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Just-in-time theory: The panacea to the business success?

Article in International Journal of Value Chain Management · July 2017

DOI: 10.1504/IJVCM.2017.085485

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Int. J. Value Chain Management, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2017 171

Just-in-time theory: the panacea to the business

success?

Dimitris K. Folinas*
Department of Logistics,
TEI – Central Macedonia,
Katerini, Greece
Email: dfolinas@gmail.com
*Corresponding author

Thomas A. Fotiadis
Department of Production Engineering and Management,
Democritus University of Thrace,
Xanthi, Greece
Email: dr.fotiadis.thomas@gmail.com

Dafnis N. Coudounaris
Department of Marketing,
University of Vaasa,
Vaasa, Finland
Email: dafnis.coudounaris@uva.fi

Abstract: The paper investigates the effects of just-in-time (JIT) practices on

the financial performance of Greek companies. First, a qualitative method was
applied to identify the key elements of JIT and their implementation level.
Then, a quantitative method was applied to investigate if these JIT practices
affect the business performance positively. The results of this study suggest that
there is not a strong link between JIT and zero-level inventories management
key elements and practices and financially-based performance indicators even
though the companies have remarkably applied these practices during the last
years. Therefore, it is proved that the examined investigation must be viewed
from the viewpoint of various business areas and dimensions.

Keywords: just-in-time; JIT; zero-level inventory; financial performance;

business performance.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Folinas, D.K.,

Fotiadis, T.A. and Coudounaris, D.N. (2017) ‘Just-in-time theory: the panacea
to the business success?’, Int. J. Value Chain Management, Vol. 8, No. 2,
pp.171–190.

Biographical notes: Dimitris K. Folinas is an expert in e-logistics, e-supply

chain, logistics information systems and technologies. He is the author and
co-author of eight books and over 150 research publications. He prepared,
submitted, and managed a number of projects funded by national and European
Union research entities. He also assessed and evaluated a significant number of
research projects in ‘attracting leading scientists to Russian educational

Copyright © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

172 D.K. Folinas et al.

institutions’, Under the Ministry of Education and Science the New Eurasia
Foundation, ‘Grants and fellowships 2011’. Under the Fonds de la Recherche
Scientifique, ‘SEE-ERA.NET PLUS joint call’, under the International Bureau
of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research at the Project Management
Agency c/o German Aerospace Center (DLR), and Eurostars Programme
(‘Eurostars’). Currently, he is an Associate Professor in the Department of
Logistics, Technological Educational Institute of Central Macedonia TEI-CM,
(Greece).

Thomas A. Fotiadis is an Associate Professor of Marketing and Director of the

Marketing Lab, Department of Production Engineering and Management of the
Democritus University of Thrace. He holds a PhD in Marketing and also an
MBA and an MSc in Business Computing. He has over 16 years of teaching
experience at both undergraduate and postgraduate level at several public
Hellenic and international universities and technological universities among
which are the University of Macedonia, the Hellenic Open University, and the
Open University of Cyprus. His research interests include international
business, high tech marketing and technology, green marketing and
international marketing.

Dafnis N. Coudounaris received his PhD in Industrial Marketing from Lulea

University of Technology, Sweden. He is an Associate Professor of Innovation
Management at School of Economics and Business Administration of the
University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia. His main work is in exporting, particularly
export behaviour and attitudes, export assistance programs, export sales
management and export literature. Recently, his research interests include
importers’ perceptions of exporters’ unethical behaviour, issues of green tourist
attitudes and behaviour, country-of-origin, brand equity into B2B service
markets, university-industry collaboration and experiential knowledge and
innovation. He has published in several journals including Management
International Review, Journal of International Management, International
Business Review, Psychology & Marketing and Journal of Business Research.

