Zero inventory management: facts or fiction? Lessons from Japan

If inventory is waste and product lifetimes decline at a growing speed, a f irm should be very cautious about having such inventories. Since JIT practi ces originated in Japan, if zero inventory management is possible, one shou ld find it in Japanese firms. In this paper, theoretical reflections are co mpared with Japanese experiences from eight case studies. Although these fa ctories strive for no inventory of inputs, work in process, and output, the y have not reached this goal. For each of these types, other factors are re levant: geographical and infrastructural factors for the inputs, technologi cal reasons for work in process, and market and technological factors for o utput prevent firms from being successful in this respect. So zero inventor y management is, at least for the time being, a fiction, but western factor ies can, nonetheless, learn a lot from the step-by-step improvements in Jap an in this field. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.