Title: The contributions of organisational and technological practices to the speedup of New Product Development

Authors: Hongyi Sun

Addresses: Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Engineering Management, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Abstract: Based on data from 700 companies in 20 countries, this paper records the research that investigates the contribution of organisational and technological practices to speed up New Product Development (NPD). The organisational practice is found positively correlated with the speed of NPD. However, no significant direct relationship was found between technology practice and the speed of NPD. The organisational and technological practices are found to be in balance, which may be a new input to explain how technology helps NPD. The implication is that organisational practices such as team, continuous improvement and Total Quality Management (TQM) philosophy are needed in order to implement technologies successfully. This result supports the simultaneous theory on innovation, which is especially important in developing countries.

Keywords: computer aided design; computer aided manufacturing; computer integrated manufacturing; CAD; CAM; CIM; CAD/CAM/CIM; concurrent engineering; simultaneous engineering; design for manufacturing; design for assembly; DFM; DFA; DFMA; teamwork; continuous improvement; kaizen; new product development; NPD speed; quality function deployment; QFD; total quality management; TQM; innovation; value analysis; developing countries; change; learning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLC.2007.014897

International Journal of Learning and Change, 2007 Vol.2 No.1, pp.88 - 108

Published online: 16 Aug 2007 *

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