unnecessary transportation of goods, over processing and even unnecessary walking around when employees are working on a product.

Mura Roughly translates as ‘unevenness; irregularity; lack of uniformity; non-uniformity’.
Mura is eliminated, so the theory goes, by the agile, by the light, non-bloated inventory of the just-in-time model.

Muri Roughly translated as “Overburden”, this is the sort of waste which is created by a company being overstaffed or over-equipped, with more people or kit than it has use for.

Shigeo Shingo: The man behind the method?
Shigeo Shingo’s storied life took in two World Wars and the phoenix-like rise of Japan after the decimation and horrors of 1945. By the time he died in 1990, his influence on manufacturing across the world had become profound.

The technician’s early career saw him involved in railways in Taiwan. However, it was his work in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War and his Study of  the Toyota Production System, which was translated into English in 1989, that brought him to widespread global prominence. He worked for the global car giant in the 1960s, helping simplify pressing processes which would previously have taken up to two hours into a matter of minutes.

While he wasn’t the man who invented the TPS (that accolade goes to Taiichi Ohno, a Japanese engineer and businessman), his pioneering lectures are attributed to bringing it to the western world, after an American engineer called Norman Bodek travelled to Japan to learn more about the processes that were allowing companies in the Far East to steal a march on their western counterparts in regards to quality, pricing and efficiency.

The rest, as they say, is history.