Extending continuous improvement to the new product development process

As the benefits of applying continuous improvement (CI) are reported and the pressure on companies to improve their processes for new product development (NPD) increases, there is growing interest in how these two developments can be brought together. This paper presents a model for CI and suggests how it may be used as a framework for looking at CI within the context of NPD. The final section raises some of the issues and challenges companies face as they attempt to extend CI to the NPD process.