Just-In-Case manufacturing (JIC) is a term sometimes applied to the traditional manufacturing system. It is the opposite of Just In Time manufacturing.
Operation
In JIC, manufacturers need to maintain large inventories of supplies, parts, warehousing resources, and extra workers to meet production contingencies. These contingencies, more common in less industrialized countries, can be poor transportation, poor quality control, other suppliers' production problems, and environmental factors. This can lead to inefficiencies because a manufacturer has to have excess inventory and backups of "fragile" stages of production which can get out of sync and cause delays for other manufacturers. In JIC, manufacturers reorder stock before it reaches the buffer level or minimum level to allow themselves to have inventories to be sold while the suppliers are supplying the goods. This time range from the time the firm reorders the stock to the time the supplier provides the new stock is known as lead time. JIC inventory system keeps a minimum level of inventories in case of emergencies, hence the name "Just In Case". One major reason for practicing a more costly JIC system are the higher losses paid (i.e. permanent loss of major customers, loss of suppliers) if supply-chain shocks occur on several occasions and the JIT contingencies are too slow or fail to keep production flowing