-them" squabbles. Competitive supply chain relationships demand continuous communication and cooperation. Such was the case when air traffic came to a virtual halt last month following the terrorist acts in New York and Washington, D.C., manufacturers' supply chains - many of which rely on just-in-time (JIT) delivery of parts - felt an immediate impact. The situation has many manufacturers re-examining JIT procedures. .
How Just-In-Time Came To Be.
It was a dark and stormy night a little over a year ago that caused the .
unthinkable. .
Toyota Motor Mfg., the auto industry's model of efficiency, had to shut down its.
Georgetown, KY, plant for nearly a day because an ice storm in the Midwest left roads.
impassable. Indiana and Illinois were like an Arctic wasteland, and suppliers had no .
way to ship parts to Kentucky. Toyota's 8,000 employees got the day off because they.
couldn't build their 2,000 vehicles. .
A day of lost production does not sit well with Toyota management, so something.
had to be done. Japan's largest automaker decided that if it can't control the weather, it.
should at least get better at tracking it and responding to it. .
So this past December, Toyota hired a small company from Wichita, KS, Weather Data.
Inc., for its own private forecasting agency in North America. Using National Weather .
Service equipment, the company's 18 meteorologists monitor weather conditions .
between the Georgetown plant and all 330 suppliers delivering parts to it. An impending .
storm prompts Toyota to reroute trucks or have them leave several hours early when.
necessary. .
The payoff came on January 2, when a blizzard socked the Midwest and .
disrupted production at Ford Motor Co.'s truck plants in Louisville, KY. But nearby in .
Georgetown, Toyota's production was uninterrupted. The precise forecasts allowed .
Toyota to juggle routes and stockpile parts before the storm hit. .
This episode illustrates Toyota's ability to adapt and use new technology to its.
