mikevino

This Spring a chap called Steve in Mallorca, took on a low priced shop against all advice from friends . Under financed he continued and specialised in selling Hand woven Hammocks and the Chill-Chair he had seen for sale in Ibiza . The key apparently was that the suppliers in Ibiza have a great deal with dhl, so initially he only paid for 3 or 4 to hang up in his store . As soon as Steve sells, he requests a replacement from their stock, pays on line and receives the new stock the following day . In 3 months he has made a lot of money. But, the most important thing is that without big funding he has managed to weather these very difficult times . If I am not mistaken this is the same system the Japanese brought so successfully to car manufacturing in the UK, I thought there was a special abbreviated word they used for "Stock only when required " but I cannot find it on google .... does anybody know the word ?

Rosemary

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Lynn R

I believe some of the supermarkets use this system too, and call it "just in time" restocking.

agoreira

Is it JIT, just in time?
Edit. Beaten to it, that wasn't there when I started typing! Note to self, type faster.

mikevino

Thanks , your right, I just looked it up "An inventory strategy companies employ to increase efficiency and decrease waste by receiving goods only as they are needed in the production process, thereby reducing inventory costs"

Anyway, it is obviously the way forward in Spain for small shops and businesses in these difficult times .... small investment foor show pieces -- Sell to client--order news to replace --- keep the profit .....

Garbatellamike

And in some cases it was later renamed to JTL (just to late!) as whilstit saved on inventory holdings it was not always efficient!

mikevino

I think for large car manuufacturing plants JTL could be the case ... Steve was only commenting on his small shop and the stockist in Ibiza ... the link being dhl and a 24 hour delivery . Apparently AOT (Always on time )

Garbatellamike

Yes you are absoulutely right - perfect in a retail environment, could be a bit risky in manufacturing and completely reckless in a repair environment where JTL became the norm and, funny old thing, the company no longer exists!

jojojojojo

My husband is in retail and I asked him about this and he said that JIT doesnt work unless you have very small overheads cos the manufacturers sell "one offs" to the retailer at a much higher cost than "bulk buys" and that erodes the retailers profit margins and makes it impossible for them to compete in most cases!!

Jo xxx

steviedeluxe

The rapid turn-around is of course one of the reasons why Inditex has been so successful.

http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/08/14/...73_865076.html

Domino

surely the secret in retail is to only stock a certain amount anyway. once its finished its finished. thats why so many shops, such as Zara etc have different stuff coming in regularly.

As to JIT in manufacturing, its fine as a process but all in the supply chain have to be signed up for it. The slightest delay will mean staff and plant sitting around waiting because the parts bin is empty. In the flow method of manufacturing it soon brings all production stations beyond to a halt, even if they still have the parts.

Some elements of electronic pcb manufacturing also use JIT and can skirt round missing parts but as they use flow soldering techniques having to add missing components by hand can be a QC nightmare and increase the failure rates

mikevino

I don't think this is the case with Steven and his shop , but I understand what you are saying .

rspltd

The alternative was the strategy developed by Allied Carpets whereby nothing was in stock and once a deposit was made the article was ordered. Still happens in a lot of furniture stores.

agoreira

Indeed, and not only don't they have it in stock, it hasn't been made yet! You get given a date weeks ahead. Much the same with tyres, they keep the popular sizes in stock, the rest they'll get delivered the next day.

Rambling Rose

Works fine when you can get the product the next day. We needed a new part for our boiler earlier in the year and the local Roca dealer didn't have it in stock. Took 2 weeks to get here. That was a fairly common part.
They must be in trouble because they've stopped accepting payment by credit card as well.