Abstract

A key issue in product quality is the quality of products and processes that result from the new product development (NPD) process. According to Adams and Hiblikar, field product quality would sharply increase if the quality of products coming from NPD could achieve a two-sigma level. The reason that NPD has such a negative impact on quality is that new products have a combination of issues resulting from NPD and issues resulting from the existing manufacturing processes. New product development, as well as the entire firm, needs to be built on a basis of quality culture. Historically, one problem with quality is that companies have tried to develop inspection processes to inspect the quality into products. But, quality is truly achieved by designing it into the product and the process, not by inspection. Often, non-conformance issues are a result of the product design. The view of quality being designed into the product is clearly an issue that comes from NPD. A quantitative correlational study of NPD productivity is presently being conducted. The study uses on-line survey methods and multivariable statistics to analyze the data. One theme included in the survey, but not published elsewhere, is that product quality is a function of the supply chain, quality plans, NPD toll gate process, cross functional teams, and company size. This presentation will include a summary of the NPD quality results and statistics. The learning objectives include understanding of what NPD factors affect product quality, and what companies can do to improve these factors in their organization.