An Exploration of the Links Between Just-In-Time Manufacturing and Simultaneous New Product Development‪.‬

ABSTRACT Innovation and speedy new product development is crucial for companies to gain competitive advantage in a global market. The main focus of this article is to demonstrate that the principles of just-in-time (JIT) in manufacturing can be used to improve simultaneous new product development (NPD) process. Comparison and analysis of several critical factors show high degree of similarities between JIT manufacturing and NPD. A number of hypotheses regarding similarities between JIT and NPD factors were developed. The hypotheses were tested using survey data from a sample of 500 manufacturing organizations. Survey data strongly supports the hypotheses regarding similarities between JIT and NPD factors. Statistical results indicate that organizations with successful JIT system are able to develop new products with 67 percent better quality, 61 percent less development time, 45 percent less development cost, and 36 percent less manufacturing cost. Also frequency of new product introduction is 71 percent faster for those organizations. The survey data also strongly support the hypotheses that NPD performances are significantly better after JIT implementation.