The Decision Making Process in New Product Development: A Literature Review of the Toyota Case

摘要

New Product Development (NPD) has turned into a critical process in terms of quality, cost, and time. Tools have emerged to improve this process from a broad range of perspectives. Many authors have contributed by defining the principles that shape NPD efficiency. Some of them have been dedicated to studying in depth the success of the Toyota NPD, and setting it as a benchmark. However, agreement on how to improve the NPD process has not been reached; therefore, this paper addresses a systemic perspective of NPD as a decision making process. To gain a better understanding of NPD, the literature of the Toyota case is reviewed, followed by a detailed analysis. The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into how critical decisions of NPD processes are linked to decision theory in order to improve efficiency. This paper is intended to help practitioners and researchers interested in NPD.