Saturated markets and a competitive business climate create pressure on organisation to find new ways to remain competitive and differentiated towards competitors. One new strategy is to adapt a more service oriented business, and more specifically a concept call solutions. Solutions is about moving from only selling e.g. products or single services, to offer a whole solution to cover more needs, an offer usually created together with the customers. This demand on the market together with limited research on the concept of solution, makes it an interesting area to study. The purpose with the study was to describe the whole solution process between the supplying firm and the customer. In order to do so, a longitudinal, dynamic model based on extant literature was developed, which consisted of three stages and 11 important factors throughout these three stages. The primary data collection came from interviews with managers from five companies, all experienced within the area of solution strategy. Out of the eleven theoretical factors, four factors were explicitly highlighted as most important.

No description available.

Co-creation is nowadays a booming activity implemented by companies in order to be closer to their customers and to fulfil their needs. By using co-creation, a company involves their customers in the process of creation aiming to get ideas and insights that allow the company to launch a new product or to improve an existing product. Nevertheless, most of the companies think that implementing a co-creation process is a question of methodology. Companies believe that by building on a formalized method and by using a step-by-step implementation, the co-creation will be successful. The truth speaks something else. Recently, researchers started to pop-up trying to highlight how the co-creation is a complex process arising the likelihood of having a value co- destruction rather than a value co-creation as a result of the process. Further, in 2015, a study states the importance of studying and understanding the negative consequences of value co-creation. For these reasons, the purpose of our thesis is to understand the downsides of co-creation during new product development and their effects on the relationship between the company and the customers. Our research question is: What are the downsides of the co-creation process and their effects on the relationship between the company and customers during new product development? In order to answer this question, we conducted a qualitative study to collect our primary data using an in-depth semi-structured interviews. Data have been collected from eleven participants involved in the co-creation field. From experts of co-creation to designers and researchers, we wanted to have a practitioner point of view rather than from a customer perspective. Indeed, the objectives of conducting these interviews were to gain a focus understanding and a comprehensive perception of the individuals using, implementing, researching on, or consulting about the co-creation process. From the data collected, we analysed our interviews using a thematic network analysis approach. From then, we tested and discussed our empirical results and our concepts from our theoretical frame of references. Through the analysis of the interviews data, we are able to state that there are four main downsides of the co-creation process during new product development: misbehaviour of the company, mismanagement of the environment, miscommunication and mismanagement of the process. The effects of these downsides will affect: the company, the product, the customer satisfaction, trust and commitment and the emotions. Further, we are capable to confirm the importance of the variables of trust, commitment and customer satisfaction in the management of a relationship. Finally, we compromise the idea of customer self-blaming, and the term of “failure”. Indeed, our analysis shows that the responsibility of co-creation belongs to the company that owns the project. Hence, the customer will not blame themselves or feel guilty in case of unsuccessful outcomes. Interestingly, our analysis debates about the use of the term failure to express unexpected negative outcomes from the process. We conclude that a mismanaged co-creation can be perceived as a learning process rather than a failure per se, leading us to confirm that we cannot consider the co-creation outcome as a failure.

