This paper presents the results of a mail survey used to investigate the relationship between JIT manufacturing and performance in Mexico. Multi-item scales were developed and used to measure key components of JIT. Four dimensions of performance were measured: productivity, quality, lead time, and customer service. Despite the existence of obstacles to its use in Mexico, JIT manufacturing was found to be significantly and positively co~related with performance. Plant size, industry, and the type of prod,_'ctk,n process were all found to affect the relati,mship between JIT and performance. Results also indicated that the plant manager's citizenship may affect JIT implementation success. The paper concludes with recommendations for managers and researchers.

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It is customary at the beginning of a new decade to take stock, to assess the past, and to anticipate the future. Stock-taking discussions among production/ operations management (P/OM) specialists reveal the field to be at a critical point in its evolution. Just a few years ago many of us believed that P/OM had not gained the professional credibility accorded to other functionally related disciplines. Further efforts along the lines then being pursued seemed to hold small promise for improving the situation. If anything, the research directions and techniques in use throughout the field appeared to be widening the gap between what was perceived to be most important to operating managers and what P/OM had to offer.Evidence to support such a view was disturbingly plentiful. Many prominent graduate schools of business were eliminating production courses from their curricula because of the courses' unpopularity among students. Enrollments in remaining programs were small and declining. Nationwide, P/OM departments either disbanded or merged with other departments [2] [6] [25] [4] [28].However moribund its appearance a decade ago, P/OM has not outlasted its usefulness to management. Despite the stubborn efforts of senior managers to disregard operations, perhaps with the hope that they would eventually go away, this most central function of all business activities has recently become the focus of intense popular interest. America's much-discussed shortcomings in productivity and technological innovation, to name but two aspects of a complex problem, have been interpreted as signs of our declining competitive capability. After *Many of the ideas in this paper were drawn from the P/OM workshop at the 1980 AIDS meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada. Professors Miller and Graham took primary responsibility for organizing the workshop and for writing and editing the paper. Professors Freeland, Hottenstein, Maister, Meredith, and Schmenner developed panel statements and provided helpful overviews. The authors would like to express their appreciation to panelists and participants in the workshop for their important contributions and especially to Mr. John Young, President and CEO of Hewlett-Packard, for the very special part that he played. In any synthesis of the ideas of many there are likely to be disagreements and biases. Professors Miller and Graham take full responsibility for the views expressed in the paper without detracting from the significant contributions of the others involved.Subject Area: Production/Operations Management. 547

The majority of research articles published on job shops appears to be concerned with the effects of scheduling and sequencing (dispatching) on various measures of shop performance criteria. Usually these effects are studied in a given context, a context which can be described by making the appropriate choice from each of the following three classifications:

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