A TQM and JIT Integrated Continuous Improvement Model For Organizational Success: An Innovative Framework

Abstract Manufacturing companies must find competitive methods to produce products cheaper, faster and better to continuously satisfy their customers and acquire organizational success. For continuous improvement to be more successful, hybrid programs such as integrated TQM and JIT approaches give better results. As the existing TQM and JIT integrated approaches in literatures are not analogous, this study provides a consolidated result. Moreover, the study identifies two additional practices that the TQM and JIT integrated frameworks must contain to continually improve organizational successes. The two practices are the necessity of interaction between the core company and the external stakeholders (such as governmental organizations, universities, banks, research institutions and others) and the need of technological capability accumulation process, which were either neglected or only limitedly discussed in the existing literatures of TQM and JIT philosophies. Thus, this study reviews the existing practices of TQM and JIT programs, explores their relationships, provides modifications to the integrated TQM and JIT framework by developing an improved integrated TQM and JIT approach that can enhance the continuous improvement efforts and global successes of companies. The study also provides a case application for Ethiopian leather and leather manufacturing companies to practically apply the model proposed in this research and to solve the related problems of the companies.