The Relationship between Quality Management Practices, Infrastructure and Fast Product Innovation

Abstract

As the size of the global competitive arena increases, manufacturers have been striving to find new means for achieving and sustaining a competitive advantage. Fast product innovation is a strategy which has gained popularity in recent years, particularly in Japan. Deals with two assertions: (1) fast cycle innovation will be most effective when it is pursued in conjunction with a quality strategy; and (2) there is an organizational infrastructure that provides the environment which supports the simultaneous achievement of fast cycle innovation and high quality. Using data from 42 Japanese and US plants in three industries in the US, discriminant analysis determined the key quality, organization, human resource management and JIT characteristics which separated faster product innovators from slower product innovators.

Citation

Flynn, B.B. (1994), "The Relationship between Quality Management Practices, Infrastructure and Fast Product Innovation", Benchmarking for Quality Management & Technology, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 48-64. https://doi.org/10.1108/14635779410056886