M.Ing. / Change is an every day occurrence in any environment, especially in the technology market, where technology doubles approximately every 10 years [1]. Therefore it is of utmost importance that this change should be managed for any organization to maintain its respective market position. For most industrial products that are introduced into the market it is essential for those products to be able to change to fit the expected technical changes that will transpire. These changes take place because of the demand those consumers that use the technology place on the market. Thus the value of customer service is irrefutable, and it should be addressed accordingly. In the development phase it is thus important to design the product with future change in mind to cope with the demands that consumers place on one's product. Placement of a control system in the industrial market should be done ingeniously to be able to stay in the specified market and cope with change. The Delta V, an advanced control system, is one such product that is positioned in the market in an intelligent manner [21]. To be able to do the right positioning one needs expert engineering management skills to be able to remain in the market and not sta~ate in this constantly changing technical environment. Engineering management should take a holistic interest in the global markets since most technical products are active in these global markets. Support is seen as a global competitive aspect of a product's success or failure. Management skills in this market place are thus one of the strongest advantages an engineering organization can have which in return can prove a significant difference in the organizations survival. Thus securing the edge that any organization wants and strives for to be one step in front of its competitors. As such the purpose of this research is then to present aspects of positioning and support of an engineering product via a case study in an integrated fashion.

This work proposes a framework of concept generation and evaluation that takes into consideration the benefit of creativity and innovation in current market trends. By educating engineers in how to increase creativity in concept design and assess it quantitatively, the next generation of designers will be a step ahead of the market. This research begins with an in-depth survey of current creativity assessment methods in engineering in order to determine where the limitations currently lie in this field of study. The limitations discovered based on this unique analysis were used as motivation for the development of the proposed creativity assessment method. Specifically, we introduce a set of metrics that break down concepts to their component and subfunction level to assess the novelty and quality of component solutions ��� called the Comparative Creativity Assessment (CCA) Method. Secondly, we break down market-tested innovative products to isolate innovation information to utilize in concept generation inspiration ��� called the Repository of Innovative Products (RIP). Finally, revisions to the initial CCA method and RIP are proposed and analysis of past data results are compared to the new revised results. Revisions to the CCA method include additional metrics that factor in interaction effects from function pairing and component assemblies deemed innovative as well as eliminate evaluator subjectivity in the analysis. Observations from the experiments conducted are presented in a Lessons Learned chapter. / Graduation date: 2013