DREYFUS
  et al.
: IMPACT OF JIT 
IMPLEMENTATIO
N AND ISO 9000 C
ERTIFICATION O
N TQM 135
TABLE VIA
NALYSIS OF THE
 E
FFECT OF
 ISO-JIT G
ROUPING ON
 TQM I
MPLEMENTATION AND
 O
UTCOMES
V. D
ISCUSSION AND
 C
ONCLUSION
 A. Summary of Findi
ngs
The results imply th
at firms
investing in ISO 900
0 cer-tification are 
only somewhat bette
r than traditional fir
msat implementing
TQM and getting
returns from
TQM. Topmanageme
nt in these firms is not
much more
committed to ap-
propriate resource
allocation for quality
training nor
committedto making 
managers accountabl
e for quality-related 
perfor-mance than the
traditional firms.
Long term strategic
planningmechanisms
for improving quality
are not as rigorous as
thosein JIT or ISO-
JIT firms. ISO firms 
(like traditional firm
s)implement the
infrastructural
elements aimed at
enhancing theability
and willingness of
employees to
participate in
qualityefforts (trainin
g, empowerment, coo
peration, and custom
erfocus) less
rigorously than JIT or
ISO-JIT firms.
Additionally,the elem
ents determining the 
design of products t
o satisfycurrent and l
atent customer
wants (design manag
ement andbenchmark
ing) are emphasized
to a less extent by
ISO firmsand
traditional firms vis-
à
-vis JIT or ISO-JIT
firms.
Finally,mechanisms t
o ensure production 
of high-quality 
productsat reasonabl
e costs (supplier qual
ity management, pro
cessquality informati
on management, glob
al quality informatio
nmanagement,
statistical process
control, and problem-
solving)are not as
comprehensive as
those implemented
by JIT andISO-JIT
firms. Thus, JIT
firms and ISO-JIT
firms plan
TQMefforts better
than ISO firms or
traditional firms,
work harderon
enhancing the firm
’
s ability to provide
superior quality
andrelevant products
to satisfy current and
future customer
desires,ensure better 
employee
participation in quali
ty efforts, andexecut
e actual production
process and product
quality assur-
ance/improvement
efforts more
intensively and
systematicallythan
traditional and ISO
firms. As a result,
both JIT firms
andISO-JIT firms
perform much better
than traditional and
ISOfirms on several
quality-related outco
mes.
Specifically, theyhave
much more efficient
processes, introduce
more and
betterproducts into
the marketplace, and
have better financial
andmarket
performance. All
three types of firms
(ISO, JIT, andISO-
JIT) also perform
better than traditional
firms on
productquality and
customer satisfaction
dimensions.
 B. Relative Impact o
f JIT and ISO 9000 E
fforts onTQM
Implementation
The emergence of the
two homogenous
subsets
(traditionaland ISO
firms versus JIT firms
and ISO-JIT firms)
provides an
 
136 IEEE TRANSA
CTIONS ON ENGI
NEERING MANAG
EMENT, VOL. 51, 
NO. 2, MAY 2004
empirical credence to
the fundamental
differences between
ISO9000 certification
efforts and JIT
implementation. The
differ-ences can be
explained at two
levels: philosophical
and struc-tural.
1)  Philosophical  Dif
ferences  Between  IS
O  9000  and  JIT   Eff
orts:
 The philosophical d
ifferences between I
SO 9000efforts
and JIT
implementation can 
best
be explained usingth
e concept of 
 “
metastandards
”
 and the theory of 
 “
organiza-tional
change ownership
and change success.
”
 The concept of 
“
metastandards
”
 has been proposed by
Klir [58] and applied
byUzumeri [113] in
the context of ISO
9000 certification.
Metas-tandards are
broader rules and
guidelines designed
by
powerfulstakeholders
with the intent of
ensuring attainment
of
desiredperformance
goals from affected
organizations.
