Organisations tend to focus more and more on product and process development to increase their competitiveness. Several major organisations, among them ABB, have developed models aimed to more effectively control and manage product development processes. ABB is using its standardised model ABB Gate Model for this. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how the introduction of ABB Gate Model has affected the outcome of decisions and also the decision-making in the product development process. The study is limited to elucidate the version of ABB Gate Model handling product development projects.

This essay is an enquiry about how companies as participated in a Lean pro¬duction education use this education. The essay describes also how one works with the implementation of Lean production and how they believe that they will work. The enquiry tries to create an advisory material for other companies that are in the beginning of implementing their own Lean production systems. There these companies? gets a picture of how other companies have done during their try to create a functioning Lean production system.

Small!size!enterprises!within!the!outdoor!industry!seldom!use!a!structured!process!or!method!when!involving!users!in!product!development.!One!reason!for!this!is!that!many!structured!development!processes!are!designed!for!large!companies!with!very!different!resources.!When!involving!users!in!product!development!processes,!the!most!common!user! is! an! elite! athlete.! She! or! he! often! has! different! requirements! than! the! regular!consumer!and!in!the!customers?!point!of!view;!this!leads!to!nonCmaximized!developed!products.!!The! result! of! this! thesis! is! a! user! involvement! process! for! small! outdoor! companies!based! on! the! Sister! Kenny! Research! Center! Innovation! Handbook,! a! product!development!process,!which!itself!is!based!on!a!phaseCgate!model.!The!process!focuses!on!the!user!category!enthusiastic!amateurs,!since!this!is!what!companies!in!the!industry!require.!The!process!also! focuses!on!how!and!where! small!outdoor! companies! should!involve!users!and!give!recommendations!on!how!many!users!that!should!be!involved!in!a! product! development! process,! different! from! what! the! theory! recommend.! The!process! also! builds! on! that! ideas! should! come! from! the! users! first,! and! then! being!further!developed!by!the!company's!product!developers.!The!degree!of!communication!between!users!and!the!company!is!shown!and!the!report!clarifies!the!user!involvement!intensity!in!product!development!processes.!!The!involvement!process!that!has!been!developed!has!also!been!summarized!in!a!guide!that! can!be!used!by! a! company!on! a!daily!basis.!This! contains! information!on,! among!other!things,!how!users!are!selected!and!how!to!plan!a!workshop.!!! !.

Product development is essential for all companies that want to survive in competitive markets regardless of the characteristics of the product that the company sells. Companies that sell products within product categories which can be seen as bad, also need to develop their products in order to remain competitive. If these bad products add a positive attribute, for example that they get organic, a contradiction within the product arises and they get incongruent. This thesis investigates which effects that follow a launch of an incongruent product. The thesis also examines if these effects are affected by the strength of the brand under which the product is launched.A total of 240 respondents participated in an experimental study where product incongruity was manipulated for two different product categories, where one well known brand and one unknown brand were examined in each category.

Background: Knowledge of customer needs is a key factor in companies? struggle to develop successful products. Several studies illustrate that the main reason for failure in product development is lack of customer understanding. Lately considerable changes have occurred. Large-scale mass production is continuously being replaced by customer orientation, especially in the high technological market.

The management of information is one of the key aspects within a successful andefficient product development process, particularly regarding complex products.Scania CV AB is at the moment developing a new IT-system, OAS, which aims tomanage the company?s product data. With this as a background, the purpose of thismaster thesis is to identify the cross-functional user needs within Scania?s organizationconcerning product data and the management around it.To fulfill the purpose, an empirical study consisting of 40 personal interviews with 50representatives from different functions within Scania?s organization was carriedthrough. The empirical data was then analyzed focusing on identifying thecross-functional needs and issues.The study points out that there is a big potential regarding improvement among themanagement of product data.

The purpose with this project was to invent a product that secures buildings sewersystems against rats. The problem was presented to us by a local building maintainer inHalmstad, who had experienced big problems with rats in his real estate. The project hasbeen carried out by Per Johansson, Robert Lidén and Niclas Nilsson under our ownauspices. We are primarily sponsored by AMLI Business Partner but also byInnvationsgruppen, Halmstad Fastighets AB and Anticimex.To be able to secure a whole building with only one product we came to the conclusionthat the product must be placed in the horizontal sewer pipe that connects with themunicipal sewer system. Our goal was to invent a product that prevent rats from passingand at the same time not affect the water flow.

