Moderate Effect of JIT and Workforce Management on Infra and Process Factor in Quality Management Practices

Abstract We classified quality management practices of manufacturing companies into ‘Infra’ factor and ‘Process’ factor which were introduced based on existing literatures and previous studies related to quality management. It was our first objective to confirm its conformance in Korean manufacturing industry, and to examine the two factors effect positively on production performance. Moreover, we tried to examine whether JIT and workforce management have an moderate effect on ‘Infra and Process factors-performance' relationship, using moderate regression. As the result of empirical study on nationwide manufacturing companies, we had the results that the classification be-tween Infra factor and Process factor in quality management pra ctices was valid in Korean manufacturing companies, and that the two factors gave performances positive effect. Mor eover, our secondary analysis showed that JIT had an positive moderate effect on the Infra factor while workforce management on the Process factor. With these results, we have an interpretation that manufacturing companies which aim to enhance short term performances have to concentrate their effort and investment on Process factor and, on the other hand, ones which aims to improve long term performances on Infra factor.

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