These four papers with a balance of an empirical and case-based analysis approach gives a nuanced understanding about JIT environment and its applications, besides fulfilling the overarching goal towards adding understanding of the Kaizen aspects linked to the field of operations.

The first paper, "Combined Effect of Just-in-Time and Vendor Managed Inventory Elements in Hospitals", by Amit Raman and Amit Kumar Dubey, highlights that hospitals must increasingly focus on gaining competitive advantage through effective management of their supply chains. The study indicates that inventory performance directly connects to the success of supply chain management. It focuses on various JIT and VMI elements which are important to both the customer and the manufacturer (vendor) in the Indian context, highlighting the relative importance and difficulties in the implementation of JIT and VMI elements in the hospital sector and verification of data with the help of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) technique. The unique contribution lies in identification of the JIT and VMI elements, which are most important and easy to implement in the hospital context.

The first paper, "Hybrid Methodology for Inventory Control by Combined Analytical Hierarchy Process and Always Better Control: A Case Study", by Jagdeep Singh, Harwinder Singh, Aprinder Singh and Ravinderpal Singh, using the case study method, presents a hybrid approach in which two methods are employed for inventory control. The authors use Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to rank the factors identified from literature and the results reveal that Production Order (PO) contributes 30% and Quantity of Product (Q) 20% in accumulation of inventory in storerooms. Further, the results of AHP have been taken as the basis to classify inventory items. The authors sort 20 items of inventory focusing on the highly ranked factor, i.e., PO versus cost. Based upon Always Better Control (ABC) classification, they have classified the items into A, B and C categories. The study also suggests that optimum level of these items in the storeroom may lead to remarkable savings in terms of money.

The second paper, "Lean Manufacturing Implementation Using Value Stream Mapping with Simulation to Reduce Cycle Time and Improve Productivity in Valve Manufacturing Unit", by Syed Irfan S and Varun Bhatt, emphasizes the popularity of 'Lean manufacturing' growing considerably, enabling a plethora of tools apt for various industry sectors. Their work highlights how minimization of non-value-adding activities of steering gear box sub-assembly station in the manufacturing unit was achieved through the key tool of Lean manufacturing techniques, i.e., Value Stream Mapping (VSM), which revealed unwanted movements of operators carrying out significant amount of non-value-adding activities. Consequently, through efforts, reduction in unproductive movements of the operators and suitable remedial measures are encouraged, thereby improving the productivity of the processes. The authors, employing simulated model using arena software and implementing the suggestions and proposed changes, carry out future state VSM, obtaining encouraging results. This study might prove to be of immense help to those involved in areas of productivity improvement in a manufacturing unit.

The third paper, "Application of Lean in an Engineering Service Industry" by G N Sridhar and Yerriswamy Wooluru, highlights the implementation of Lean in a non-manufacturing setup, viz., in an engineering service industry involved in designing, analysis and prototyping of the parts. Even though Lean has been predominantly used in a manufacturing scenario, the case study presented herein draws a comparison and shows that it blends itself equally well in the non-manufacturing scenario also, resulting in similar benefits like cycle time reduction, cost savings, productivity improvement, efficiency improvement, etc. The case study gives a snapshot of the improvements realized through Lean implementation in one of the sub-processes, viz., 'generation of 3D models and manufacturing drawings', which is a part of the new product development lifecycle.

The last paper, "Improving the Efficiency of Production Line: An Empirical Study in Garment Industry", by Rashmi S, Nithya S K and K Tejaswini, aims at enhancing the efficiency of the production line and improving the performance of the operator. A detailed layout of the production line has been drawn and time study is conducted to arrive at a standard time for various operations. Line balancing methodology has been adopted to balance the production line. Further, with the help of method study procedure and time study techniques, cycle time of the production line is identified. Pitch diagram is drawn to identify critical operation in the production line. After analyzing the pitch diagram, various bottlenecks in the production line are identified. By using seven quality control tools and line balancing techniques, bottlenecks in the production line are reduced, and unnecessary movement of man and material is reduced significantly by redesigning the layout. The authors report an increase in production rate and highlight that overall production cost of garments is reduced.