1 Introduction

Just-in-time (JIT) came into wide use in the Japanese shipbuilding and automotive
industries, and It refers to a number of practices and tools that aim to satisfy the market
by producing the products needed, when needed and in the required quantity and quality
(Singh and Garg, 2011). One simple definition was given by Vrat (2014). According to
his study “JIT or zero-inventory system is an idealized concept of inventory management
wherein we are able to supply whatever material is required, wherever required, and
whenever required JIT with 100% supply assurances without keeping any inventory on
hand”.
In JIT waste and unnecessary costs must be minimised. Griinwald and Zortuin (1992)
pointed out that “in order to achieve this production as far as possible need to strive
toward: zero stock, rejection rate, set-up time, machine breakdown, transport and waiting
time”. The implementation of JIT can provide many advantages to a company by
improving profits, and return on investment through cost reductions, inventory
reductions, and quality improvements (Singh and Garg, 2011). These benefits proved by
many case studies explain the wide acceptance of JIT in industry.
 Just-in-time theory 173

The JIT philosophy always achieves a reduction in the inventory (Keller and Kazazi,
1993; Chang and Lee, 1996). In many companies today, inventory accounts for 40 to
60% of their assets, which is usually the largest asset on the balance sheet (Freeland and
Landel, 2008). According to Zhang (2014), in supply chain management, inventory levels
not only affect the overall cost of a single enterprise but also restrict the performance of
the entire supply chain. Hence, by reducing the inventory levels to their lowest, the
company can save more assets and gain more liquidity to expand its business.
Shahabuddin (2011) concluded that companies that adopted supply chain processes and
especially standard inventory control methods were more profitable that those that did
not. Currently, keeping inventories at a low level is a common practice among companies
in both the manufacturing and the retail sector (Geismar et al., 2011).
This practice has positive and negative impacts on costs and profitability. On the one
hand, it can reduce storage and operational costs, ensuring more available cash flow and,
at the same time, minimises the depreciation of inventory. On the other hand, it can be
costly due to the increase in shipping costs, as well as, other logistical and organisational
costs.
Belekoukias et al. (2014), as well as Kumaravadivel et al. (2012), Manzouri and
Rahman (2013) and Daine et al. (2011) argue that the real effect of modern inventory
management methods and tools (such as JIT, lean thinking, pull, vendor managed
inventory – VMI, Six Sigma, etc.) on contemporary measures of operational
performance, i.e., cost, speed, dependability, quality, and flexibility, is still unclear and/or
significant differences can be found in different sectors.
So there is still a question about the strong relevance of the application of JIT
practices and the business performance of the company, and based on the latest studies
there is not a unanimous answer to this question. Some studies such as Isaksson and
Seifert (2014) concluded that a strong positive relationship exists, while others such by
Folinas and Shen (2014), does not indicate any link between these two variables. On the
other hand, Obermaier and Donhauser (2012) in their research concluded that the firms
with the lowest inventory have the worst performance (and vice versa).
What are common in the majority of these studies are:
1 First, the use of quantitative methods and/or statistical tests applied in business
(financial or non-financial) data in order to measure the business performance of the
companies.
2 Second, the focus that is mainly on measuring/estimating the business performance
of the company (the one side of the examined relationship). In previous studies, the
success of the application of the JIT practices (the other side of the relationship) is
taken for granted. Also, the degree of the deployment of JIT practices is not
sufficiently estimated and justified.
3 Third, the most of the past research initiatives refer to companies from various
business sectors, geographical areas and different size and turnover.
It is very difficult in this targeted sample to have managers that have different perception
about the measurement of business performance, as well as, the degree of the deployment
of JIT practices.
174 D.K. Folinas et al.

The research objective of this study is the investigation of the link between
JIT/zero-inventory practices and business performance in companies. Specifically, the
study is concentrated on the following research question: ‘are JIT practices affect the
business performance positively?’. In our study, findings were produced by a systematic
(step-by-step) research design including both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The
degree of the deployment of JIT practices is estimated and justified by identifying the key
elements of the JIT that managers have assumed and applied for three years in their
companies.
Furthermore, the research was focused mostly on the manufacturing industries; the
sample included 125 companies in Northern Greece in order to reduce the divergence
among managers regarding the measurement of business performance, as well as, the
degree of the deployment of JIT practices. The results of this study suggest that there is
not a strong link among JIT and zero-level inventories management practices and
financial-based performance indicators even if the manufacturing companies had
extensively applied these practices during the previous years.
The structure of the paper is as follows. Section 2 presents and analyses the relative
literature of the case studies about companies in various sectors that have deployed JIT
practices and tools. The benefits of JIT are clear and straightforward. Section 3 presents
the main parameters of the research methodology, while Section 4 discusses the empirical
results. Finally, conclusions, limitations, and future research issues are discussed in
Section 5.