This thesis explores the practice of family mediators when screening for domestic violence during mediation. Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings (MIAMs) and Joint Mediation Meetings (JMs) were recorded between April 2010 and January 2011, by four mediators who mediate for National Family Mediation (NFM) affiliated services in the South of England. These meetings were analysed from the mother’s perspective, using qualitative and quantitative analysis. The themes for analysis were taken from the Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Programme (DDAIP). It was found that mediators did initially screen for domestic violence during the MIAM, using the guidelines published by NFM; that screening was focused on the clients perception of the abuse and not the mediators interpretation of the abuse. The published expectation for screening to be ongoing throughout mediation was explored during the analysis of the joint meetings. There was evidence that abusive behaviours were alleged or inferred during those meetings and there was also evidence that the abusive behaviours and the emotions expressed by the mothers were managed by the mediators. There was no clear evidence that the mediators were proactively screening for domestic violence during the joint meetings save for reacting to and managing the impact and effect of the negative behaviours. This study concludes that mediators do not routinely screen for domestic violence during joint meetings, therefore guidance and training for ongoing screening during joint mediation meetings is needed. The current guidance and policy for screening needs to be reviewed.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Michael Boland / The Western Sugar Cooperative is a 135,000 acre sugar beet processing cooperative headquartered in Denver, Colorado with sugar beet processing factories located in Ft. Morgan CO, Torrington WY, Scottsbluff NE, Lovell WY, and Billings MT. The objective of the thesis is to analyze alternatives for maximizing the net revenue of co-products at Western Sugar. The ethanol policies of the U.S. government have had many unintended consequences including increasing the price of corn which is a key ingredient in animal feed production. Sugar beet co-products are produced in fixed proportions. That is, for every unit of sugar produced a corresponding unit of sugar beet pulp is created which is mostly water. Historically this has been dried into an animal feed pellets, however removing water from any high volume and high speed manufacturing process is energy intensive. Natural gas prices have increased dramatically and are projected to stay that way for a long time. As a result, the cost of manufacturing pellets is very high. The research shows that we are able to significantly increase our net income by increasing the percentage and price of pressed feed pulp rather than drying the pulp into pellets. This equals 20 million dollars of revenue in our pulp product line for the 2008-2009 sugar beet campaign. The thesis contains various analyses for changes in critical costs and prices. More importantly it details the subsequent management decisions implemented to maximize net income in the co-products business.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Jason S. Brody / Kansas City has the opportunity to expand its recycling programs and infrastructure through a participatory design process conducted at the Kansas City Design Center (KCDC). Because participatory design techniques can allow researchers to include members of the community in the planning process, project outcomes can generally be more successful. In the example of the recycling and composting project led by students at the KCDC, an advisory committee made of professionals and members of the community represented many stakeholder interests. Because of the wide array of feedback from the community, the process of design for the studio was not linear, but rather, it transformed over a period of research, design, further research, and redesign. The students first approached local recycling issues within the scope of a document written for grant funding. However as students responded to feedback from the advisory committee, the final proposals were altered to better address truer community needs. Other aspects for how to communicate and respond to critical feedback was also realized. This report aims to discover how participatory design aided this project and made its outcomes and delivery more agreeable to the larger population.

Att fånga kundens behov och förväntningar är nyckeln till stärkt konkurrensförmåga och ökad lönsamhet. Trots detta är offentliga verksamheter dåliga på att ta till vara på kunden och dennes erfarenheter och kunskap som en resurs i kvalitetsförbättringsarbetet. I januari 2012 trädde den nya kollektivtrafiklagen i kraft i Sverige. En tydlig målsättning med den nya kollektivtrafiklagen är att resenärsperspektivet i större utsträckning ska vara en del av kollektivtrafikplaneringen. Syftet med denna uppsats är att utveckla kunskap om hur offentliga verksamheter med ansvar för kollektivtrafik kan uppnå ökad kundorientering med hjälp av co-production, co-design och service design. Undersökningsdesignen innebär en fallstudie av Uddevalla kommun och bytespunkten Uddevalla C. I undersökningen tillämpades service design-metoderna direktobservationer, servicesafari, kundresor genom samtalsintervjuer, mobiletnografi, persona och storyboards för att undersöka och visualisera arbetspendlares upplevelse av Uddevalla C som bytespunkt. Resultatet visar att tillämpning av service design-metoder kan användas i kollektivtrafikplaneringen för att skaffa värdefull kunskap om kundernas behov och förväntningar. Uppsatsen och dess resultat bidrar till att visa hur offentliga verksamheter med ansvar för kollektivtrafik kan uppnå ökad kundorientering genom tillämpning av service design där co-production och co-design spelar en avgörande roll. / Capturing the needs and expectations of the customers is key to an enhanced competitiveness and increased profitability. Despite this, the public activities of the poor to take advantage of the customer and his experience and knowledge as a resource in quality improvement efforts. In January 2012, a new Public Transport Act came in to force in Sweden. A clear goal of the new law was to enhance the travelers’ perspective as an important part of the public transport planning process. The purpose of this paper is to develop knowledge on how public agencies responsible for public transport planning can achieve greater customer orientation with the use of co-production, co-design and service design. A case study of the Uddevalla Municipality and Uddevalla Central Station as transfer node was conducted. The service design methods direct observations, service safaris, customer journey mapping through in-depth interviews, mobile ethnographies, persona and story boards were applied to examine and visualize commuters’ experience of Uddevalla Central Station as the transfer node. The result show that the application of service design methods can be used in public transport planning in order to gain valuable information about customers' needs and expectations. The thesis and its results will help to demonstrate how public organizations responsible for public transport planning can achieve greater customer orientation through the use of service design where the co-production and co-design play a crucial role.

