Thia, C.W., Kah-Hin, C., John, B., & Yan, X. (2005). An Exploratory Study of the Use of Quality Tools and Techniques in Product Development. TQM Magazine, 17(5), 406-424.

Format: Peer-reviewed article

Type: Research — Non-experimental

Experience level of reader: Fundamental

Annotation: Authors identify six internal factors and four external factors which affect the rate of adoption and use of tools useful to NPD.

Setting(s) to which the reported activities/findings are relevant: Federal lab, Large business, Small business (less than 500 employees), University

Knowledge user(s) to whom the piece of literature may be relevant: Manufacturers, Researchers

Knowledge user level addressed by the literature: Individual

This article uses the Commercial Devices and Services version of the NtK Model

• There is a gap between awareness and use of tools supporting NPD development activity. Four external factors are identified: 1) Project — type of project ranges from incremental to radical changes; 2) Organization — support from top management, team cohesiveness, and technical competence. 3) Industry — different industries adopt different NPD processes which might indirectly affect choice of tools. 4) Culture — cultural differences such as Eastern versus Western.
  Case studies in industry.
  Occurrence of finding within the model: Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6

• There is a gap between awareness and use of tools supporting NPD development activity. Six internal factors are identified: 1) User friendliness — ease of use and ease of learning; 2) Usefulness — provides certain value to user. 3) Time — training, implementation and maintenance time; 4) Monetary cost — cost to train and use, cost to employ consultants, cost for software and cost for implementation support; 5) Flexibility — extent to which a tool can be used effectively even if some guidelines are not followed; 6) Popularity — extent to which the tool is widely or commonly used and accepted by similar industries.
  Case studies in industry.
  Occurrence of finding within the model: Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6