2 Criticising JIT theory case studies literature

There is no doubt that JIT theory is the cornerstone of the business inventory
management. Numerous case studies have proved the positive impact of JIT practices in
organisations and in various sectors (Goyal and Deshmukh, 1992; Keller and Kazazi,
1993; Golhar and Lee Stamm, 1991; Ramarapu et al., 1995). Moreira and Alves (2008)
also synthesised the literature for existing case studies relating to JIT implementation in
several countries. In most case studies, authors either qualitatively or quantitatively
identified the benefits and challenges of these JIT initiatives.
One of the first studies (maybe the first) was made by Schonberger (1982) who
investigated the case of Toyota and suggested the transfer of the Japanese manufacturing
management approaches to US industry. In this study, Schonberger especially focused on
the elimination of the various types of waste in the production lines. Moreover, Mould
and King (1995) investigated six companies that had adopted JIT practices identifying the
following key benefits: reduction of cycle time, work-in-progress, batch size and set-up
time, as well as, improved quality, customer responsiveness, and communications.
Gupta (2012) in one of the most recent studies summarises the benefits of JIT as cited
in the literature through the examination of cases and best practices. Based on Gupta’s
study the following specific words (benefits) can be identified: elimination (of waste and
non-value adding activities), reduction (of costs and lead/throughput time), increase (of
quality, reliability productivity and customer responsiveness), integration (of the
functional business areas), flexibility (of product mix) and improvement (of the
communication both internally and externally and employees’ participation). Gupta
(2012) argued that “these benefits further helped the JIT firms in successfully competing
in the global environment”.
 Just-in-time theory 175

On the other hand according to Water-Fuller as cited in Polito and Watson (2006)
“historically, the literature has been rich with JIT philosophy advocacy, while it falls
short with respect o skepticism”. Indeed, Waters-Fuller (1995) was one of the first
researchers who expressed skepticism in the JIT paradigm by identifying specific
constraints that can be categorised into five groups: customer-driven and economic
conditions, logistics, organisational culture and conditions, intractable accounting and
finance practices, and, small supplier difficulties. Recently, Kootanaee et al. (2013)
identify the following limitations as well: cultural differences (including also the
employees’ involvement and their autonomy attitude), the ‘industry specific’ nature of
JIT, as well as, the traditional approach in keeping safety stocks.
In the literature, there are additional studies that investigated the implementation of
JIT in companies and provided some skepticism if the JIT:

• first, it is suitable for all companies (Krause and Keller, 1988; Karmarkar, 1989;
Sheridan, 1989), business sectors (Inman and Mehra, 1990; Walden, 2000; Barlow,
2002) and also countries (Goonatilake, 1984; Ebrahimpur and Schonberger, 1984)
with different cultural conditions (Vrat et al., 1993; Cusumano, 1994; Garg et al.,
1996; Kumar et al., 2004)

• second, if it leads to success (Crawford et al., 1988) by overcoming dynamic market

conditions (Karmakar, 1989; McClenahen, 1990; Keys, 1991; Norris, 1994; Kim and
Lee, 1989; Klein, 1989; Groebner and Merz, 1994; Mullarkey et al., 1995), business
and management challenges (Foster and Horngren, 1987; Ferguson, 1988; Calvasina
et al., 1989) and realising specific critical success factors for its effective application
(Kozoil, 1988; Deshpande and Golhar, 1995; Chang and Lee, 1996).

Based on the above studies Moreira and Alves (2006) argued: “that despite the good
perception of the JIT concept, a small percentage of the firms have the necessary
conditions to successfully implement a JIT system”.
In the above argument two concepts are of great interest; first which are the
‘necessary conditions’ and second, which practices constitute a JIT system? For both
questions, there is also an extensive bibliography. Regarding the first question, Mehra
and Inman (1992) grouped the critical success factors into four groups: management
commitment, JIT production strategy, JIT vendor strategy, and JIT education strategy.
There are also reported: support of the top management (Prasad, 1996; Chang and Lee,
1996), education and training of the employees (Zhu and Merdith, 1995), employees’
commitment to continuous improvement (Theng, 1993; Storhagen, 1995; Chong et al.,
2001), use of information systems and accurate data (Francis, 1989; Wallace, 1990;
Schniederjans and Kim, 1990; Sim, 2001) and strong relationships with vendors (Hobbs,
1997; Lee, 1996), which have been documented in the literature as the key conditions.
Furthermore, in the literature there are numerous studies that have tried to identify the
key practices of the JIT (Golhar and Stamm, 1991; Zhu et al., 1994; Spencer and Guide,
1995; Ramarapu et al., 1995; Chan et al., 2002; Kannan and Tan, 2005; Armstrong et al.,
2009; Geismar et al., 2011; Obermaier and Donhauser, 2012; Xu et al., 2014).
176 D.K. Folinas et al.

