that wonderful barely enough just too late principle
Prior to 13.1.88 MoD had a max/min stock level system. The "min" level included War Reserve so during peacetime you never actually got down to the "min" level. In theory.
On 13.1.88, AMSO decided to scrap all consumable spares held both at MoD and Industry to support 4th line repair. Henceforth, spares demands that were at inability took the procurement lead time (at least 12 months for many) to be satisfied. Of course, this meant the spares that were scrapped had to be replaced more or less immediately, but as they were now to be bought on an "as required" basis, the unit price rocketed. (Try going to a supplier and asking for one Travelling Wave Tube. Something that cost £8k each for Qty 50, now cost £20k for a one-off, due to production yield etc. That's a typical FW example of the day).
To complement this wasteful policy, from 1.10.90 any demand for a repairable or limited class store (LRUs etc) was allowed to go to inability and only then was a requisition raised to initiate contract action for a repair contract. Again, the lead time was in many cases 12 months. (Contract negotiation, order spares, repair etc).
As part of this policy, the concept of holding War Reserve serviceable was ditched as another savings measure. AMSO successfully met their target by managing to rid us of much War Reserve "just in time" for the outbreak of GW1.
The later introduction of "just in time" was actually a desperate attempt to rescind these policies by acknowledging that front line units usually required whatever they were demanding PDQ.
When generations have been brought up under the old systems I describe, "just in time" is unlikely to work very well!
And then along came "Integrated Operational Support" contracts..... God help us.