Total Quality Management (TQM) and Lean Production (LP) have been considered as emerging world-class manufacturing strategies to meet the increasing demands of customers for product quality at competitive price. However, their overall and detailed association has not been fully explored by earlier studies. The objective of this study is to describe the overall and detailed relationship of TQM and LP. The result is envisioned to give meaningful insights for academicians on the inter-relatedness of TQM and LP as well as for industry practitioners on the potential implementation synergy of TQM and LP towards an integrated application, as one system or program.

The study was conducted using the Philippine Electronics and Semiconductor Industry as the locale, and employee respondents as the unit of analysis. Pearson test of correlation was used to test the relationship between TQM and LP. Result showed that the overall relationship of TQM and LP is strongly positive and significant. However, when the relationships are compared at detailed levels, the extent of relationship varies. Continuous improvement and striving for perfection strongly bind TQM and LP while Benchmarking, Supplier Quality management and Pull Production do not strongly support the association of TQM with LP.