Singh and Garg (2011) made an extensive research and produced the following
comprehensive list of the JIT elements: master schedule, automation and autonomation,
buffer stock removal, cellular manufacturing, computer-integrated manufacturing,
continuous improvement, effective communication, focused factories, flexible workforce,
jit purchasing, high quality, Jidoka, Kanban system, layout improvement, process
flexibility, product and process simplification, pull-controlled flow, quality circles,
robots, setup time reduction, small lot size, standard containers, standardisation,
statistical process control, statistical quality control, streamlined process design, total
productive maintenance, total quality control, under capacity scheduling, worker-centred
quality control, work-in-process reduction, zero defect, zero deviation schedule, and
multifunctional workers.
In order to investigate the link between JIT/zero-inventory practices and business
performance a conceptual model is proposed as presented in Figure 1. From the one side
(JIT and zero-level inventory management practices) the JIT key elements are identified
based on the literature review and the degree of their deployment is estimated. The
business performance is estimated using historical financial data and specific financial
indexes.

Figure 1 Investigation of the link between JIT/zero-inventory practices and business performance
in companies (see online version for colours)

3 Investigating the connection among JIT/zero-level and business

performance

The limitations and the practices of JIT that are identified by synthesising the literature
review – referring to case studies – will be used to investigate the link between JIT
practices and business performance. Figure 2 illustrates the various steps that we
followed.
In the next sections, the steps after the literature review are presented.
 Just-in-time theory 177

Figure 2 Research methodology (see online version for colours)

Literature review of JIT case studies: Identification of

general JIT Key Elements

Qualitative study / Content analysis of JIT deployment

roadmaps: Identification of JIT Key Elements applied

Quantitative study
- Closed-type questionnaire with managers / Friedman
test: Measurement of the successful implementation of JIT
Key Elements
- Financial indexes from companies balance sheets /
Repeated ANOVA: Measurement of the variation of the
financial indexes
- Spearman rank correlation: Measurement of the
association between JIT Key Elements and financial indexes

No strong evidences that there is a link among JIT key

elements successfully applied and financial performance

3.1 Qualitative content analysis: identifying the key elements of JIT

In order to identify which are the key elements of the JIT that managers assume and
apply we followed the systematic approach that Treadwell (2013) proposed in his
textbook for the qualitative content analysis. Treadwell’s approach includes the following
parts:
• development of research questions
one research question emerges from the case studies’ literature review:
RQ1 Is managers’ opinion aligned with the literature regarding the practices that
constitute a JIT system?
• definition of the content to be analysed.
The content that we are interested in was the roadmaps that managers of the examined
companies prepared for their employees about the deployment of the JIT philosophy.
These roadmaps included specific guidelines, instructions, and checklists about the
proper use of JIT tools and practices. Furthermore, they identified the challenges and
required conditions for an effective and efficient use of the above tools and practices. The
roadmaps were developed in the first two months of the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 by
the logistics and/or operation managers of the companies. We had a number of meetings
in which we discussed the basics of the JIT paradigm and the managers developed the
roadmaps based on the companies’ special needs and strategy. The second and third
178 D.K. Folinas et al.

version of the JIT roadmaps incorporated the lessons learned of the previous version(s),
as well as, the changes of the business environment.

3.1.1 Sampling
Then, we used the systematic sampling method so as to choose the roadmaps of the
companies that the content would be further analysed. We chose every tenth company in
the alphabetically ordered list, and a random group of 12 companies was finally selected.
The sample included three companies from the construction industry, two from the food
industry, two from the retail sector, three from the services sector and two recycling
company.
Table 1 Coding sheet for content analysis of JIT deployment

Frequencies of appearance
Substance Construction Food Retail Services Recycling
industry industry sector sector company
Key elements
Master schedule
Automation and
autonomation
Buffer stock
removal
(*)
Notes: (*) Cellular manufacturing, computer-integrated manufacturing, continuous
improvement, effective communication, focused factories, flexible workforce, JIT
purchasing, high quality, Jidoka, Kanban system, layout improvement, process
flexibility, product and process simplification, pull-controlled flow, quality
circles, robots, setup time reduction, small lot size, standard containers,
standardisation, statistical process control, statistical quality control, streamlined
process design, total productive maintenance, total quality control, under capacity
scheduling, worker-centred quality control, work-in-process reduction, zero
defect, zero deviation schedule, and multi functional workers.

