Just-in-Time Manufacturing in the Pharmaceutical Industry

This very brief essay presents a discussion about the application of Just-in-Time (JIT) manufacturing philosophy to a pharmaceutical factory that manufactures a varied mix of drugs. The essence of the JIT philosophy is delivery of material, labor and other inputs to a stage of production just when these are needed. JIT emphasizes elimination of waste and zero inventory level is considered as the best inventory level for JIT. However, because of the fact that a typical pharmaceutical manufacturing facility must manufacture a varied mix of drugs, application of JIT in a pharmaceutical manufacturing setting requires care and sophistication. This very brief essay presents a discussion about JIT in a pharmaceutical manufacturing setting.