The widespread use of just-in-time production (JIT) and other advanced manufacturing techniques has been credited with providing such improvements as decreased inventories, set-up times, downtime and workspace. These decreases have yielded increases in inventory turns, equipment utilization, labor utilization, and ultimately, profit. Simply stated, this means that finished goods are produced and delivered just in time to be sold, subassemblies just in time to be assembled into finished goods, fabricated parts just in time to go into subassemblies and raw materials just in time to be transformed into fabricated parts. In effect, consumption of time has been reduced. While the JIT philosophy dictates that improvement in these areas be part of a continuous process, it does not have to stop there. Some firms have reduced the consumption of time, not only in the production area, but also throughout the system. Firms that manage this have gone...