3.1.2 Units’ selection for coding

The units for coding were the critical success factors and the key practices of the JIT that
were identified by Singh and Garg (2011) classification. There were specifically
‘syntactical units’ which according to Krippendorff (1980) are “units of language, such as
words or sentences”. Thus, we were looking to count the number of times the names of
critical success factors and key practices are mentioned in the instruction handbooks
(roadmaps) that the operations/logistics managers had been developed so as to ensure the
right application of the JIT practices in their companies.

3.1.3 Development of a coding scheme

The coding scheme defined the main categories into which each one of the selected
sampled units had been placed. The coding scheme and the respective categories is
shown in Table 1.
 Just-in-time theory 179

3.1.4 Assignment of an each occurrence of a unit in the sample to code in the

coding scheme
The numbering of word references that refer to the number of interviewees who
mentioned the key element of JIT that Singh and Garg (2011) identified and classified in
their review.
Table 2 Coding sheet for content analysis of JIT deployment

Frequencies of appearance
Key elements
Construction Food Retail Services Recycling
Sector
industry industry sector sector company
Zero-level inventory philosophy 1 6 8 3 1
(no safety stock)
Demand forecasting 2 6 5 2 2
Continuous improvement 1 1 2 3 2
Total quality control 5 5 3 3 2
Pull-controlled flow and Kanban 2 3 1 2
system
Strong relationships with the 2 6 6 1 4
suppliers
VMI philosophy 1 2 4 1 1
Supplier cooperation for 1 3 6 1 1
continuous replenishment
Agreements with suppliers for 1 3 4 2 2
reliable delivery time
Supplier cooperation for the design 2 5 1 1
and development of new
products/services
Small supplier-base 3 5 2 2
Information sharing with suppliers 2 3 4 1 1
Long-term agreements with 4 5 2 1 1
suppliers
Use of ICT applications 3 4 4 2 2
Computer-integrated 1 1 2
manufacturing
Use of enterprise information 2 3 3 2 2
systems (such as ERP, MRP,
WMS, etc.)
Use of automatic identification 1 2 4 3 2
technologies (barcode, RFID, etc.)
Use of business data and 1 2
information exchange (EDI, EPOS,
etc.)
180 D.K. Folinas et al.

3.1.5 Count occurrences of the coded units and report their frequencies
Table 2 provides the number of interviewees who mentioned each issue. The concepts
that were coded in the analysis and the emergent categories are also illustrated in
Figure 3. In summary, most managers acknowledged the importance of all the key
practices that Singh and Garg (2011) identified and especially the low-inventory, total
quality management, relationships with suppliers, and continuous improvement but they
use different words to describe these in their companies’ staff. Moreover, according to
the participants, the close/strong relationships with the suppliers, as well as the ICT
applications, seem to be the key enablers of all the applications of JIT practices.
Nevertheless, it was interesting that they named several categories.

Figure 3 Concepts that were coded in the analysis and the emergent categories

3.2 Quantitative
The data collected to conduct quantitative analysis in order to answer the research
question are: first, the inventory management data gathered with the use of a closed-type
questionnaire that was given and answered by the managers of the companies in three
years (2011, 2012 and 2013) and second, the reported financial data in these years, which
are available in the ICAP database which covers the majority of companies in Greece and
is the primary source of financial and fiscal data.
The procedure of the collection of the data consists of various steps to come to the
final number of the 128 organisations chosen to conduct investigation and analyses. The
first step was to segregate manufacturing companies in the Northern Greece from the
ICAP database. 180 companies were initially chosen. To obtain an increased accuracy of
financial data and indexes, the availability of consecutive reported accounting/financial
data from 2011 to 2013 (three years) offered a smaller list with 156 companies. In the
next step, a corresponding number of e-mails/invitations to interviews were submitted.
Top managers of 128 manufacturers accepted to arrange the interview first, from January
2011 to March 2011. Then the same questionnaire was given to the same companies in
the next two years and in the same time-period in order to attain quantitative data from
 Just-in-time theory 181

