This thesis describes the universalization, improvement and further development of acompact crane support frame for flatbed trucks. The work has been conducted at Eloch Fordonsteknik AB (henceforth EFAB) in Uppsala.The aim of the work has been to shorten the assembly time of the product. By doingso, the product can be kept on shelf, which in turn results in shorter lead time. Thishas been done by universalizing the support frame to be compatible with most of thechassis EFAB works with. Additionally, the entire construction has been made lighter,which will make it a more attractive choice for customers.A pre-study was conducted and information was gathered internally, as well asexternally, in order to ascertain that no limitation or possibility was overlookedduring the course of the project.One such limitation has been the geometry of the truck bed that the support frameshall be compatible with.

Abstract Cucumber is the second most frequently consumed vegetable after tomatoes, 33 % are eating cucumber every day. The purpose of this work is to examine if there is any product development of cucumber in Sweden, and if so in what way. A questionnaire was used with a number of questions regarding quality, origin, supply and the way cucumbers were used, and the person was also asked to choose between the normal large cucumber and the minicucumbers. This was answered by totally 100 persons in two different stores, ICA Maxi in Löddeköpinge and a discount store with a large supply of fruit and vegetables and where a large share of customers are immigrants, Özen All Frukt in Malmö. The results from questionnaire show that in some of the issues the results vary a lot between the two stores.

The paper investigates the role of packaging within brand management of FMCG food companies and their attitude towards packaging. This study enhances the understanding of how FMCG food companies actually work and strive to work with packaging..

During the last years, producers and consumers have become increasingly aware of food safety. Foodborne illness and foodborne injury are in best case unpleasant but they can also be fatal. HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) is a preventative food safety system which is aimed to guarantee production of safe food free from pathogens, foreign materials and substances with potential to cause adverse health effect. In order to succeed in developing, installing, monitoring and verifying a HACCP system, there is a mix of hurdles for the company to overcome. While larger food companies meet a difficult challenge, small and medium size enterprises often feel that the hurdles are almost impossible to manage.

The number of products offered by retailers has increased immensely during the last two decades, which has resulted in an increase of naming decisions having to be made. The importance of product names has become more significant for retailers offering their products online, as these are more visible to the customer in comparison to products offered offline. Consequently, it is of great value for retailers to gain knowledge about how a product name affects the customers' perception of the product. The purpose of this study is to examine whether product names affect customers perception of the relevant products in the online environment. This has been illustrated by applying the following theories to the relevant product names; meaningful and meaningless brand names as well as concrete and abstract words.

An increasing global population and a worldwide growing urbanization has raised the questionabout the future food security in cities all over the world. Peak-oil limits the access to cheap fossilfuels which threatens the global food-supply chain. This has resulted in a larger awareness anddiscussion related to urban agriculture. Growing crops and keeping animals within the city-borderscould be one way of creating a more robust and sustainable food supply for city dwellers. However,to enable an expansion of the urban agriculture many theorists argue that policies and institutionalstructures that supports and promotes city farming have to be developed.

First-year students at Linköping University have developed a prototype that graphically visualizes a medical record in a new way. The customer of that project was the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Linköping University. They now want a usability evaluation to be performed of the prototype. The prototype is to be used by employees in the public health care and is supposed to be used on a small portable unit with a multi-touch interface. For this reason the prototype will be used as a complement to existing systems when the users work near the patients.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att analysera och studera hur man skapar en position för Functional Food produkten i konsumentens medvetande, det vill säga undersöka vilka positioneringsstrategier svenska Functional Food produkten har, och vilka marknadsstrategier företagen har använt för att skapa önskad position i konsumentens medvetande. Genom fallstudier undersöker och analyserar vi hur företagen har lanserat och positionerat sina Functional Food produkter mot intressanta marknadssegment. Syftet med fallstudier är att exemplifiera vilka positioneringsstrategier Unilever och Skånemejerier använt sig av och under vilka förutsättningar de har lyckats nå en position med sina Functional Food produkter på den svenska marknaden. Det empiriska materialet har kompletterats med expertintervjuer. Den teoretiska referensramen utgörs av tre teoriområden, Innovation, Diffusionsprocessen samt Positionering, där vi fokuserar på skärningspunkten mellan dessa.

In many products a compromise between ground clearance and the required space to store the product has to be made. This problem attracted the attention of the authors of this thesis.The objective of this project is to develop a functioning solution to a foldable wheel. The solution should be applicable to several types of product groups. A limitation for this work has been made so that the work only covers solutions for lighter vehicles.The purpose is to drive this project forward, so that a solution can be found. Furthermore the purpose of the report is to clarify how the authors proceeded to design and construct the wheel according to a fixed specification.

Aqeri has since the past year a new profile with name and logotype, which has createda need for an updated visual product identity. The company is a leading developer,producer and distributer of IT products suitable for extreme environments in industry,defense and vehicles. This new profile with the different segments has together with aproduct identity from two companies resulted in that they have no clear designidentity on their products. From this background the aim of this research is todetermine how a development of a design identity is done to implement it to Aqeri.The design identity can be defined as a product?s identity visualized through its formor appearance which defines what the product is.

Recent corporate challenges require effective communication in order to secure a company?s reputation. Companies as a result, need to be committed to a series of corporate social and environmental practices along with their financial commitments to their shareholders and investors. In fact, businesses are required to go above their ordinary operations and involve all potential stakeholders that can be affected by their strategies. Companies also need to communicate social, environmental and economic consequences of their activities along with their CSR commitments to their internal and external stakeholders in order to make a better corporate image and improve their market opportunities.

Research has concluded that meaningless differentiation with trivial attributes sometimes can be a successful strategy. However, the effect varies with respect to certain aspects such as the price of the product and the decision context. How the characteristics of the consumer influence the effect of trivial attributes has until now been unknown. This thesis investigates how the consumer?s level of knowledge and personal involvement influence the effects of trivial attributes on product preferences and product attitudes.

Due to an increasing global market with a growing competition and an escalating technologydevelopment the demands on companies today are increasing. To maximise the output fromtheir recourses they need to be more efficient. The research on product development and how toensure the efficiencies in the process are extensive and companies could by adapting andimplementing the result of this research use its benefits.This master thesis is made for Knightec AB with the aims that through interviews anddiscussions with three companies investigate, collate, justify and give proposals for productdevelopment process together with supporting methods and procedures for technical projectmanagement. Besides Knightec AB three other companies located in Sweden has beenparticipating in this study. Through semi structured interviews and discussions in focus groupsinformation from the three involved companies were obtained.

User friendly and usable are two words that are often mentioned in the context of marketing new products. By doing so it adds an extra sense of quality to the product. The meaning of these words is therefore something that every product wants. But what is it that makes a product usable and user friendly? What methodology exists formaking sure that a product is usable? Does it exist applicable processes to ensure user centered development? These questions together with a practical example are parts of what will be addressed in this report.The thesis was carried out for C2 Management, a company that works with supporting other companies in their work with quality and constant improvements.

This case study has been conducted within the Swedish fitness chain World Class to explore the opportunities for knowledge development and transfers within franchise networks. We have interviewed the product manager at the World Class headquarter, the owner of a franchise club and a local product manager from the same facility. Our finding indicates that various forms of knowledge transfer occur within the World Class network, particularly in product development and sales. The transfer occurs within the framework set by World Class with regularly scheduled meetings. In addition informal networks provide other means of knowledge exchange between some units.