Mannklein AG is a major manufacturer of metal-cutting machines. It has plants in Frankfurt and Stuttgart. The managers of these two plants have different manufacturing philosophies. Liisa Kurunmäki, the recently appointed manager of the Frankfurt plant, is a convert to JIT production and had fully implemented JIT by January 2022.

Thomas Ahrens, manager of the Stuttgart plant, has adopted a wait-and-see approach to JIT.

He commented to Kurunmäki : ‘In my time, I have forgotten more manufacturing acronyms than you have read about in your five-year career. In two years’ time, JIT will join the manufacturing buzzword scrapheap.’ Ahrens continues with his ‘well-honed’ traditional approach to manufacturing at the Stuttgart plant.

Summary operating data for the two plants in 2022 are as follows:

Required

1 What are the key features of JIT production?
2 Compare the operating performance of the Frankfurt and Stuttgart plants in 2022. Comment on any differences you observe.
3 Kurunmäki is concerned about the level of detail on the job-cost records for the cutting machines manufactured at the Frankfurt plant during 2022. What reasons might lead Kurunmäki to simplify the job-cost records?

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Manufacturing lead time (days) Frankfurt Stuttgart Total set-up time for machines Total production time Frankfurt Stuttgart Number of units requiring rework Total number of units started and completed Frankfurt Stuttgart January- March April- June July- October- September December 23 9.2 8.7 7.4 6.2 8.3 8.2 8.4 8.1 52.1% 49.6% 47.6 48.1 43.8% 46.7 39.2% 47.5 64.7% 59.6% 52.1% 35.6% 53.8 56.2 51.6 52.7