JIT in the hospital industry: An empirical study of the influences of JIT characteristics on consumer satisfaction and costs

This research examined three major questions associated with the adoption of JIT principles for materials management support in hospitals. First, does the adoption of JIT material management principles influence customer satisfaction with resupply support. Secondly, can the adoption of JIT material management principles be correlated to reductions in supply costs. Finally, the research also examined the impact of JIT practices on internal hospital material management resources.;The research was both cross-sectional and longitudinal in nature. The study used the Department of Defense's implementation of prime vendor support contracts across its multi-hospital healthcare system as the experimental setting for examining the influence of JIT practices. Survey data was collected in three stages across an 18 month time frame as the contracts were implemented. Multiple regression models were then used to examine the influence of the JIT practices on cost, customer satisfaction, and internal materials management resources.;In order to explore the influences of the JIT practices on customer satisfaction a measure was constructed around the dimensions of reliability, responsiveness, quality, price, time and control. Reliability and factor analysis of the survey results indicated that it provided a reliable and valid survey based measure of customer satisfaction.;Overall, the research detected positive influences on quality in terms of customer satisfaction associated with the adoption of JIT practices. The data also revealed significant influences from the adoption of JIT practices on the hospitals internal materials management operations. The adoption of JIT practices was associated with increases in supporting inventories and with lower inventories at the supported locations. JIT practices were also associated with decreases in the materials management staff, but also associated with increases in the materials distribution staff. The research failed to detect significant influences from JIT practices on macro indicators of cost as the influences of the JIT philosophy were not significant enough to be detected using macro cost measures against a backdrop of other influential variables.