JIT Jan. 12, 2011

JIT?  Sounds like Jeff Foxworthy teaching us a new word...

JIT stands for Just In Time delivery.  In this day of bar codes and computers, it's how companies get stock.  Take a car manufacturer for instance.  They won't have a huge warehouse with a couple month's worth of parts.  They get constant deliveries so they don't need to maintain an inventory.  The problem comes when the company that makes the windshield wiper mounts has a fire and loses a week's worth of product.  The car builder has to shut down because they can't get that needed part.

What if, instead of the part manufacturer not being able to produce, the trucking company that delivers the part to the auto maker has a strike?  There's plenty of parts, the car maker can use them, they just can't get them.  Same result would be if the highways between the two plants was shut down for a lengthy period of time for a Mississippi River bridge being out or a landslide or something.

Your grocery store gets food the same way.  When you buy your six cans of Hormel chili, the computer automatically adjusts inventory, and if it reaches a certain level, orders another case.  No problem, right?  I'm sure they have several cases "in the back" to tide things over until the next delivery.  Nuh-uh.  JIT means that they constantly have trucks coming in from the district distribution center, which has trucks constantly coming in from the regional distribution center, which has trucks constantly coming in from all of the suppliers.  Those distribution centers are not warehouses. They are more like transfer stations.

Back in the early 80's I worked a couple years in high school at a local Safeway store.  The grocery aisles were about 2/3 the length of the typical aisle today.  The rest of the store was taken up by "the back."  We had pallets, boxes and crates of food.  (We also had this really cool hydraulic box crusher and baler that as a 15 year old kid I used with no supervision, but that's a story for the OSHA man to stroke out over later.) We still had the fresh food get delivered every couple days, but the "truck" only came a couple times a week.  There were no bar codes and scanners to maintain inventory.  Each item had a price tag sticker from a pricing gun.  There were far fewer choices.  There wasn't room for 27 varieties of peanut butter. 

If there was a trucker strike or other breakdown in transportation, our store would have been OK for probably a week or two other than the fresh food.

A few days ago I took a peek "in the back" of our nearby Food Lion.  The space was much smaller than when I was in the business.  There were only a couple pallets.  What was on the shelves was pretty much all there was.  The conventional wisdom is that most modern grocery stores would be out of food within 48-72 hours.  If things go bad, you can expect the shelves to be bare in a much shorter time.  Ever been to a Piggly Wiggly in the Carolinas when they are calling for snow?

Knowing that the ability to buy food can disappear with little warning, the prudent stock up themselves.  But you already know that.  FEMA says 3 days.  The Mormons say a year.  I say get what you can afford and have space for (you can be REAL creative with food storage space), over time if needed, food that you will eat, rotate.  Like they say, Eat What You Store, Store What You Eat.  Much of what you have you can get from your local grocer.  It's great to grow or raise part of it too.  And, there is a place for the long-term storables from Thrive, Wise, Nitro-Pak, etc...  Just try it periodically to know how to cook with it and to ensure your family will eat it.  Under stress is not the time to try new foods.
JIT works great for everyday convenience and cost savings for a store.  It does not work for your family if it hits the fan.