In JIT production system, fi nished products are
manufactured when they are needed. Embracing
JIT philosophy at a greater degree should result
in a decline in fi nished goods and work-in-process
level. Hence, it is expected that ending inventories
to sales would decline throughout the period. To
assess whether the sample companies have been increasingly embracing JIT philosophy, a paired
t-test will be conducted to test whether average
ending inventory to sales at the beginning of the
period studied is signifi cantly different from that at
the end of the period studied at the five percent
level of confi dence when examined in aggregate
for the total sample and separately for each of
the three industries. It was hypothesized that: