Due to a growing interest in communication in today?s society the demand for equipment that is used in communication networks increases while the competition between companies that produce this equipment grows. To meet the increasing demand and at the same time having a competitive product development many companies use some effective product design, such as the modular product design. When a modular product design is used it?s good to compare different module configurations for a certain product and to simplify these comparisons some tool can be used.

This Master of Science thesis was completed at the Department of Machine Design at the Royal Instituteof Technology in Stockholm in collaboration with Lund Faculty of Engineering, Luleå University ofTechnology and Stanford University. At Stanford University a global product development project wasrealized as part of the course ME310. The project was initiated by the American company ImmerseGlobal whose vision was to develop a new type of Atmospheric Water Generators, a machine that absorbsthe moisture in the air and via a water system transforms it to pure drinking water. The project was partlyfinanced by the Product Innovation Engineering program, a Swedish research and development programfor increased innovation capability in organizations.In parallel with the global project in the ME310 course the product development process was studied inorder to compare it with a product development course at the Royal Institute of Technology, IPU. Thetwo courses are similar to each other in several aspects.

Within system development users have rarely been involved or received much attention during the development. Most of the times, the primary focus within system development lies on insuring functionality, rather than making the system usable. The literature specifies that a non user-centered approach can contribute to a product with low usability, which can lead to an ineffective and unsatisfactory experience for the end users.The purpose of this thesis is to begin an investigation to see if the use of non user-oriented system development methods is a possible cause of low usability in the final system.To achieve the purpose of this thesis, we have conducted a case study. Within the case study we examined the usability of a time reporting system. The case study included seven minor studies; an investigation concerning the development of the system, an expert evaluation of the system, interviews and observations of users, developed paper prototypes and executable prototypes, both which user testing was performed on.The result of this study shows that by working with user-entered methods, the usability in the time reporting system increased after the design had been revised.

The technological progress of the world has had a massive effect on how we communicate with one and other, it also has had an big impact on how companies communicate with their customers and consumers. Today you cannot only communicate a ?promise to your costumers and consumers you also have to ?deliver? what it is you promise. Strategic communication is today not only to market your product but to ensure that your strategic communication is shown even in you innovation, design and product development.  This thesis is conducted in collaboration with No Picnic AB.The purpose of this study was to get an insight in how Swedish companies use their strategic communication. We aim on bringing a new point of view of strategic communication with innovation, design and product development also as a communication channel.

Product development cycles become shorter and shorter. The time from idea to market has become an important competitive factor. Despite this, methods used for making the product development process faster are surrounded with uncertainty about their efficiency. The purpose of the thesis is to describe the pros and cons of ?best practice? methods for shortening lead times and how these methods effect the lead times in research and development.

A protection helmet for young people (3-7 years) in winter environment has been developed in this thesis. The result is a concept proposal for development at STIGA Sports AB in Eskilstuna. This thesis work has been performed during 20 weeks, for a Master of Science in Product and Process development at Mälardalen University Eskilstuna Sweden in September 2009 to January 2010. The helmet is shown as a CAD model with detailed solutions to the outer shell, interior and adjustability (in sizes 50-56 cm) which are the three focused areas in the development. Also a physical model in scale 1:1 has been developed and is shown in this thesis work.To achieve the best result possible the process started with an analysis of the market and the product.

The number of locals in Stockholm who chooses the bike in front of public transport has increased significantly in recent years. The product purchaser of this project, Joakim Victorin at Sigma AB, has a keen interest in cycling, which resulted in a fairly obvious topic of this project; through a web application Sigma AB wanted to make it possible to handle results from professional as well as amateur competitions in cycling.The purpose of this web application is to simplify reporting and handling of competition for both small and bigger bicycle races. By providing the users of the system a platform independent client, any available device may be used.This thesis has followed the development principles which prevail on the ASP .NET MVC 3 concept. When developing the system the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 development environment was used. The framework and the pattern of ASP .NET MVC 3 is a prominent part of today?s web development.

This thesis studies the customer relationships and customer accounting methods used by a Swedish fashion company. The aim is to test the empirical applicability of the relationship based framework developed by Lind and Strömsten and to explain potential differences between empirical observations and theory. The framework is based on the categorization of four customer relationship groups and the appropriate customer accounting methods to be used for each relationship. The fashion company, that recently assessed the profitability of its customer base in an aim to implement a new customer strategy, is the object of the qualitative case study. The case study reveals that all customer relationships are to be found at Whyred, except the connective customer relationship.

This report presents an independent thesis corresponding 15hp and was carried out on Högskolan in Halmstad during the spring of 2014. The thesis is the final course which ends a three-year mechanical engineering program with focus on technical design.The thesis started in an operation which electricians are exposed to every day. The operation in question is cable laying or wiring. The tool they use is called a tension spring and is a long and stiff wire, usually made out of nylon or fiberglass. The tension spring is fed through pipes in the walls and brings the desired cables with it on the way back.

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze how companies offering tailor made products on the internet, can work with their marketing and their customer relationships. The study will answer the purpose from a service management perspective and there will also be presented theories from an Electronic Commerce perspective.The starting point for this study was the qualitative method. The essay builds its empirical material from interviews with knowledgeable persons in the subject and the owner of the company whose products are tailor made and sold on the internet. It was conducted seven interviews, four of which were face-to-face, two conducted by mail and finally there was made a telephone interview.Conclusions have been drawn based on the empirical material and theory. The study has been able to identify three concepts that are central to this type of product: Site-building, customer involvement and promotion & relationship management..

Problem: The relations between first and second tier suppliers within the automotive industry have changed drastically during recent years. Previously involving the supply of simple components, today the relation involves collaborative product development of complex subsystems. The situation is rather new for the actors, hence there are a number of problems that act as restraints for the collaboration. In order to come to terms with these problems, it is important to determine the underlying causes. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to make a survey of the main problems in the collaborative product development between first and second tier suppliers within the Swedish automotive industry.

In an ever more competitive environment Sandvik Materials Technology,SMT, runs a large-scale program to improve their processes for product development.The purpose with the program is to increase the company?s profitability by increasingthe number of new products in their product portfolio. The strategies SMT is usingfor reaching their goals are to change the way they work with product development byreducing lead time and learning how to prioritize products with the highestprofitability. In the R & D Department the work of improvement pursue by adaptingLean R & D to their way of working. Lean R & D encourages working withcontinuous improvements and eliminating waste.The main purpose for this Master?s Thesis is to develop didactic support to make iteasier to implement Lean in SMT R & D department.

The Swedish sports retail industry has experienced extensive growth during the last decade, and this has attracted new entrants to the market, both start-ups and international followers. This has inevitably put more pressure on incumbents, which are now confronted with major challenges as how to retain their customers and market shares. Customer loyalty has been proved to be an important factor for customer retention and proposed to constitute inertia of switching behavior. In light of this problematization, the purpose of this study is to describe the underlying factors of loyalty and whether purchase habits could further explain customer loyalty. The aim is also to understand the strategic implications of the factors involved.

All inclusive travel has become a popular way to travel abroad. When tourists pay for everything in advance their need for contact with the local people will be reduced. The consequences of this can be dissatisfaction from the local people as they are left out and do not share the financial benefits created by tourism. During the purchasing cycle of an all inclusive travel, it is possible that the tour operator can influence a sustainable development.The aim of this paper is to compare how a large and a small tour operator in their purchase of all inclusive holidays interacts with local players to create sustainable development, thereby creating a surplus value to the customer. The hypothesis is that the amount of knowledge and application of this knowledge regarding sustainable development differs in the purchase process between large and small tour operators.This paper was carried out as a case study.

The purpose of this investigation is to come across the associations of consumers who are being exposed to a brand extension from a different product category. Moreover, our aim is to contribute to the knowledge of how consumers respond to these extended products, by investigating the influence of the parent brand. To fulfill our purpose, this study was conducted through qualitative interviews with consumers. In order to carry out our investigation and analyze our findings the following theoretical framework has been used: Customer-based equity, Parent brand affect and Perceived fit. Our data was collected through ten semi-structured interviews including consumers of Fiat and Marlboro brand extensions.