Metastandardstend to 
cut across all
organizations
in an industry or eve
nmultiple industries
in terms of their
applicability. They
existfor managerial
inputs, management
processes, and
managerialoutputs. H
owever,
 “
management process
”
 metastandards
havebeen hard to
formalize. ISO 9000
series certification
promotedby the Inter
national Standards 
Organization represe
nts aprominent
metastandard in
management
processes. The
mostserious
implication of these
metastandards is the
enforcing of the
compliance (to these
standards) upon
thousands of
firmsacrosstheworld
and makingita
prerequisitefor
participatinginbusine
ss transactions with
the European firms.
The keyword forfirms
embarking upon ISO
certification efforts is
 “
compliance
”
to these metastandar
ds
as measured through 
documentationand th
e motivation is
 “
access to markets
”
 controlled by thestak
eholders. When firms
embark upon
the certification
efforts,these
efforts are most
often perceived as sh
ort-term projectswith
a finish line of
certification.
However, the
 “
compliance
”
orientation appears t
o infuse a satisficing
or hurdle-
crossingmentality
among the managers
and employees who
see
variouscomponents of
the project as required
(not necessarily
useful)steps
toward certification. 
In fact, documentatio
n costs havemost
frequently been cited
as a major source of
criticism of theISO
9000 series
certification
requirements.Using
Uzumeri
’
sarguments
[113],itisevidentthat
TQMim-
plementation differs
fundamentally in its
philosophy of man-
agement. While ISO
9000 certification
stresses compliance
tostandards,
standards do not
equate with
excellence. TQM im-
plementation stresses
continuous
improvement and has
a clear
“
optimizing
”
 theme. Thus, TQM
encourages firms to
excel atvarious
managerial,
infrastructural, and
action-oriented
dimen-sions of
quality practices,
instead of forcing
them. This differ-ence
in philosophy affects
the motivation and
willingness
of theparticipating
employees and
managers, and in turn
affects howquality
improvement
practices are
implemented. It
is, therefore,not
surprising that
despite visible efforts
in documenting
andmonitoring the
quality systems
prescribed by ISO
9000 certi-fication
mandates, ISO
certification by itself
does not result
inrigorous and
effective TQM
implementation.On th
e other hand, the
JIT approach to man
agement of productio
n systems has its
roots in real market
forces changingthe
mindset of firms
adopting it. JIT is
also viewed by
firmsas a long-term
competitive strategy
for improving their
qualityand time-based
performance in terms
of conformance, on-
timedelivery and
order turnaround time
[45]. As Vuppalapati
  et al.
[114] point out, JIT
philosophy is based
on an organization
’
score belief that red
uction of inventories 
in the productionsyst
em is possible only
when efficiency and
quality is ensuredat
every stage in the
production system.
When firms decide
tochange from
traditional production
systems to JIT
productionsystems,
this realization
encourages them to
develop
integratedsystems tha
t eliminate waste of 
resources (material, 
time,money, labor)
and improve quality
and productivity. The
focusis on
performance
improvement in the
market. While for
ISOcertification effor
ts, attainment of the 
certificate represents
crossing of a finish
line or completion of
a time-limited
project,for JIT or TQ
M implementation, i
mprovement in quali
tyand
productivity, and mar
ket performance is th
e goal. Sincethese go
als are self-
propagating, there is 
no finish line, andthe
attitude is to
continuously
improve upon one
’
s own
pastperformance.
This fundamental
 “
striving for
excellence
”
 tenetdistinguishes
JIT and TQM from
the
 “
meeting the standard
”
tenet of ISO 9000
certification
efforts.The second ar
gument of philosoph
ical differences goes
hand-in-hand with the
above argument. The
consistently
betterTQM
implementation and
outcomes of JIT firms
(in compar-ison with
that of ISO firms)
can be explained
with the helpof
cognitive theory of 
 “
organizational change
ownership andchange
success.
”
 It appears that exter
nally driven metastan
-dards such as ISO
9000 certification
result in a feeling
among afirm
’
s managers and
employees of being
 “
told
”
 to comply witha set
of management
procedures without
being able to
 “
see
”
 thetangible results.
