Identifying and prioritizing critical success factors for thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) industry in new product development

Taiwanʹs current thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) industry provides a representative, real-world example of both the collaboration within, and the competition in technologies and capital orientation. To compete successfully in the market, companies in the industry require continuous technology innovations for new products. Further, a large amount of investment and output value in TFT-LCD industry becomes one of the most important industries which drove the relative industrial development. Hence, firms in Taiwan suffered difficult industrial environment. Companies compete with both Japanese and Korean companies, which are known as the leading manufacturers in TFT-LCD industry, and earn low or negative profits. The study uses analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to conclude the views of experts from industry, the government, and academic. The study conducted five critical success factors in new product development (NPD) for TFT-LCD industry: innovation of NPD strategy, application and exploitation of NPD strategy, supportive resource from CEO, establishment of cross-functional NPD team, and development of commodity survey planning. The results show that R&D strategy, and organizational contexts are the most important factors. Based on the factors identified, a hierarchy model of critical success factors is proposed, with which TFT-LCD firms can formulate action plans for NPD.