Success factors for PDCA as continuous improvement method in product development

Abstract

In order to maintain sustainability in an ever changing environment, where customer requirements contains a yearly price reduction over the life cycle of a product, decreased time for development of new products and increased product quality, there is an increased need for focus on continuous improvements. A well-known improvement method is the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act), which many companies have succeeded in implementing in the manufacturing department. Not so common, is the use of this method for the development process. The aim of this article is to present success factors which must be in place to succeed in using the specified method, and thereby the desired improvement during continuous improvement initiatives within product development. Management commitment is ranked as most important followed by knowledge about how to use the method, when to apply PDCA, efficient performance and use of internal marketing activities to focusing on the topic. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2013.