For example, ISO
9000 standards have
beencriticized for rel
ative neglect of mark
et-based 
performanceand
pursuit of performan
ce excellence [18]. U
nfortunately,this is an
inherent shortfall of
the natural
positioning of
ISOefforts in the
 “
management process
metastandards
”
 categoryof metastand
ards
[113]. Contrasting thi
s, for example,
withconstruction
building codes (which
are
 “
input
”
 metastandards)helps
explain the relative
difficulty associated
with
convincingfirms of t
he benefits of adheri
ng to ISO 9000 certi
ficationstandards.
Furthermore, there is
a concern that some
of therequirements of
these standards are
intended to facilitate
theauditing of
applicant firms by
the certifying
authority ratherthan
ensuring efficient
maintenance of
quality processes
[113].Due to these
limitations of their
goal and structure,
ISO
9000certification eff
orts suffer
from an inherent low
er level of 
“
cognitive ownership
”
 on the part of a firm
’
s managers
andemployees. Reger
  et al.
 [86] suggest that
organizational
changeefforts such a
s TQM
will be ineffective if 
there is a widegap b
etween the ideal orga
nizational identity
propagated bymanag
ement and the current
organizational
identity
perceivedby employe
es. This is because a 
lack of fit between 
man-agement
’
s perception (about
goals and usefulness
of changeefforts) and
the perception of
employees can cause
a lack of ownership
of even
 internally
 envisioned change
programs likeTQM
or JIT
[59], [62], [86]. This
lack of ownership
shouldbe even more
serious in respect of
the ISO 9000 efforts
thatare externally-
mandated and that
have relatively less
tangiblelinkages with
outcomes. In fact,
the apathy about ISO
9000efforts
can affect
managers and
employees of a firm 
alike.Hence, it is not
surprising that these
efforts do not
generatethe same
level of commitment
and participation
from a firm
’
s
 

DREYFUS
  et al.
: IMPACT OF JIT 
IMPLEMENTATIO
N AND ISO 9000 C
ERTIFICATION O
N TQM 137
members as
compared with JIT
firms. This, in turn,
leads
toless effective qualit
y improvement effort
s as compared withth
ose emanating from
internally-envisioned
JIT efforts.
2)  Structural  Differe
nces  Between  ISO  9
000  and  JIT  Ef- fort
s:
 Two critical
observations of the
study are: 1) ISO-
JITfirms do not have 
significantly more
intense and effective
TQM programs as
compared with JIT
firms and 2) JIT
firmshave
significantly more
intense and effective
TQM programsas
compared with ISO
firms. These two
observations
togethershed light on
the net result of the
synergistic and
conflictingimplement
ation details of JIT
and ISO efforts. In
developingthe
hypotheses about
relative superiority of
the ISO-JIT
firms,it was argued
that there are various
synergistic elements
of JIT implementatio
n and ISO certificati
on efforts. JIT focuso
n statistical process
control, problem-
solving, supplier eval-
uation, training, tea
mwork and cooperat
ion, and a designma
nagement effort
makes it easier for
such firms to extend
theirability to
implement TQM
naturally. This
natural
synergisticoverlap in
management
philosophies of JIT
and TQM and
theirimplementation
details has been
recently
acknowledged in
theliterature
[31], [32], [114].
While JIT focuses on
specific ac-tivities to
reduce manufacturing
inventory, reduce
setup times,and
streamline material
movement through
layout changes
andstandardization, I
SO 9000 efforts
closely
monitor quality of all 
processes
through an extensive 
recording system. Th
esecould act in
synergy to help firms
in TQM
implementation
interms of
information analysis
and usage, product
and processdesign,
process management,
and quality
improvement. How-
ever,
at least one impleme
ntation area
was identified where
JIT and ISO efforts
conflicted.
This is the
implementationof ka
nbans and
minimization of pape
rwork. While a major
goal
of kanban implement
ation is to create
 “
paperless
”
 andsimplified
shopfloor
communication
systems [110], many
ISO9000 certification
efforts have
been most often
criticized for
theassociated
excessive paperwork
and reporting [17].
