<p>Successful concept decisions are crucial for product development organisations. Failure in theconcept decision-making process means costly rework, requiring resources that could havebeen spent on innovative work with new products instead. This licentiate thesis tackles theconcept decision-making process and how to improve it. The research presented here is thefirst part of a research project, with an action research approach, that will develop newsupporting working procedures for concept decision making and thereby contribute to moresuccessful products.Empirical studies were conducted in Swedish industrial practice, particularly focusing oneorganisation, and it was found that concept decisions are not made at a certain point in time.Instead, many decisions and activities, on several organisational levels, were adding up to theconcept decisions in the investigated organisations. The concept decision-making process wasfound to be a web of interconnected activities, with many decisions integrated and embedded in the process. Itwas also found that both formal and informal factors influence the concept decision-makingprocess and main factors were identified as: Project and product request, Supporting structures androutines, Individual competence and driving forces, Teamwork and company culture and Contextualcircumstances. These factors represent different perspectives, meaning on what level theyinfluence concept decision making: individual, team, project, organisation, and context, and in orderto create improvements in the concept decision-making process all levels have to beconsidered. The knowledge of the different perspectives has implications for howimprovements should be designed.Larger product developing companies do often have internally defined formal workingprocedures that prescribe how to develop products within the company. The thesis discusseshow the internal working procedures relate to academic theory and to practice. It wasconcluded that internal formal working procedures has not been discussed in a sufficient wayin earlier engineering design research. Furthermore, means for improving the concept decisionmakingprocess are discussed, and it was concluded, based on interviews with practitioners,that the strongest pragmatic means for improvement were developing mindset and applyingmethods. Mindset addresses the awareness, attitude and approach needed for management (andco-workers) working in early product development phases. Methods mainly addresses the needfor having relevant supporting working procedures in general and templates for evaluationalternative solutions in particular. Finally, recommendations for future design of a template forevaluation alternative solutions are presented.</p>

<p>The fundamental aim of this study is to examine whether itis possible to automatically convert vector-based drawings toproduct models. The reason fordoing this is that the newobject-based systems cannot make use of the information storedin CAD drawings, which limits the usability of thesesystems.</p><p>Converting paper drawings to vector-format is used today andprovides recognition of lines and text, but does not interpretwhat the shapes represent. A language for describing thegeometrical representations that could be processed directlyinto a recognition program for building elements is missing. Itis easier to describe how to recognize a line as a series ofdots in a raster image, than it is to describe how a complexsymbol of a building element looks like.</p><p>The approach in this research work has been to testdifferent shape recognition algorithms. The proposed method canbe divided into four processes: grouping of geometricalprimitives, classifying these groups, interpreting the contentand analyzing the relationships between the groups. Thealgorithms developed here are based on research within relateddomains, such as pattern recognition and artificialintelligence.</p><p>The algorithms have been developed in a prototypeimplementation and were tested with three layer-structureddrawings used in practice. The results of the tests show thatthere are no crucial obstacles to recognizing a large part ofthe symbols of building elements in a CAD drawing. Therequirement is that the recognition system is able todifferentiate one from another and be tolerant of errors andvariations in the shapes.</p><p><b>Keywords:</b>Shape recognition, shape interpretation,product models</p>

<p>This master’s thesis report is a summary of the analysis performed together with ITAB Shop Concept located in Jönköping, Sweden. As a last element of the Master’s program at the School of Engineering, this 20 point level D thesis project has been the final work to bring my education to an end.</p><p>ITAB Shop Concept expressed an aspiration that the Shop Counter Program B10/B11 should undergo an analysis to point out and possibly lead to improvement.</p><p>Through interviews and data collection proposals for possible improvements has been drawn up and the analysis points out current deficiencies. By following the idea generation, proposals to solutions for every individual problem is presented. These proposals are weighted and compared to specified requirements.</p><p>The result is built up through a number of changes in the Shop Counter Program, partly by suggestions on reduction of part, but also how the Shop Counter can be re-designed.</p>

The design of alpine touring ski bindings has remained relatively static for the past fifteen years. During this period, the lack of innovative breakthroughs has become obvious through the number of customers who are currently unsatisfied by the products available on the market. This observation has presented a significant commercial opportunity to satisfy these users, plus many more non-consumers, with an innovative binding design. The objective of this project was to design a low profile alpine touring binding with the aim of satisfying the needs of these users. The resulting design followed a full year of research and development in the field of alpine touring bindings. Not only were concepts formed from completely untethered and open minded thinking, but they were also formed from reviewing various designs that already existed. These designs ranged from previous alpine touring bindings that either failed or succeeded in the market for various reasons, to completely unrelated mechanisms and designs forms. Through this process, several well formed and feasible design concepts were obtained which potentially met the design specification requirements of both high performing alpine touring bindings and downhill bindings. Detailed design and analysis followed, along with the manufacture of a fully functional prototype. This was then tested and evaluated to determine the project as a success. This project can be grouped only with a small amount of research ever conducted on the topic of alpine touring bindings. The findings, discussion and results of this work can therefore be used as a benchmark for future study into this field. Through the meticulous research conducted on skiing and ski bindings and the thorough design work carried out towards producing a prototype, this thesis presents the complete process of designing a new and innovative ski binding.

