Ball Aerospace explores operational and financial trade-offs in batch sizing in implementing JIT

Ball Aerospace, which manufactures highly innovative products, recently implemented a just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing system to reduce costs, improve lead times, and enhance customer satisfaction. The company manufactures under customer requirements that dictate the timing and quantities of sales. In the first phase of our study, we used value stream mapping, a precursor to implementing JIT, for two products in the company's advanced antenna and video systems division. Using this approach, we reduced the lead times and identified opportunities for improvement in the manufacturing facility. In the second phase, we quantified the trade-off between operational and financial considerations of the JIT implementation. Using detailed data from the facility, we analyzed these trade-offs by investigating batch-sizing decisions under different types of demand patterns. Our analysis provided the company with the input it needed to make resource-allocation decisions and current and planned process improvements under changes in external demand.