Q: I have heard that Just-in-time inventory management methods are not suited for manufacturing processes in which there are a large number of steps. Is that true?
A: There are plants with 50 steps in their manufacturing process and semiconductor plant pre-processing may be as long as 200 process steps. In a factory like that the human mind cannot estimate when something that enters now will be finished. When the just-in-time inventory management method is applied to all processes of a factory where processes are long the finishing inventories increase making them unsuited to just-in-time inventory management method. But in cases such as these as well the Advanced Planning and Scheduling System demonstrates its installation effect.