A successful just-in-time system requires a change in manufacturing processes to accommodate this new inventory philosophy. What is involved is process management, not merely inventory management. The fundamental objective of JIT is to produce and deliver what is needed, when it is needed, at all stages of the production process—just in time to be fabricate, sub assembled, assembled, and shipped to the customer. Although in practice there are no such plants, JIT is an ideal and therefore a worthy goal. The benefits are low inventory, high manufacturing cycle rates, high output per employee, minimum floor space requirements, minimum indirect labor, and perfect in-process control. An associated requirement of a successful JIT operation is the pursuit of perfect quality in order to reduce, to an absolute minimum, delays caused by defective product units.