Electrolux Professional AB is a multinational industrial appliance manufacturer and among many other things one of the leading global providers of laundry solutions in Ljungby, Sweden. Electrolux, being a global company with millions of customers, are always striving for the most efficient way of work in order to reach the best results. The ambition of this thesis was therefore to produce a specified suggestion of how to make a change in Electrolux Professional’s production to improve the resource, cost, and workflow efficiency directly and/or indirectly. This is done on the basis of answering two questions: 1. Is the current system improvable? 2. What kind of resources are needed to improve the efficiency in the assembly system? This thesis evaluates what kind of change of routines for picking and assembly workers (with the help of both theoretical framework and suitable solution for specifically Electrolux Professional) are needed to achieve a more efficient flow. Through the collected data, observations and unstructured interviews with the staff at Electrolux Professional, together with theoretical knowledge, important factors that need to be taken into account when implementing a more efficient work flow could be developed and thus answer the study’s question: Assuming that it is possible, with which resources/methods can the internal production system be changed to contribute to the company’s goal of making the production 50% more efficient? Several improvement suggestions were studied, including a rearrangement in the warehouse, and internal system change and even self-driving trucks. The solution that was proved to be most time and resource efficient to test and most optimal to change on short notice was a restructure in the assembly material feeding process. This could be achieved by changing the routine of the workers. By simulating a change in the daily work routines, it was proven that Electrolux Professional can use 4 fulltime workers instead of 5,5. In a long term this is quite an improvement, regarding time, money and production flow for the company.

<p>This report presents the primary development process of an innovative milk foamer. The project is structured as the primary development process that is used at Electrolux Floor Care and Small Appliances AB, Global Primary Development and Innovation department in Stockholm, Sweden. The aim was to develop a milk foamer with innovative solutions to provide Electrolux with a unique product. The objective was to create a product that highly meets customer requirements and in the same time is feasible to develop into a selling product. All the aspects regarding a consumer product had to be considered. To create innovative solutions thorough investigations of the physics behind foaming and foam are studied and documented. The difference in foam quality when using different ways of foaming is documented and possible explanations is discussed. The primary development process range from pre-study and customer research to designing prototypes and verifications. Most of the report deals with standalone solutions but there is also a part of the report that deals with integrated solutions and cooperating solutions that would be used together with espresso machines. The result is a variety of concepts and four fully working standalone prototypes. Two prototypes are further developed and are highly interesting to Electrolux.</p>

This report presents the primary development process of an innovative milk foamer. The project is structured as the primary development process that is used at Electrolux Floor Care and Small Appliances AB, Global Primary Development and Innovation department in Stockholm, Sweden. The aim was to develop a milk foamer with innovative solutions to provide Electrolux with a unique product. The objective was to create a product that highly meets customer requirements and in the same time is feasible to develop into a selling product. All the aspects regarding a consumer product had to be considered. To create innovative solutions thorough investigations of the physics behind foaming and foam are studied and documented. The difference in foam quality when using different ways of foaming is documented and possible explanations is discussed. The primary development process range from pre-study and customer research to designing prototypes and verifications. Most of the report deals with standalone solutions but there is also a part of the report that deals with integrated solutions and cooperating solutions that would be used together with espresso machines. The result is a variety of concepts and four fully working standalone prototypes. Two prototypes are further developed and are highly interesting to Electrolux.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Stockholm School of Economics. 1996. / Errata slip (1 leaf) inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 373-390).

Det har blivit mer och mer vanligt med ny, datoriserad teknik i hemmen. Fler människor har ett allt stressigare liv och inte längre samma tid att ta hand om det egna hemmet. Behovet av en hjälpande hand med hushållsarbete har blivit allt större. Tänk själv att komma hem från jobbet eller skolan och så har golvet blivit skinande rent utan att Ni knappt har behövt göra någonting! Det finns idag flera olika robotar på marknaden för detta ändamål. En av dessa är den autonoma dammsugaren, som är det vi inriktat vår uppsats på. I huvudsak är uppsatsen inriktad på mjukvaran, som kan användas i en autonom dammsugare. Vi har valt att titta närmare på två stycken sökalgoritmer, som kan användas av autonoma mobila robotar, exempelvis en autonom dammsugare, som har i uppdrag att täcka en hel obekant yta. Dessa algoritmer är Spanning Tree Covering (STC) och ”A Topological Coverage Algorithm”, också kallad ”Landmark-based World Model” (fritt översatt till Topologisk Täckande Algoritm, TTA). Vi har också undersökt hur ett av Sveriges största märken på marknaden för autonoma dammsugare, nämligen Electrolux Trilobite ZA1, klarar sig i test. Vi har även analyserat testet med Trilobiten och jämfört detta med antaget beteende hos Trilobiten ifall den hade varit implementerad med sökalgoritmerna STC eller TTA. Hur fungerar sökalgoritmerna? Hur kan en autonom dammsugare hitta på en hel obekant yta? Hur beter sig Electrolux Trilobite ZA1? Täcker de alla en obekant yta? Är de effektiva?

Within process or manufacturing industries, the production of goods and services or the products themselves may have negative side effects such as pollution. An important task for environmental policy is to control and limit these pollutions, for example via regulatory measures. Although, the efficiency of such measures vary greatly between different industries and an increasingly important task for environmental policy is then to encourage companies to engage in environmentally motivated innovation. Governments can utilize other measures than regulation to indirectly decrease pollution. This thesis aims to analyze such activities and how it affects the innovativeness of wastewater treatment, refrigeration and automobile manufacturing industries. The aim is also to investigate how environmental policy is shaped by opinion, technology and relationships within and to an industry. In each of the cases, the current technical system was a major determinator for what could be accomplished in an industry. This was more or less dependent on foreign conditions, such as market, opinion and policy, but the domestic level of technical advancement was critical. The geographical breadth of the issue at hand was a major factor. Also, all three cases showed that each industry has, for good or bad, dominating players that either dictates or largely influences the pace of adoption of environmentally motivated innovation. Government agencies must understand these facts, inventively use the array of policy tools at hand and include both industry representatives and foreign piers to speed up environmentally motivated innovation.