Supplier quality management in TFT-LCD new product development: A case study

Thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) is a key industry whose technology has many applications. An effective new product development (NPD) system is the key to increasing the competitiveness of new products in the market. Thus, numerous TFTLCD enterprises have increasingly focused on and invested in NPD to ensure increased sales and profitability. When enterprises accelerate NPD, suppliers are forced to follow and shorten their development schedule. This conformity has become the focus of most suppliers. However, under a highly competitive environment, vendors frequently delete or omit several processes inappropriately in NPD to meet business needs. Suppliers also frequently lack a clear standard, which leads to NPD failure. To enhance product quality and ensure customer satisfaction, the supplier quality management (SQM) division must have a fast and effective NPD management model to confirm supplier development quality. Therefore, this study proposes a supplier new product quality management model and its implementation procedure to aid enterprises in detecting quality issues during the initial development and verification process. An actual case study of a TFT-LCD manufacturer is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model and procedure.