JIT in developing countries - a case study of the Turkish prefabrication sector

Just in Time (JIT) is a production management system, whose success depends on the fulfilment of a number of environmental conditions; which presents the problem related with its applicability in developing countries. The literature shows that the poor supply and demand conditions, and the unstable economic environments are the main obstacles for JIT application in developing countries. Other factors include; high costs of, imported technology, training, maintenance and the quality systems, low costs of labour and, the cultural values based on both high power distance and uncertainty avoidance. The Turkish prefabrication sector was analysed as a case study. A questionnaire survey and a number of interviews were undertaken with Turkish prefabrication companies. Frequency, Thurstone's Paired Comparisons and correlation coefficient analysis were used to evaluate the questionnaire results. The results unexpectedly showed that inflation was not an obstacle against implementation of JIT by Turkish prefabrication companies, as it had a trivial effect on the companies' supply-chain policies. Additionally, unlike in most developing countries material supply conditions were satisfactory. The financial difficulties and the demand uncertainties were determined to be the main obstacles for the implementation of JIT in the Turkish prefabrication sector. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.