JIT: Food vs. durable goods

This paper investigates just-in-time (JIT) practices in the food industry, as opposed to those in the durable goods industry. We find that the U.S. durable goods industry didn't have to go to japan in order to borrow JIT. It should have gone to the food industry, which had been using JIT, though not in name. Our thesis is that the durable goods industry could learn a great deal from the food industry, and vice versa The observations reported in this paper are so far based on firsthand observations of six food firms. These observations will continue to be reinforced or modified by further field studies and by a mail survey to 200 food companies in the State of South Carolina.