Magister Scientiae (Physiotherapy) - MSc(Physio) / Background: Globally, the leading cause of lower limb amputation is diabetes mellitus. In South Africa, there is a rise in diabetes-related lower limb amputation with a marked increase in the number of persons with diabetes mellitus in rural areas. However, there is no information on the number of people who are living with a lower limb amputation. An amputation does not only have an impact on a person’s physical functioning but can result in poor quality of life, dependence and exclusion from societal participation. Rehabilitation and prosthetic interventions are known to facilitate those with a lower limb amputation to return to independence in activities of daily living, improved quality of life and inclusion in society. Access to health care is very challenging for persons living in rural areas. Challenges to accessing health care include limited rehabilitation staff, harsh terrain and far distances from services, a lack of access to transport, or the lack of confidence in the service provided by the healthcare institutions. For optimal and patient-centred outcomes, rehabilitation services are of paramount importance. Due to the challenges with providing services in rural areas, community-based rehabilitation is the ideal model for providing rehabilitation to persons with lower limb amputation in rural settings. In order to plan an appropriate community-based approach to rehabilitation, establishing the prevalence of disability and patient-specific needs are imperative. Aims of the study: The aims of this study were firstly, to determine the period prevalence of people living with a lower limb amputation within the rural OR Tambo District of the Eastern Cape in order to determine the need for services and secondly, to gain a deeper understanding of the rehabilitation needs of persons living with a lower limb amputation within the rural OR Tambo District of the Eastern Cape.

Master of Science in Engineering - Engineering / The most significant benefit of co-disposal of tailings based on the “Paste and Thickened Tailings Disposal” concept is the improved ability to “design” the properties of the co-disposed tailings material to suit the surrounding environment. The overall aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of the relationship between the key slurry material characteristics and the flow behaviour of co-disposed tailings upon deposition, for the case of montmorillonite clay-based kimberlite tailings. A fundamental understanding of this relationship will enable the successful manipulation and exploitation of the co-disposed tailings rheology for optimal tailings disposal and the minimisation of associated financial, environmental and social risks. The key material characteristics selected for investigation were the vehicle solids concentration, suspension pH and vehicle to load ratio. The yield stress was selected as the key rheological property representing both the vehicle component rheology and co-disposed tailings rheology. Two yield stress measurement techniques were used, namely (1) direct yield stress measurement with the vane method and (2) indirect yield stress measurement with the slump test method. The correlation between these two methods was investigated as a secondary objective of this study. It was concluded that the suspension pH strongly influences the degree of microscopic particle interaction of the vehicle component and that manipulation of the suspension pH could move the material between interactive and noninteractive states. It was further concluded that increasing load mass percentage leads to a significant increase in the co-disposed material yield stress. It is believed that the load component mainly affects the co-disposed material yield stress through its contribution to the total solids concentration, which in turn results in an exponential increase in the material yield stress. The findings of this study showed remarkable flexibility in the manipulation of the various input parameters to produce the same yield stress value. It is therefore now possible to maintain a constant yield stress value as required by the environmental depositional requirements through various combinations of the input parameters and so keep the integrity of the deposition site intact. The correlation obtained in this study between the vane and slump test yield stress measurement techniques was fairly poor. The slump test only provided an accurate prediction of the yield stress when the material was in a highly interactive state. It is recommended that future research focuses on the thixotropic nature of the vehicle component as a function of suspension pH, the accuracy of the correlation between the vane and slump measured yield stress and the effect of the load on the bulk rheology of the co-disposed material.

Abstract will not load on to DSpace