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Industrial Progress and the Strategic Significance of JITand TQC for Developing Countries

Sin‐HoonHum (National University of Singapore)

Abstract

There is now a wide body of literature pertaining to the Japanesemanufacturing philosophies and techniques embodied in the termsjust‐in‐time (JIT) and total quality control (TQC). The current emphasisis on the operational issues and benefits such as the reduction ofset‐up times, lot sizes, work‐in‐progress inventories, floor spacerequirements and the like. This article acknowledges these operationalbenefits but goes on to highlight what it considers to be the greaterstrategic significance of the Japanese JIT/TQC system, namely thatJIT/TQC provides the mechanism for organisational learning, developmentof production know‐how and the establishment of process control thatleads logically to full‐scale automation of the production system. Italso proposes a continuum of industrial progress, with basic productionsystem rationalisation and housekeeping at one end and fullscaleautomation of the production system at the other end. The article thenexplains how the adoption and implementation of JIT/TQC practices canhelp to move a country along this continuum of industrial progress,leading eventually to a predominance of automated production, and henceincreased industrial productivity and competitive strengths for thatcountry.

Keywords

Citation

Hum, S. (1991), "Industrial Progress and the Strategic Significance of JITand TQC for Developing Countries",International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 11 No. 5, pp. 39-46.https://doi.org/10.1108/01443579110145320

Publisher

:

MCB UP Ltd

Copyright© 1991, MCB UP Limited

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