he principle that underpins JIT is that production should be ‘pulled through’ rather than ‘pushed through’. This means that production should be for specific customer orders, so that the production cycle starts only once a customer has placed an order with the producer. Stocks are delivered when they are needed. Consequently, this approach requires much more frequent delivery of stocks. Developing a JIT approach requires sophisticated planning and considerable experience in this field. This is why leading companies contract out their supply chain management to a specialist company like Exel with considerable experience of this area.