Knowledge management (KM) is an essential, if sometimes overlooked part of new product development (NPD). It describes the way information and new knowledge is being shared in a commercial organization, hence, how it is stored and made accessible within an organization. KM is applied to many organizational settings, but the application is sparse. KM has the potential to assist NPD, as previously acquired knowledge can be used more efficiently and redundant work can be avoided. However, there is no successful model or guideline for KM in an NPD environment. This project specifically examined the NPD situation, and the research questions included: What do engineering companies in New Zealand do, if anything, to store acquired knowledge? What would encourage engineers to share their knowledge in NPD projects? These research questions were answered by two methods: a survey and then follow-up face-to-face interviews were conducted. Statistical analysis identified various factors as important. Further, differences between New Zealand and German companies were examined. The survey and interview results showed that knowledge was found definitely important for innovation and NPD. However, Germans tended to rate the overall importance of knowledge higher than New Zealanders. It was found that all NPD companies used codification and personalization KM strategies to store knowledge and to make it accessible. However, a tendency towards a stronger emphasis on personalization was found. Particular knowledge sharing encouragements were identified that could result in a higher willingness of engineers to share their knowledge; supporting a communicative work-climate, setting up regular meetings for knowledge exchange and active encouragement to share knowledge. Apart from encouragements, survey and interview results also pointed out the importance of a clearly set direction for KM from management. Companies that were associated with successful KM did not only apply one particular KM process, but a combination of many. Particular KM practices and knowledge sharing encouragements were associated with KM success; the creation of a tidy, well structured database, regular meetings for knowledge sharing, supporting a communicative work-climate and active encouragement of staff to share their knowledge. Furthermore, the influence of personal relationships, trust and power differences on personal knowledge sharing processes were identified. Poor personal relationships and a low perceived level of trust can decrease the willingness of engineers to share knowledge. Engineers found that the most difficult situation in which to seek knowledge was from superiors, while the easiest was from peers. Thus organizational design and hierarchy structures can have an influence on KM. These results were used to construct an integrative model that describes the factors, and their interaction, for successful KM in NPD. Based on the interview and survey results, the main implications for practitioners are that an overall awareness of KM and the benefits thereof for the company itself and the employees are important for successful KM. Executives should consider setting direction, providing the required tools for KM, educating staff regarding KM, and actively encouraging knowledge sharing processes. Further, executives should be aware of the influence of organizational design on personal knowledge sharing mechanisms. NPD project managers should consider educating their project team regarding KM. Especially for the successful application of personal knowledge sharing processes it is important that project managers are aware of personal relationships and potential issues among their team members. In order to achieve a high willingness to share knowledge within the project team, project managers should consider supporting a communicative work-climate, setting up regular meetings for knowledge exchange and actively encouraging their project team members to share their knowledge. These methods were associated not only with a high willingness of employees to share knowledge, but also with KM success in general. Engineers should consider contributing to the KM process by applying the company’s KM strategy and by having a high willingness to share own knowledge and ask questions to acquire knowledge. Furthermore engineers need to be aware of personal relationships with their colleagues and try to maintain a good work-climate, as this affects personal knowledge sharing processes within the NPD project team. New product development requires knowledge, and in an organizational context that knowledge needs to be managed if there is to be an enduring future for the firm. This work has surveyed industry perspectives and identified factors that contribute to successful knowledge management, creating an integrated model that is applicable to new product development.

The composition of dairy products can have a significant impact on a dairy manufacturer’s revenue. By including more of the low-value components (water and lactose) and less of the higher value components (fat and protein) in their products, within customer specifications, higher yields and therefore higher revenue can be attained. The purpose of this project was to optimise product composition at Westland Milk Products, and develop procedures for the maintenance of yield reporting.

No description available.

A highly convergent strategy for the synthesis of the antitubulin polyketide disorazole C1 is proposed based around the alkyne precursor I, featuring a novel Evans-Tishchenko/ring closing alkyne metathesis approach. Due to the inherent symmetry of the molecule this retrosynthesis leads to two fragments: a β- hydroxyketone II and the oxazole C(1)-(9) fragment III. A review of previous syntheses of disorazole C1 and established structure activity relationships (SARs) highlights a gap in current knowledge relating to the role of the oxazole in tubulin binding. Therefore, the focus of this research has been towards developing new routes for the synthesis of the C(1)-C(9) fragment that can be adapted to the synthesis of heterocyclic analogues to further establish the SAR of disorazole C1. Chapter 2 focuses on a disconnection at the C(5)-C(6) bond and a novel synthesis of the racemic C(1)-C(9) fragment has been achieved via a lithiation of methyl 2- methyl-1,3-oxazole-4-carboxylate and coupling to aldehyde V. First generation asymmetric routes to the C(1)-C(9) fragment centred on i. a biomimetic amino acid condensation route via an oxazoline intermediate based on the precedent of Meyers et al. and ii. a C(4)-C(5) disconnection approach based around the epoxide VII; are discussed in chapter 3. A second generation C(4)-C(5) disconnection centred on the novel tosylate VIII is discussed in chapter 4. Attempts to synthesise the parent C(1)- C(9) oxazole fragment using the tosylate VIII via i. a palladium catalysed C-H activation of ethyl 4-oxazole carboxylate and ii. lithiation of oxazole are reported. Coupling of fragment VIII (X = OTs) with ethyl 1H-pyrazole-4-carboxylate and a CuAAC coupling of the azide derived from tosylate VIII with methyl propiolate has allowed the successful completion of the synthesis of pyrazole and triazole analogues of this fragment.

No description available.

No description available.