Just-In-Time Working

Just In Time Options

Now you can link every part of your businesses electronically - orders can flow in through a website, triggering production, ordering, invoicing, dispatch and delivery.

Below are some of the technologies that could help your business implement JIT:

Material Requirement Planning systems

Material Requirement Planning (MRP) systems can help you plan and manage fast-moving and complex supply chains. It automatically co-ordinates all the components involved in production - buying, planning and scheduling; materials movement around the plant; and costing - and it can be linked to your suppliers or customers.

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems for stock, ordering and accounting

ERP can help you plan and schedule across your entire business and help you integrate with your supply chain partners. Essentially, it aims to connect all the departments and functions of a company to a single computer system that serves all of their particular needs.

Warrington-based drinks retailer Cellar 5, has installed an ERP package - SAP Retail - to help manage its supply chain and halve its inventory, which has resulted in huge cost savings. To see more details, go to www.sap.com

Many vendors offer hosted solutions you can access over the Internet without incurring the costs of ownership. Your can read more about this kind of electronic outsourcing on the Achieving best practice in your business web presence.

Investing in either MRP or ERP is not cheap - it can cost upwards of £50,000 - but it can lead to substantial cost savings. For more on types of MRP and ERP systems and their costs, read the Further help and advice section of this factsheet.

Electronic Point of Sale

Electronic Point-of-Sale (EPOS) systems can process sales transactions electronically, capturing information about stocks and sales to feed through to your other systems. Combined with bar-code readers, handheld PCs and mobile data capture devices, the stocking, warehousing and production systems of your business can have a precise picture of future requirements.

On top of this, recent developments with Radio Frequency Identification technology (RFID) mean that retailers will soon be able to replace bar-codes with a short-range radio system to individually identify every single item of stock - giving an unprecedented level of control over stock movements.

For more information on EPOS, see the Further Help section of this guide or read our Electronic Point Of Sale guide