Such struc-turally
contradicting
implementation
elements appear to
nullifythe gains of
mutually synergistic
implementation
elements of ISO and
JIT efforts. Again, it
appears that the
philosophicalcontrast
s between
ISO and JIT
efforts result in contr
astingimplementatio
n prescriptions that h
amper blending of ot
hersynergistic
implementation
aspects of the two
strategies.VI. F
ROM
 ISO 9000
 TO
 ISO 9001:2000
—
R
ELEVANCEOF
 O
UR
 F
INDINGS
As stated in Footnot
e 1, we empirically 
examined therelation
ships of JIT and ISO
9000 certification
efforts to
TQMimplementation 
as they pertained
to the original
ISO 9000standards of
the early 1990s (also
termed ISO
9000:1994).
Asdescribed in
Section II-B of our
paper, these original
standardsconsisted
of three separate
standards: ISO 9001:
1994, ISO9002:1994
, and ISO 9003:1994
. They were oriented 
moretoward creating
and documenting
internal quality
managementsystems 
according prescripti
ons of the standards 
for suchprocedures.R
ecently, the standards
have been changed to
reflect a
betterfocusonthecust
omerandbusinesspro
cesseswhileretaining
theprior focus
oninternalquality
systems[39];
http://www.iso.org;htt
p://www.iso-9000
–
2000.org.Thenewsta
ndardshavenowre-
moved the 9002 and
9003 series and
replaced the original
stan-dards with one
set of standards
termed ISO
9001:2000 stan-
dards.Insteadoftheor
iginal20sections(cla
uses),thenewstan-
dard now has five
major clauses.Clause
4: Quality
management
system.Clause 5: Ma
nagement responsibili
ty.Clause
6: Resource
management.Clause
7: Product
realization.Clause 8: 
Measurement,
analysis,
and improvement.Our
paper focuses on the
relationship of JIT
and ISO
9000certifications to
TQM efforts in the
context of the original
ISO9000
requirements (of the
early 1990s).
However, though
ourstudy focused on
those original
standards,
our findings and con-
clusions discussed in
Section V, in fact,
clearly support the
ben-efits of the
evolution of ISO
9000: 1994 to ISO
9001:2000 stan-dards.
For example, the new
 product realization
clause
 (Clause7) requires a
firm to view quality
systems in terms of
21 in-terconnected
processes as follows.
These processes
range fromproduct
planning to design
and development to
purchasing
toactualproduction/se
rviceprovisionproces
s.Notethatthesepro-
cesses include
specific elements of
JIT philosophy such
as con-current
engineering
and cross-functional
involvement in
designof products and
supplier evaluation
and rationalization.
At thesame time, it
also includes
elements of TQM
philosophy in-
cluding customer-
related processes like
precisely
determiningcustomer
’
s product
requirements and
effective use of
customerfeedback.
Another salient
example of JIT and
TQM elementsbeing
incorporated in ISO
9001-2000
requirements appears
inthe new
 measurement,
analysis and
improvement clause
 (clause8). Again, in
this clause, several of
the JIT and TQM
elementsdiscussed in
our paper are
included. These
inclusions in the re-
vised standards
provide a proof of the
validity of the
argumentspresented
here. Thus, while our
research was
conducted priorto the
onset of ISO 9001
–
2000 standards, it
represents a valu-able
contribution to the
empirical
demonstration of the
advan-
tagesthatthenewstan
dards(throughtheirre
visedandenhancedcl
auses to include TQM
philosophy and
specific JIT
elements)accruetothe
goalofenablingconsi
stentandsuperiorope
rationsperformance
of organizations.A
PPENDIX
TQM I
MPLEMENTATION AND
 O
UTCOME
 C
ONSTRUCTS
For all itemson the13
TQM Implementation
construct
scalesandfiveTQMO
utcomeconstructs,an
swersweresolicitedfr
omthe respondent on
a1
–
7 Likert scale with 1:
Strongly Disagree,4:
Neutral, and 7:
Strongly Agree
(unless specified
otherwise).The
asterisked items
(items 67 and 76)
were eliminated
uponscale refinement.
Loadings of
individual items
on the
respectiveconstructs
appear in brackets.
TQM Implementation
Constructs
1) Top Management
Commitment (TMC)
1. Adequate resources
(finance, people, and
time) are pro-
vided for product q
uality improvement 
.2. Adequate
resources (finance,
people, and time) are
pro-vided for 
process quality imp
rovement .