To be discussed Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

To be discussed - Dissertation Example Although this approach was first taught by American thinkers Deming and Juran in 1950s, Americans had not adopted and taken advantage of it (Nakamura et al. 1997). Later in the years, evolution of the JIT principles took place which was integrated in the automobile industry and other manufacturing industries which functioned on the TQM framework (Nakamura et al. 1997). The Western civilization implemented these two approaches in reverse order with JIT preceding TQM. Although these two approaches have been independently implemented very often, they are also used in integration for many operations. Theoretical Framework It is because of the Japanese that the industrial world revolutionized given their two approaches: TQM and JIT. Both these concepts have similar principles and goals which aim to continuous improvement and waste reduction (Flynn et al. 1995). TQM is a set of manufacturing principles that aim to sustain the quality of the products and processes by continuously improving it with the involvement of the management, customers and suppliers (Cua et al. 2001). There are nine TQM practices that are common in its principles: customer involvement, supplier quality management, committed leadership, cross-functional product design, cross-functional training, strategic planning, information, employee involvement and feedback (Cua et al. 2001). ... JIT is an important strategic element in the manufacturing process because of the waste produced in the mass production system such as waiting (in time), processing, transporting, overproducing, unnecessary stock-on-hand, defective goods production and unnecessary motion (Cua et al. 2001). If JIT is implemented, the result would be no excess production without demand. Thus, the element of waste elimination is justification for JIT to be implemented in any process of manufacturing (Nakamura et al. 1997). The strategic importance of both these concepts exists in its usage if integrated with the management and adopted in conjunction with the advanced technology in manufacturing combined with TQM and JIT approaches (Cua et al. 2001). According to Flynn et al. (1995), the benefits of JIT can only be harnessed if the philosophy is part of the TQM philosophy. This is because together TQM and JIT are capable of pushing the problems back to the starting point of the manufacturing process unti l a point is identified as preventable (Flynn et al. 1995). It is a simple philosophy that every problem has a reason and every reason is therefore avoidable. Therefore, in order words, the philosophy of TQM/JIT rests on the principle that if the problem is detected soon, it can be fixed in the timely manner (Kanan and Tan, 2005). Although the idea of incorporating different elements of different philosophies is not always acceptable as a wise choice as limited empirical research exists on its link with performance, still it is believed and proved by different authors that the TQM and JIT elements can provide positive results in the performance of