Along with Jidoka, Just-in-time (JIT) production is one of the pillars of the two Toyota Production System. It is a production method that fundamentally changed the way large-scale production oc-curred in the 20th century, and is the basis for Lean Manufacturing (Lean for short), which is the school of thought many modern companies have modeled themselves after.
JIT production is often called a pull system because instead of using traditional push production where scheduling is done based on historical data and demand forecasting, production is scheduled based on actual customer orders. Rather than predicting demands from customers, the JIT method requires that actual customer demand exists. Production doesn't begin before an order triggers it. This system not only reduces the amount of extra inventory, but also reduces the amount of work in progress at one time.
Reference:
- Just-in-Time Production
- CIPS study guide page 122-127
LO 2, AC 2.3

Safety stock is the stock held as a contingency or insurance against disruption or unexpected de-mand. Holding safety stock reduces the risks of stockouts, when an organisation is unable to meet an order or continue production due to lack of finished goods or input materials.
For single items, an extra investment in inventory (higher levels of safety stock) will always in-crease customer service levels. Conversely, higher service levels imply larger quantities of safety stocks and an increased investment in inventory. (Procurement and Supply Chain Management - 9th Edition) However, high levels of safety stocks also increase the inventory cost. There must be a balance between inventory costs and customer service. Thus, calculating the should-be safety stock based on a determined service level has long been recommended by many professionals.
Reference:
LO 2, AC 2.2

The most basic alarm consists of one or more sensors to detect intruders, and an alerting device to indicate the intrusion. However, a typical premises security alarm employs the following compo-nents:
- Premises control unit (PCU), Alarm Control Panel (ACP), or simply panel: The "brain" of the system, it reads sensor inputs, tracks arm/disarm status, and signals intrusions. In modern system, this is typically one or more computer circuit boards inside a metal enclosure, along with a power supply.
- Sensors: Devices which detect intrusions. Sensors may be placed at the perimeter of the protected area, within it, or both. Sensors can detect intruders by a variety of methods, such as monitoring doors and windows for opening, or by monitoring unoccupied interiors for motions, sound, vibration, or other disturbances.
- Alerting devices: These indicate an alarm condition. Most commonly, these are bells, sirens, and/or flashing lights. Alerting devices serve the dual purposes of warning occupants of intrusion, and potentially scaring off burglars. These devices may also be used to warn occupants of a fire or smoke condition.
- Keypads: Small devices, typically wall-mounted, which function as the human-machine interface to the system. In addition to buttons, keypads typically feature indicator lights, a small multi-character display, or both.etc.
- Interconnections between components. This may consist of direct wiring to the control unit, or wireless links with local power supplies.
In addition to the system itself, security alarms are often coupled with a monitoring service. In the event of an alarm, the premises control unit contacts a central monitoring station. Operators at the station see the signal and take appropriate action, such as contacting property owners, notifying police, or dispatching private security forces. Such signals may be transmitted via dedicated alarm circuits, telephone lines, or the internet.
Reference:
Security alarm - Wikipedia
LO 1, AC 1.1

Delphi method was developed in the 1950s, originally to forecast the impact of technology on warfare. The method entails a group of experts who anonymously reply to questionnaires and subsequently receive feedback in the form of a statistical representation of the "group response," after which the process repeats itself. The goal is to reduce the range of responses and arrive at something closer to expert consensus. The Delphi Method has been widely adopted and is still in use today. Delphi method is a subjective forecasting technique Holt-Winters forecasting is a way to model and predict the behavior of a sequence of values over time-a time series. Holt-Winters is one of the most popular forecasting techniques for time series. It's decades old, but it's still ubiquitous in many applications, including monitoring, where it's used for purposes such as anomaly detection and capacity planning.
Time series analysis is a statistical technique that deals with time series data, or trend analysis. Time series data means that data is in a series of particular time periods or intervals.
Objective forecasting approaches are quantitative in nature and lend themselves well to an abun-dance of data. There are three categories of objective forecasting methods: time series, caus-al/econometric, and artificial intelligence.
LO 2, AC 2.3

RFID tags are the small devices that can be embedded in labels or attached to tags which work with radio transmitters and/or receivers to identify themselves.
RFID tags can be used to do the following:
- Track individual items
- Track boxes of products, cages of products and pallets
- Track containers with multiple loads
- Locate equipment within a building
- Trigger alarms should equipment or stock be removed without authorisation.
RFID devices have a very small integrated circuit incorporating a small memory capability - many are smaller than 2mm square and 2mm thick. Despite its size, many can hold 2000 characters of data.
RFID operating rage depends on the radio frequency used, receiver capability and the environment. Some tags are only readable from under 1m, others can have a 100m range.
RFID tags and labels are very specific to the type of material and size of your assets. For example, metal will deactivate the RFID antenna and the tag will not transmit at all. Using RFID on metal requires a special type of tag with an RFID block to prevent interference with the antenna. Liquid products can also affect the reliability of the RFID signal. To use RFID tags in specific environ-ments, some technologies are needed to support them.
Reference:
LO 1, AC 1.2