O aumento da competitividade no mercado tem estimulado uma grande busca por conceitos e técnicas que auxiliem os processos de melhoria do desempenho de sistemas produtivos, sobretudo no que tange a produtividade e qualidade. Neste contexto, o estudo da experiência das indústrias japonesas revela que a sua competitividade foi conquistada e tem sido sustentada com base em modelos integrados voltados ao planejamento, implementação e condução dos chamados programas de melhoria da produtividade e qualidade (PMPQ's). Tais modelos são baseados em filosofias especificas de gestão da manufatura, sendo que os três seguintes, despontam com grande destaque e constituem o objeto central de estudo desta dissertação: 1. Manufatura Just-in-Time (JIT); 2. Total Quality Control (TQC); 3. Total Productive Maintenance (TPM). O presente trabalho é dedicado ao estudo conceitual destes modelos. Para isso foi elaborado um quadro conceitual sobre a estrutura geral de um PMPQ. Tomando-se este quadro como pano de fundo, estes três modelos foram então caracterizados, analisados e avaliados de forma comparativa. Esta análise possibilitou a identificação dos aspectos específicos a cada um, más também evidenciou muitas semelhanças (exemplo: sua aplicação como instrumento de gestão estratégica da manufatura) entre os mesmos.

Along the last decades a series of geopolitical and macroeconomic changes have made the competition in international trade tougher. Although the brazilian economy has not been so integrated to the international market, effects of such trend are already disturbing the dynamics of Braazilian companies. Therefore an increasing number of companies have driven themselves into processes aimed to increase competitive power through strategies that value mainly attributes like cost and quality. Such processes have in general a broad scope and are usully called Productivity and Quality Improvement Programs (PQIP's). In this context, new paradigms for planning, implementation and guidance of such programs have risen from japanese industries. Among these paradigms, three of them are worthy of special attention and represent the main object of this work. Each of these paradigms have their own manufacturing management philosophy and are the following; 1. the paradigm based on Just-In-Time (JIT) Manufacturing philosophy, 2. the paradigm based on Total Quality Control (TQC) philosophy and 3. the paradigm based on Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) philosophy, This work is dedicated to the conceptual investigation of these paradigms. First, a conceptual framework for the general structure of a PQIP was built. Then it was taken as a frame in order to present, analyse and evaluate comparatively the three paradigms. The investigation resulted in the recognition of features that are unique to each one but it also exposed many similarities among them. One commom feature is that all three admit their use as a tool for strategic management of manufacturing, an activity that has been overlooked by western industrial companies organized and managed in traditional way. The investigation also revealed a clear resolution of these paradigms to search the achievement of economic objectives of a firm without confronting and neglecting the social and humanistic demands expressed by the human resources engaged in production.