Performance measurement and new product development : is it linked to manufacturing strategy?

There has been an increasing emphasis on measuring the performance of manufacturing operations using measures other than profit and productivity. The literature argues that operations need to measure quality, reliability, flexibility and customer satisfaction but this may not be the case. One area of performance measurement that is often neglected or put in the too hard basket is new product development (NPD). As firms attempted to capture new markets and customers NPD is becoming increasingly important and the link between NPD, marketing and manufacturing should be of strategic importance. There is evidence that suggest manufacturing is often driven by marketing but in turn manufacturing can do little to influence marketing. This paper examines some of the performance measures widely used in manufacturing and seeks to examine some of the links between NPD performance measurement and manufacturing strategy. The paper describes an analysis of results of a global manufacturing survey.