three years (regarding the inventory data from the interviews) and the financial data from
the same years. The sample size was 125 companies (three companies refused to
participate in the second and third year) which can be considered as quite satisfactory to
make consistent and trustworthy both descriptive and inferential statistical analysis.
The questionnaire included three parts: first, questions to sketch the profile of the
companies and the managers. According to the findings, the majority of companies (more
than 80%) have less than 100 employees and the turnover for more than 75% of them is
less than 8,5M €. Managers that participated in the interviews have a strong business and
technical background; almost 75% of them have 25 years of experience in operations
management and logistics positions.
Managers were asked to choose from a Likert scale from: ‘0: not applicable’,
‘1: applicable in a limited scale’, ‘2: applicable in high degree’, to ‘3: is a common and
standard practice’ the degree of applicability of the JIT key elements of Table 2.
All the above practices are examined from the ‘zero-level’ inventory management side of
the study. Regarding the financial performance side, there are many indicators that
support the financial analysis and performance of a company. These indicators of
financial performance can be obtained from the companies’ balance sheet and profit and
loss statement.
In this study, the following five financial indicators are used:
• Return on sales (ROS) (known as a firm’s ‘operating profit margin’) is widely used
to evaluate a company’s operational efficiency. It is calculated as the ratio of net
income (before interest and tax) and the sales. An increasing ROS indicates the
company is becoming more efficient, while a decreasing ratio could signal looming
financial difficulties.
• Return on equity (ROE), measures the corporation’s profitability by revealing how
much profit a company generates with the money shareholders have invested. It is
expressed as a percentage and calculated as the ratio of the net income to the
shareholder’s equity. The higher the ratio percentage, the more efficient management
is in utilising its equity-base, and the better return is to investors.
• Return on total asset (ROTA), is a ratio that indicates how effectively a company is
using its assets to generate earnings before contractual obligations must be paid. It is
calculated as the company’s earnings before interest and taxes (EBITs) against its
total net assets where EBIT is the sum of net income, interest expense and taxes. The
higher the return, the more efficient management is in utilising its asset-base.
• EBIT profitability to sales ratio, which is a financial metric used to assess a
company’s profitability by comparing its revenue with earnings. It is estimated as
EBIT to revenue. A higher value indicates that the company is able to keep its
earnings at a good level via efficient processes that have kept certain expenses low.
• Gross profit to net sale ratio is calculated by subtracting the cost of goods sold from
the net sales. Dividing this by net sales produces the ratio of profit to sales, basically
showing how much profit a company is producing out of every euro of sales. A
decreasing gross profit to sales ratio is a negative sign, indicating the company is
becoming less profitable.
182 D.K. Folinas et al.

3.3 Empirical findings

In order to investigate the links between JIT and zero-level inventory practices and
business performance of the Greek companies a number of quantitative methods have
been applied.
Table 3 Comparison of three-year JIT approaches

Mean/std. deviation Mean rank

JIT practice Sig.
2011 2012 2013 2011 2012 2013
Zero-level inventory .91 (+/–.81) 1.27 (+/–.98) 1.65 (+/–.85) 1.54 1.97 2.49 .000
philosophy
Demand forecasting 1.27 (+/–.82) 1.69 (+/–.88) 1.99 (+/–.80) 1.55 2.04 2.41 .000
Continuous 1.13 (+/–.76) 1.52 (+/–.84) 1.87 (+/–.90) 1.54 2.03 2.42 .000
improvement
Total quality control 1.44 (+/–.75) 1.80 (+/–.70) 2.05 (+/–.78) 1.64 2.02 2.35 .000
Pull-controlled 1.25 (+/–.76) 1.67 (+/–.71) 1.90 (+/–.79) 1.53 2.10 2.36 .000
flow/Kanban
VMI .35 (+/–.56) .56 (+/–.72) .96 (+/–.84) 1.67 1.92 2.41 .000
Cooperation for 1.12 (+/–.86) 1.66 (+/–.99) 2.14 (+/–.86) 1.42 2.02 2.56 .000
continuous
Agreements with 1.29 (+/–.72) 2.00 (+/–.80) 2.28 (+/–.77) 1.36 2.17 2.48 .000
suppliers
Supplier cooperation .72 (+/–.80) .99 (+/–.95) 1.25 (+/–.94) 1.66 2.00 2.34 .000
for design
Small supplier-base .93 (+/–.81) 1.39 (+/–.86) 1.69 (+/–.83) 1.48 2.06 2.45 .000
Information sharing 1.30 (+/–.79) 1.82 (+/–.78) 2.15 (+/–.75) 1.46 2.06 2.48 .000
suppliers
Long-term 1.08 (+/–.80) 1.68 (+/–.88) 2.10 (+/–.82) 1.40 2.07 2.53 .000
agreements suppliers
Computer-integrated .81 (+/–.69) 1.33 (+/–.83) 1.71 (+/–.83) 1.42 2.04 2.53 .000
manufacturing
Enterprise 1.15 (+/–.98) 1.55 (+/–1.2) 1.93 (+/–1.1) 1.52 2.02 2.47 .000
information systems
Identification .87 (+/–.95) 1.31 (+/–1.18) 1.64 (+/–1.14) 1.57 2.02 2.41 .000
technologies
Exchange of .50 (+/–.78) .92 (+/–.97) 1.25 (+/–0.98) 1.57 2.02 2.41 .000
business data

