The relationship between quality management and the speed of new product development

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 onducted in the future to probe into the details. Additionally, new quality methods like Six Sigma can lso be included in a future study, since Six Sigma covers both quality and NPD. ractical implications - This study proposes that companies that have implemented TQM and ther quality management tools will have a better foundation for implementing new NPD approaches ike CE and design for manufacturing and assembly. This is especially encouraging for those riginal engineering manufacturing (OEM) firms that would like to change from OEM to original design anufacturing/original brand manufacturing (ODM/OBM). OEM companies typically implement QM but invest very little in NPD. riginality/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. he critical issues for implementing quality management such as culture change, learning, change anagement, and team building can all be applied to implementing NPD methods such as CE. The esult also supports the concept of design the quality into products. It is beneficial for employees in quality and NPD to share and work together. Copyright © 2009 Emerald Group Publishing Limited.