Quality management philosophy and tools have been widely used to improve and control product quality. However, there is a lack of literature on the relationship between quality management and new product development (NPD). People even worry whether quality management may hinder new product development. This paper reports a study that aims to investigate the influence of quality management on the speed of NPD. The research is based on the survey data from 700 manufacturing companies in 20 countries. The research reveals that TQM, teamwork, value analysis (VA) and quality function deployment (QFD) are all positively correlated with the speed of NPD, which means quality management philosophy and tools have a positive influence on the speed of NPD. This implies that companies which have implemented TQM and other quality tools will have a better basis for implementing new NPD approaches like concurrent engineering (CE) and design for manufacturing and assembly. This is especially encouraging for those OEM (original equipment manufacturing) firms that would like to change from OEM to ODM/OBM (original design manufacturing/original brand manufacturing). OEM companies normally implement TQM but very little in NPD.
Purpose -The speed of new product development (NPD) has been a key factor in a firm's degree of competitiveness. The tools and philosophy of quality management have been widely used to improve and control product quality. However, there is a lack of literature on the relationship between quality management and NPD. This paper aims to report on a study that investigates the influence of quality management on the speed of NPD. Design/methodology/approach -The philosophy of quality management refers to total quality management (TQM). Tools for quality management include teamwork, continuous improvement (CI), value analysis (VA) and quality function deployment (QFD). This study begins by comparing literature in concurrent engineering (CE) and TQM, which leads to several common principles and five hypotheses. The hypotheses are tested using survey data from 700 manufacturing companies in 20 countries.Findings -The research reveals that TQM, Team, VA and QFD are positively correlated with the speed of NPD, meaning that the tools and philosophy of quality management have a positive influence on the speed of NPD. However, no relationship is found between CI and the speed of NPD.Research limitations/implications -This paper tests hypotheses using survey data. It reveals the empirical relationship between quality management and the speed of NPD but does not provide details regarding the mechanism of influence between the two. Consequently, case studies should be conducted in the future to probe into the details. Additionally, new quality methods like Six Sigma can also be included in a future study, since Six Sigma covers both quality and NPD.Practical implications -This study proposes that companies that have implemented TQM and other quality management tools will have a better foundation for implementing new NPD approaches like CE and design for manufacturing and assembly. This is especially encouraging for those original engineering manufacturing (OEM) firms that would like to change from OEM to original design manufacturing/original brand manufacturing (ODM/OBM). OEM companies typically implement TQM but invest very little in NPD. Originality/value -This paper fills the gap in research exploring the links between quality management and NPD. It addresses the concern over whether quality management may hinder NPD. The critical issues for implementing quality management such as culture change, learning, change management, and team building can all be applied to implementing NPD methods such as CE. The result also supports the concept of "design the quality into products". It is beneficial for employees in quality and NPD to share and work together.
Companies commonly face cost pressures due to the increasing industry rivalry and competition. Software tools in this regard has become more and more popular in assisting the complex systems development. However, the lack of a proper system development process that integrates the usage of software tools will hinder the company efficiency. This is especially visible as each engineer may use software tools differently. In the context of complex system developments, this research investigates the optimization of the system development process by integrating software tools. We propose an architecture of a new system development process using A3 Architectural Overviews. Based on a real‐life case study and quick‐prototyping techniques, the architecture evolves into an optimized system development process that can increase efficiency, quality and consistency for the case company.
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