Table 3 provides strong evidence that the managers of the examined companies strongly
believe that the JIT is a prominent philosophy and also their ‘weapon’ in today’s business
arena, especially during the economic downturn which started at 2008. The Friedman test
(the non-parametric alternative to the one-way ANOVA) has been applied to compare the
means of the 14 JIT key practices and approaches as proposed in Table 1. The Friedman
test is the non-parametric alternative to the one-way ANOVA with repeated measures. In
 Just-in-time theory 183

our study, the data satisfied the four required assumptions (one group that is measured on
three or more different occasions, group is a random sample from the population,
dependent variable should be measured at the ordinal or continuous level, and samples do
not need to be normally distributed). Moreover, the Cronbach’s Alpha if items deleted of
the all the ordinal dimensions varies from 0.765 to 0.854 determining a quite satisfactory
inter-rater reliability.
According to the results of the Friedman test (Table 2), the majority of companies
have applied to a considerable extend all of the JIT practices (p < 0.05).
The results are of great interest. Most companies advocate the lowest possible levels
of inventory (keeping inventory in the right quantity at the right time with the right
quality) and apply all the JIT practices systematically.
On the other hand, financial indicators denote a diverse pattern. The following graph
(Figure 3) presents schematically the estimated ratios in the last three years (2011–2013)
according to the companies’ balance sheet and profit and loss statement. Repeated
measures analysis of variation (repeated measures ANOVA) assuming sphericity (based
on Huynh-Feldt Epsilon test) of within-subjects effects (ROS p = .43, ROE p = .52,
ROA p = .88, EBIT p = .83, GPS p = .43) show that there is no a statistically significance
variance of the examined ratios.

Figure 4 Variation of financial indicators in the last three years (see online version for colours)

Next, in order to answer the research question we constructed new variables to represent
the differences among the 16 JIT practices and the financial indexes for years 2011–2012
and then for 2012–2013. Spearman rank correlation was estimated to measure the
strength of association between the JIT practices and each of the considered indexes. The
results are presented in Table 4.
According to the results, there is neither significant main effect nor significant
interaction is noticed in all cases with the exception of the ROA index which was
significantly larger in 2012 than 2011. Therefore, in overall, we can conclude that there is
not a link among the JIT and zero-level inventory practices and the financial
performance.
184 D.K. Folinas et al.

Table 4 Association of JIT and zero-level inventory total and the financial indexes

JIT practice
ROS ROE ROA EBIT GPS
Financial
A (2011–2012)/
A B A B A B A B A B
B (2012–2013)
Zero-level inventory n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s.
philosophy
Demand forecasting n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. < 0.05 n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s.
Continuous n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s.
improvement
Total quality control n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s.
Pull-controlled n.s. <0.05 n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s.
flow/Kanban
VMI <0.05 n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s.
Cooperation for n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. <0.05 n.s. <0.05 <0.05 n.s. n.s.
continuous
Agreements with n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. <0.05 n.s.
suppliers
Supplier cooperation n.s. n.s. n.s. <0.05 n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s.
for design
Small supplier-base n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s.
Information sharing n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. <0.05 n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s.
suppliers
Long-term n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s.
agreements
suppliers
Computer-integrated n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s.
manufacturing
Enterprise n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s.
information systems
Identification n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s.
technologies
Exchange of n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s.
business data
Notes: * ns: non-significant (p greater than .05).

