Using Principles of Just-In-Time to Improve New Product Development Process‪.‬

ABSTRACT Quick new product design and development is crucial for companies to be competitive in a global market. This article shows that the principles of just-in-time (JIT) in manufacturing can be used to improve new product development (NPD) process. Analysis and comparison of key factors show a high degree of consistency between traditional manufacturing and sequential NPD. Likewise, comparison of the same factors shows remarkable similarities between JIT manufacturing and simultaneous engineering. Statistical results indicate that compared with traditional organizations, companies who adopted JIT principles developed new products with 61 percent better quality, 52 percent less development time, 38 percentage less development cost, and 33 percent less manufacturing cost. Also, frequency of new product introduction for JIT organizations is 71 percenta faster than the traditional companies. Five tests of hypotheses were conducted to test the statistical significance of NPD performances before and after JIT implementation. The data from 51organizations strongly support the hypotheses. The P-value for all five tests is less than 0.05 percent.