A. Gunasekaran et al., IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY AND QUALITY IN MANUFACTURING ORGANIZATIONS, International journal of production economics, 36(2), 1994, pp. 169-183
Today most firms are interested in a strategic approach for improving
productivity and quality in their organizations. Consistent with this
thrust, this paper attempts to provide a strategic framework for such
efforts. The main focus of this paper is on integrating various functi
onal groups of a manufacturing organization and highlighting the role
of new manufacturing concepts and technologies in such integrations. C
omparison of earlier and present practices of production operations si
gnifies the importance of JIT, TQM, and FMS in improving the integrati
on of various functional areas and alignment between business, manufac
turing and quality improvement strategies. The role of knowledge worke
rs and support services play a dominant role in improving productivity
and quality in manufacturing organizations, especially in advanced ma
nufacturing systems such as JIT, FMS and CIM.