4 Conclusions

There are many benefits from the JIT philosophy, and this statement is proved by the
lessons learned from the various case studies. According to Chu (2007), the effects of JIT
implementation can be described either non-financial or financial.
The effect of the JIT key elements on financial performance in the Greek
manufacturing sector is investigated where inventory management is considered
as the most prominent area for improvement, as well as, for the implementation of
state-of-the-art practices and technologies among the examined companies.
 Just-in-time theory 185

The outcome of this study can be summarised into the following two empirical
results: first, the Greek companies appreciate the importance of adopting the JIT key
elements; second, there is not a strong link among JIT practices and financial-based
performance indicators. This is in contrast with previous researches such as by Fullerton
and McWatters (2001) that had reported a financial improvement with the adoption of
lower inventory and JIT in manufacturing companies, as well as, by Fullerton et al.
(2003) who had argued that firms which implement higher degrees of JIT manufacturing
practices should outperform their competitors who did not. The key findings of this study
reveal once again that supply chains are a complex system that cannot be explained from
a single perspective, but rather requires a more integrated and versatile approach. JIT
practices can probably lead to positive financial performance as already indicated in some
previous studies, but many factors play a role that may impede the process while others
may diminish its impact on profitability. Moreover, JIT practices must address possible
required changes in companies’ organisational culture, structure, etc., as well as, changes
to their financial measures.
But at the same time, there are also some constraints that can lead to ineffective JIT
implementation. According to Polito and Watson (2006) constraints that should be
considered by practitioners prior to JIT implementation are customer demand and
economic factors, logistics, organisational culture, rigid accounting and finance practices,
and small supplier difficulties. But as the same authors pointed out that: “these
constraints are not universal in applicability” (Polito and Watson, 2006). Singh and Garg
(2011) argue that sustaining the continuous improvement philosophy of JIT is critically
dependent on this organisation transition.
Furthermore, while JIT and zero-level inventory play a critical role in today’s
economy, some of its issues can also be criticised. One of the main objectives of JIT is
the reduction of inventories in order to minimise costs and maximise profits.
Additionally, as Cannon (2008) points out, inventory has been used as a way to protect
companies against demand uncertainty even though, this uncertainty is confronted by
specific practices (which can also be considered as critical success factors). These
practices are: developing closer and more collaborative relationships with suppliers and
customers (Gunasekaran et al., 2004), optimising logistics and distribution channels
(Thomas and Griffin, 1996) and investing in better IT systems (Rabinovich et al., 2007).
With inventory playing a crucial role in a company’s business and operational
performance to meet customer service levels and seasonal demands, an organisation’s
ability to manage inventory to meet these demands, whilst taking into consideration
various drivers including exchange rates, sea and inland freight, government tax
incentives, and environmental factors, will ultimately affect the costs incurred by
manufacturing organisations and therefore its business performance.
However, according to the findings, it is proven that simply reducing inventories on
its own is not enough. To remain competitive in an ever changing and ever competitive
business environment, a manufacturer must strive for continuous improvement.
Moreover, one must understand that customers do not any longer wait to purchase a
product if they cannot find it; they will immediately buy the available substitute of a
competitor’s product. Therefore, regardless of how much a firm exerts efforts to
compress its inventory levels in order to reduce costs and improve profits these efforts
can be eroded if the competitor’s product reaches the market first. In other words,
theories that support cost reduction and improved profitability as a consequence of
inventory levels reduction are true, but sometimes to a certain extent.
186 D.K. Folinas et al.

There are some limitations in our study. First, there is the possibility of bias in the
responses of the managers regarding the degree of the application of JIT practices during
the previous years. Also, the small size of the sample in terms of sectors and the
geographical area. Third, the fact that our study is mainly based on financial data and
financial performance indicators; thus, the problem must be addressed using more
detailed datasets from other business areas as following Eker and Pala (2008)
“performance should therefore not be interpreted only as profit-focused activities but also
as non-financial activities directed toward obtaining or following profit process”. Taking
the above into account, future research should involve the examination of a larger data
sample from many geographical areas and also the investigation of more financial
indexes.

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