Recently, as part of the restructuration of the global economy, new technologies and new consumer trends have led to changes in markets around the world. Based on this restructuration, some markets have faced extremely high degrees of competition, which led to the emergence of new concepts in the productive sector. One of the most important concepts was the spread of JIT systems outside Japan in the early 80s. Currently, another prominent concept, named supply-chain management is emerging In this paper, I take an information processing perspective to analyze both and conclude that, although complementary in dealing with uncertainties, both use different information processing strategies. Understanding the concepts and the relationship between them is important to their further development and diffusion among practioners and scholars' communities.

"Time" has been appointed as a new source of Competitive Advantage (CA) and following this trend flexibility, that is deeply related to quick responses for changes in the environment, becomes a key element for CA Using survey data collected from 212 manufacturing companies in US, we investigate the importance of flexibility and Information Technology (IT) as major elements in achieving CA. We identify CA from performance measures related to market growth, market share and profitability. Flexibility is evaluated using manufacturing and product development perspectives, emphasizing changes in these two business functions. The study also looks at the relationship between the integration of Information Systems (IS) and introduction of Information Technology (IT), and key variables for CA The results support the hypothesis that flexibility is related to the measures of CA and show that IS/IT is primarily related to the service dimension

Interessado na disseminação de processos de implantação de Programas de Qualidade em empresas Brasileiras, o Grupo Nacional de Organização da Produção - GNOP realizou uma pesquisa sobre a avaliação desses programas, em empresas certificadas pela ISO 9000. Em uma primeira etapa, a pesquisa compreendeu o envio de um questionário aberto para empresas já certificadas, no Brasil, pela ISO 9000 (9001, ou 9002, ou 9003) e que tiveram a obtenção desse certificado divulgada por meio de publicações técnicas. A partir dos primeiros resultados, um segundo questionário, desta vez fechado, foi novamente enviado às empresas. Finalmente, as informações coletadas foram avaliadas por meio de visitas a doze empresas, escolhidas na região de atuação de cada uma das instituições que integram o GNOP. Neste trabalho são apresentados os principais resultados da pesquisa.

The Grupo Nacional de Organização da Produção - GNOP - has completed research concerning the implementation of Quality Programs in Brazilian enterprizes, based on the ISO 9000 certification process. As a first step, questionnaires were sent to those companies already certified by the ISO 9000. Based on the first results, a second questionnaire was prepared and sent out again to those companies. Finally, the information gathered was evaluated and analysed by means of technical visits to twelve companies, regionally distributed among the groups that take part in the GNOP. This paper presents the main results.