Alternatively, you could consider reducing stock levels and using just-in-time systems - see our guide on manufacturing innovation.

Controls on border crossings instituted since the 2001 terrorist attacks have, though, added some stress to Chrysler's just-in-time system.

In what Toyota called a "just-in-time" system, parts would appear only when workers needed them. . . But the just-in-time model has a hidden flaw.

The just-in-time system sharply reduces the materials tied up in production lines, which cuts the costs of holding and keeping track of inventory.

Richard Schonberger, a Midwestern engineer by training, is credited with introducing the Japanese just-in-time system to US manufacturing.

A Japanese word that translates as "unevenness," mura is eliminated through just-in-time systems that are tightly integrated.

The success of Japanese products has convinced most American manufacturing managers that the just-in-time system works and they are laboring to trim their inventories.

The just-in-time system of scheduling the arrival of parts and the clusters of computer-guided robots for spot welding, for example, are now common in auto plants worldwide.

To accomplish this, one company I studied, R.T.K. Computer Services Inc., is using a just-in-time system for their national computer replacement parts business.

Inventory was strictly controlled using the just-in-time system.