“Just-in-Time” (JIT) is an inventory strategy designed to improve the ROI of a business by reducing inventory and its associated costs. The key to inventory reduction through JIT is the quick communication of stock consumption, which signals the need for new stock to be generated, which leads to savings in both space and costs. Materials are purchased and units are produced only as needed to meet actual customer demand. The philosophy of JIT is simple – sitting inventory is wasteful and unproductive. JIT is all about having the right material, at the right time, at the right place, and in the exact amount, when needed and only when needed.

Now apply this paradigm to service industries in general and the advertising industry in particular. The analogous “inventory”, though, is no longer made up of widgets. Rather, it is people resources – specifically, people skilled in creative, communicative, managerial, technical, and other aspects of marketing communications.

So, for an advertising agency to most effectively service its customers without passing through wasteful overhead, the agency (or PR firm) must have its “inventory” of skilled professionals available at the moment that its clients need them and only at those moments. Moreover, since each situation is different, the skill sets required in each situation will necessarily differ, implying differing available “inventory.”

In other words, an agency needs an extensive network of skilled professionals and specialists from which the right people can be picked for each project. To ensure quality and consistency, the agency will always need a core team of in-house staff to manage these dynamic teams and maintain effective communications with clients.

As the landscape of public relations, advertising, and marketing communications in general continues to change more and more rapidly, resource management models based on this concept are becoming critical to the success and even survival of agencies. Domus, a full-service Philadelphia advertising and marketing communications agency, has been an innovator and champion of JIT since its inception 16 years ago. Our clients have been reaping the benefits ever since. Our business model and ability to engage experts and resources across any category uniquely enable us to deliver strengths in just about any area that our clients might be looking for. Visit our website and give us a call to talk about our model further.