Just‐in‐time management in the ready mixed concrete industries of Chongqing, China and Singapore

Abstract

Implementing just‐in‐time (JIT) management in the ready mixed concrete (RMC) industry seems viable. It has been observed previously by others that the current practices for managing the concrete supply chain upstream in terms of raw materials acquisition or prerequisite work on site were not geared toward JIT production. However, it is unclear if this observation is also relevant for the procurement of raw materials in the RMC industry in Chongqing (in China) and Singapore. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate the implementation status of JIT in the RMC industry in Chongqing and Singapore. The field study conducted found that all the RMC suppliers surveyed were using the demand pull system to manage RMC production and delivery to sites. However, the study also found that the raw materials could be purchased either using the JIT purchasing method or the traditional economic order quantity (EOQ) purchasing method. Further studies to investigate the conditions where a RMC supplier can adopt the JIT purchasing method to procure its raw materials are recommended.

Keywords:

• Chongqing
• JIT
• production techniques
• ready mixed concrete
• Singapore
• suppliers

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the three anonymous referees for their insightful comments and very helpful suggestions.

Notes

1. The twenty major players in the RMC market in Chongqing were China No. 18 Metallurgy Construction Readymix Ltd, Chongqing No. 4 Construction Readymix Ltd, Chongqing No.1 Construction Zhida Readymix Ltd, Chongqing Housing Construction Readymix Ltd, Chongqing Bridge Engineering Readymix Ltd, Chongqing Yujian Construction Ltd, Chongqing No. 3 Construction Commercial Concrete Ltd, Chongqing No. 2 Construction Concrete Ltd, Chongqing Sanlian Concrete Ltd, Chongqing Zhongtian Bridge Concrete Ltd, Chongqing Aukto Concrete Ltd, Chongqing Chentou Concrete Ltd, Chongqing Yitong Commercial Concrete Ltd, Chongqing Wuyang Concrete Ltd, Chongqing Zhongyu Concrete Ltd, Transportation No. 2 Bureau No. 2 Construction Facility Ltd, Wangquan Concrete Ltd, Yonggu New Construction Material Ltd, Wanzhou Hengchang Cement Ltd and Yongchuan Sanhuan Concrete Ltd.

2. The 15 RMC suppliers of RMCAS in Singapore were RDC Concrete Pte Ltd, Hanson Concrete Pte Ltd, Eastern Concrete Pte Ltd, Island Concrete Pte Ltd, G&W Readymix Pte Ltd, Supermix Concrete Pte Ltd, Pan United Concrete Pte Ltd, Topmix Concrete Pte Ltd, Jurong Readymix Concrete Pte Ltd, Oriental Concrete Pte Ltd, Trimix Pte Ltd, Sunway Concrete Products Pte Ltd, Goodmix Investment Pte Ltd, WP Conc‐pact Pte Ltd and Bilicon Readymix Pte Ltd.