The relationships among JIT, TQM and production operations performance : An empirical study from Chinese manufacturing firms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships among just-in-time (JIT), total quality management (TQM) and production operations performance (POP) based on the survey data from Chinese manufacturing firms, provide managerial implications of effectively implementing JIT and TQM for firms in developing countries. Design/methodology/approach – Questionnaires were collected from 173 Chinese manufacturing firms. Three hypotheses on the relationships among JIT, TQM and POP were first established based on literature review. Empirical study method of structural equation modeling using SPSS and AMOS as data processing tools is employed to test the hypotheses. Findings – The results show that, on one hand, JIT positively influences TQM and POP; on the other hand, although TQM also has positive relationship with POP, the relationship is not significant at a given significant level. Meanwhile, the author survey also shows that JIT and TQM have complementary relationship, i.e., JIT and TQM can benefit each other in a firm. Practical implications – TQM is a base of implementing JIT, it is valuable to concurrently implement JIT and TQM in manufacturing firms in order to improve the POP. Originality/value – It is believed that this research reveals new insights about the JIT and TQM implementation in Chinese manufacturing firms; it has practice value for firms to improve the implementation performance of JIT and TQM.