Speed and quality are always a tradeoff when bringing new products to market. How can
businesses avoid or mitigate the negative impacts of this tradeoff?
Speed will always reach a point where work can not be done any faster without a loss of quality.
There is concern that focusing on speed reduces the quality of the product. There is also concern
that the company has missed a critical market entry for their product if the only quality is
focused on. Some products are more tolerant of a reduction in quality, and in other products, the
quality is compromised if the manufacturer concentrates on speed. “Speed to market and
product quality both enhance product profitability, but the impact of speed to market is larger
than that of product quality. Speed to market and product quality enhance product profitability,
but the impact of speed to market is larger than that of product quality”( McNally, Akdeniz, &
Calantone, 2011). This research suggests that both speed and quality are essential. Companies
must balance how much manufacturing speed can be increased before the quality declines. One
study showed that good quality products have an optimum speed of production. If production is
too fast or slow, the quality of the product declines. However, production speed is a crucial
factor in a company’s competitiveness. Companies need to investigate how to increase
production speed without compromising quality. Speed is seen as more important in a
predictable context. In new product development, “Evidence from 75 new product development
projects clearly indicates that speed is positively related to quality and has the greatest influence
on success”( Kessler & Bierly, 2002). Clothing manufacturers rely on speed to get their new
products to the consumer. An entire season’s sales can be lost if the product is not ready when
the demand is high. Sometimes speed is seen as more important than quality in this case.
Products such as computer chips rely more on the quality of their product than the speed of
getting it to market. A failing chip can cost the company money and its reputation in a
competitive market. In the HBR article, the Canadian company felt pressured to construct a
highly sophisticated piece of equipment in a hurry. There was pressure on the manufacturers to
make the parts as fast as possible, and many failed because they did not take the time to test each
part appropriately. The real issue came when the piece of equipment failed, and then they had to
work backward to figure out why. Speed is about development, input/output, supply chain and
production, and getting products out to customers on time. In contrast, quality is about knowhow, capabilities, standards, processes, continuous improvements, and delivery to consistent
specifications and legislative requirements. The product is manufactured, and the intended
customer will determine when a manufacturing company chooses speed over quality. Speed is
less important under conditions of low market uncertainty. New product development speed is a
critical component of time-based strategy, which has become increasingly important for
managing innovation in a fast-changing business environment. A company must understand how
fast it can deliver a product to market without cutting corners and compromising quality.
References:
Kessler, E., & Bierly, P. (2002, February). Is faster really better? an empirical test of the
implications of Innovation Speed. IEEE Xplore. Retrieved from
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/985742
Lilien, G. L., & Yoon, E. (1990). The timing of competitive market entry: An exploratory study
of new industrial products. Management science, 36(5), 568-585.
McNally, R.C., Akdeniz, M.B. and Calantone, R.J. (2011), THE MEDIATING ROLE OF
SPEED TO MARKET AND PRODUCT QUALITY. J Prod Innov Manag, 28: 63-77.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5885.2011.00861.x
Miyanaji, H., Momenzadeh, N., & Yang, L. (2018). Effect of printing speed on quality of printed
parts in Binder Jetting Process. Additive Manufacturing, 20, 1-10.
Rodríguez-Pinto, J., Carbonell, P., & Rodríguez-Escudero, A. I. (2011). Speed or quality? How
the order of market entry influences the relationship between market orientation and new product
performance? International Journal of Research in Marketing, 28(2), 145-154.