Denna uppsats handlar om lean. Närmare bestämt om lean i de sex halländska kommunerna: Falkenberg, Halmstad, Hylte, Laholm, Kungsbacka och Varberg. Syftet med denna uppsats är först och främst att ägna sig åt innebörden av lean för att därefter genomföra en kvalitativ undersökning där intresset är att undersöka vilka kommuner i Hallands län som arbetar med lean samt på vilket sätt kommunerna arbetar med lean. I analysen diskuteras det marknadslika styrinstrumentet, som lean faktiskt är och dess effekter samt påverkan på kommunen. Slutligen diskuteras den marknadslika kommunen samt effekterna av lean i kommunen..

The mission from IKEA of Sweden was to make a further development of their existing trolley in the FRAKTA -serial. IKEA wants that the new product would make the opportunities better for people who don't have cars to carry their goods home easily on the bus, train or walk after their purchase.The report includes a suggestion for a new product that will fit into the existing FRAKTA -serial. The new development product will continue the same standard as the other products in the serial and it will also make it possible for customers to carry their goods home by public transportations..

Denna uppsats handlar om lean. Närmare bestämt om lean i de sex halländska kommunerna: Falkenberg, Halmstad, Hylte, Laholm, Kungsbacka och Varberg. Syftet med denna uppsats är först och främst att ägna sig åt innebörden av lean för att därefter genomföra en kvalitativ undersökning där intresset är att undersöka vilka kommuner i Hallands län som arbetar med lean samt på vilket sätt kommunerna arbetar med lean. I analysen diskuteras det marknadslika styrinstrumentet, som lean faktiskt är och dess effekter samt påverkan på kommunen. Slutligen diskuteras den marknadslika kommunen samt effekterna av lean i kommunen..

Lean is one of the recent years most popular methods for organizations to use in order to increase efficiency, productivity and quality. Despite Lean's increased popularity, Lean is still difficult to define and can be explained and described in different ways. Previous studies have also shown that Lean is difficult to implement and challenging to maintain successfully. Knowledge of Lean is viewed as a necessity in the implementation of Lean, which leads to that organizations often chooses to bring in this knowledge through external consultants or other experts in order to implement Lean in their organization. Thus, it is interesting to examine the consultants view on Lean and the implementation process of Lean.

The mission from IKEA of Sweden was to make a further development of their existing trolley in the FRAKTA -serial. IKEA wants that the new product would make the opportunities better for people who don't have cars to carry their goods home easily on the bus, train or walk after their purchase.The report includes a suggestion for a new product that will fit into the existing FRAKTA -serial. The new development product will continue the same standard as the other products in the serial and it will also make it possible for customers to carry their goods home by public transportations..

Lean has been studied intensely since the 1980s and it has been tested and successfully implemented in a wide variety of businesses. This thesis aims to examine the potential effects of a Lean implementation on meeting efficiency, a topic that has gotten little attention in the research community. First, a number of meeting problems are introduced, as they are perceived from the company that is the subject of the study. Second, the potential of introducing Lean in a meeting process is evaluated using the Lean Thinking principles. Third, the wastes that are generated from the meeting problems are identified.

The aim of this thesis is to practice the theoretical methods that are concerned during the product development process of two new products. The theoretical concepts that embody the two products are created out of a product specification which is given by a commissioner with a private interest. The primary tasks of the design of the concepts are aimed on the products shape, which is to be created as a flexible structure by using silicon rubber as material.The storage box is a further development of the already known food storage box, or lunch box, which is common used in consumer kitchens. The main idea is to design a flexible product by using silicone rubber. It will able the storage box to be compressed when it is not used, be storage friendly and not consume more space than necessary in a storage compartment.

This graduation work is a result of implementing Lean Production using OEE and SMED at Enics Sweden AB in Malmö. Enics doesn?t have an established improvement concept and therefore should this work serve as an introduction to possibly start with Lean Production. A result in this report is that an OEE value has been identified within a common order at Enics. Other results are that an implementation of a Lean-board has been implemented and furthermore, within SMED, a flag that indicates changeover..