JIT - Just In Time

JIT is one of the TQM concept and it stands for Just-In-Time.  JIT advocates alignment of raw material procuring and manufacturing with customers demand. To put it simply, you don’t manufacture cars and then sell. Rather you find out how many cars are to be sold and then you manufacture. The objective is to have zero inventory which means unrealized profit and it’s not good for any Business.  I remember to have read that Toyota was one of the pioneers practicing JIT and I am not sure if they still follow it.

Like JIT, even the feedbacks to employees or team members have to be just on time and it should never be delayed.  That’s what I am going to write about and Let us look at the scenario given below to understand what it really means..

Let us assume that you are a new joiner into an Organization.  You undergo a detailed Boot-camp training and then inducted into live production. The nature of job involves interpreting various data points precisely without any mistakes.

Few days into the production, you are making a mistake, ie., you capture the data as $ 100,000 USD instead of $ 10,000 USD.  Your colleagues says that what you've done is a big mistake and you need to brace yourself for a discussion with your boss.

Day-1 - You are nervous and you are anxiously expecting your boss to call you.  Boss is Busy

Day-2 - You are again nervous and you are anxiously expecting your boss to call you.  Boss is Busy

The entire week goes on and to your surprise, you were never called. So you get to think that, may be, this is not a serious or big mistake and you carry on with your work as usual.

The next week, on Monday, you again make similar kind of mistake. This time, it’s not just one mistake but there are many such mistakes.  What adds fuel to the fire is, it’s already delivered to the Customer and they have come back with a strong feedback.

Your boss really gets irritated and calls you for a discussion and all you get to hear is his strong reaction.  And then he also explain how this mistake could affect the Business.  You come out feeling dejected.

Can you guess what has gone wrong in this scenario?

Wheather the mistake is big or small, you need to give the feedback right away, not after a week.  If you were to talk after a week, it loses its value. You would have to literally remind the employee of his mistake and then give the feedback.

Hit the rod when it’s hot. Give the feedback immediately.

What could have ideally happened?

# The Boss should have called the new joiner without wasting any time and given the feedback immediately.

# Considering that the employee is a new joiner and it’s his first mistake, he should have explained the consequence of his mistake from the customers perspective without strong reaction.  May be with an example as given here – Let say you go to ATM and punch in 5000 and  you obviously expect to get 5000 bucks. But you get only 500 bucks instead of 5000 bucks.  You also notice that by mistake"50000" bucks getting debited from your Account.  It's a matter of just 0s in this transaction. However it makes a big difference. That's how it affect the customers too.    

# Had he given the feedback the very first day and the very first time, it could have put things in the right perspective and probably, the new joiner would not have repeated the mistake.  He would have become lot more serious in his work.

# Reaction after a week can only demotivate especially if it happens to a new employee or fresher

According to Gallup, any feedback or appreciation should be given on time and on an on-going basis.  An employee need not wait for a week or for his appraisal review to get to know what he did well and what he messed up. Any feedback, whether it’s positive or negative, the employee must get to know it then and there.

What do you think of JIT in Human resources? 

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