March 6th, 2012 DRIFT Theory

DRIFT (Doing it right the first time) is a theory from managerial accounting that relates to just-in-time (JIT) inventory (where a company only receives goods as they are needed to cut down on inventory costs) and production management. The idea behind DRIFT is that management wants all of the processes that make up the JIT philosophy to be done correctly and efficiently so there are no delays in the production process.

 

Philip Crosby promoted the principle of doing it right the first time (DRIFT) and  he dissected this into four major principles:

 

-    Quality is conformance to requirements

 

-    The management system is prevention

 

-    The performance standard is zero defects

 

-   The measurement system is the cost of quality

 

The importance of DRIFT arises from the fact that a JIT production system is heavily reliant on the movement of parts and information along the production process. Subsequently, if there is the slightest error at one of the stages of production the whole production process will be affected. By "doing it right the first time" a company is able to run a smooth production process without needing to carry excessive inventory and greatly diminish the costs of production.

 

References

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/drift.asp

http://www.mangurus.com/sections/gurus/?article_id=philip_b_crosby&selected_seq_num=13