Setting Product Specifications
According to traditional purchasing practices, engineers spend a great deal of
time and effort specifying and developing tolerances for almost every conceivable design
feature of the end product. Purchasing people review purchase requests to make sure all
product specifications are defined. Once the request is sent, the supplier is tasked with
following the specifications. [Ref. 3:p. 36]
Under JIT purchasing, the buyer seeks advice and assistance on technical matters
from suppliers in order to design better parts, achieve lower price, and improve product
quality and productivity. The buyer relies more on the suppliers' performance specs and
less on narrowly defined design specs. [Ref. 3:p. 36]