Environmental costs of products are closely related to their environmental impacts incurred at all life cycle stages of a product. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) methods are often used to estimate these environmental costs and impacts. However, LCA analysis is known to be a costly and time-consuming method, whereas LCC analysis often neglects the social cost which is currently paid by society as a whole. Therefore, this research proposes a new methodology to assess the environmental impact and social cost for the entire life cycle of a product, which can be used as a simple and transparent tool for the early conceptual design stage. The methodology delivers the Environmental Impact Drivers and the associated Social Cost Drivers for all product life cycle stages via spreadsheets, and it provides the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) method in the SimaPro software as a user interface. Furthermore, the drivers provide the values for four different geographical regions and damage categories. The conceptual model is based on the impact pathway approach which integrates the Simplified LCA (SLCA) model and the social cost databases. The SLCA model is derived from an extension of previous research whereas the social costs are based on the most suitable Economic Valuation (EV) studies such as the EPS2000d, EXMOD, Ecosense and Asian EV studies. The data collection for the SLCA database was accomplished by using the LCA analysis of the Eco Indicator 99 H/A method and the Hierarchical clustering technique. The data for the social cost database was collected using the Benefit Transfer Method which obtains the EV studies mainly from the Environmental Valuation Reference Inventory (EVRI) data source. Several case studies utilising existing products, including a product redesign case study were used to prove the concept and demonstrate the efficiency of this proposed methodology.

Thesis (M.Eng.)(Mechanical)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Includes summaries in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MA--Art and Design) -- AUT University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (65 leaves : col. ill. ; 22 x 30 cm.) in City Campus Collection (T 658.5752 BOU)

<p>Produktnedläggning är ett sätt för företag att få bort produkter som inte presterar tillfredsställande. Tidigare studier har visat att företag med ordentliga rutiner kring produktavveckling har kunnat tillgodogöra sig flera fördelar i form av bland annat bättre lönsamhet och försäljning. Ändå har forskning visat att de flesta företag inte har några formella rutiner för nedläggning av produkter och att produktnedläggning inte ses som lika viktigt som andra produktaktiviteter. Av den anledningen studeras i denna uppsats hur väl utvecklade rutiner två utvalda företag har för avveckling av produkter.</p><p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur två utvalda företags rutiner för produktnedläggning ser ut. Resultaten jämförs sedan med den teoretiska referensramen samt mellan företagen i fråga för att urskilja likheter och olikheter.</p><p>Till denna uppsats har en kvalitativ metod använts för att klargöra hur företag går tillväga vid nedläggning av produkter. Genom intervjuer med AB Karl Hedin och Spendrups Bryggeri AB har empirisk data samlats in för att möjliggöra jämförelser företagen emellan samt med den teori som sammanställts.    </p><p>De två studerade företagen har helt skilda förfaranden kring produktavvecklingar. Spendrups har en högre grad av formalitet i sina nedläggningsprocesser där hela kedjan från uppkomsten av en produkt till en eventuell avveckling sker i samråd mellan projektledare, företagsledning och produktansvariga. AB Karl Hedin har inga utformade rutiner kring produktavveckling utan hanterar frågan på respektive ort.  Vad som orsakar produktnedläggning hos respektive företag är dålig lönsamhet och försäljning tillsammans med flera andra individuella faktorer.    </p> / <p>Product deletion is a method that companies can use to abandon products that are not performing satisfying. Studies have shown that companies with routines for product elimination have achieved several benefits in terms of higher sales volume and profitability. Nonetheless, research has proved that most companies do not have formal procedures for product deletion and that it is not considered quite as important as other product activities. For that reason, this essay will examine how highly developed the routines for product deletion are in two selected companies.</p><p>The purpose of the study is to observe the procedures for product deletion in two selected companies. The findings will then be compared between companies in the survey and related to the theory to define similarities and differences.</p><p>A qualitative method has been used to clarify how companies proceed when to abandon products. Empirical data has been collected by interviewing AB Karl Hedin and Spendrups Bryggeri AB for comparison to the theory and between the companies in our study in order to distinguish similarities and differences.</p><p>The companies in the study have different routines when it comes to deleting products. Spendrups has a higher level of formality in their elimination procedures where the top management together with project managers and product managers collaborate all the way from the birth of the product to a possible deletion. AB Karl Hedin has no formal routines for product abandonment. These questions are dealt with at each separate district. What cause the companies to eliminate a product are mainly low profitability and sales volume among several individual factors.  </p>

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the effect of human capital in Swedish export. Human capital is here expressed as the number of employees in the private sector per municipality with university education of at least three years. Two regression models were tested with aggregated export value/municipality and export value per kilo/municipality as dependent variables. Human capital as well as the total accessibility to R&amp;D was assumed to have a positive impact on the Swedish export performance. During the last decades many economists have attached great importance to education, knowledge and investments in R&amp;D. Sweden is in general abundant in human capital and have also several world leading companies characterized by knowledge intensive production and export. According to the Product Life Cycle Theory, Sweden should focus on the first phase that requires high input of human capital and product competition to maintain the competitiveness in the international market. The results indicate as expected that the access to human capital as well as accessibility to R&amp;D have a positive impact on the Swedish aggregated export value and export value per kilo. The assumption about human capital being even more important in high value export could not be confirmed by the results. Innovation promoting investments together with continuous efforts to improve innovation nets and interaction possibilities are presumed to be important factors for Swedish competitiveness also in the future.

Produktnedläggning är ett sätt för företag att få bort produkter som inte presterar tillfredsställande. Tidigare studier har visat att företag med ordentliga rutiner kring produktavveckling har kunnat tillgodogöra sig flera fördelar i form av bland annat bättre lönsamhet och försäljning. Ändå har forskning visat att de flesta företag inte har några formella rutiner för nedläggning av produkter och att produktnedläggning inte ses som lika viktigt som andra produktaktiviteter. Av den anledningen studeras i denna uppsats hur väl utvecklade rutiner två utvalda företag har för avveckling av produkter. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur två utvalda företags rutiner för produktnedläggning ser ut. Resultaten jämförs sedan med den teoretiska referensramen samt mellan företagen i fråga för att urskilja likheter och olikheter. Till denna uppsats har en kvalitativ metod använts för att klargöra hur företag går tillväga vid nedläggning av produkter. Genom intervjuer med AB Karl Hedin och Spendrups Bryggeri AB har empirisk data samlats in för att möjliggöra jämförelser företagen emellan samt med den teori som sammanställts.     De två studerade företagen har helt skilda förfaranden kring produktavvecklingar. Spendrups har en högre grad av formalitet i sina nedläggningsprocesser där hela kedjan från uppkomsten av en produkt till en eventuell avveckling sker i samråd mellan projektledare, företagsledning och produktansvariga. AB Karl Hedin har inga utformade rutiner kring produktavveckling utan hanterar frågan på respektive ort.  Vad som orsakar produktnedläggning hos respektive företag är dålig lönsamhet och försäljning tillsammans med flera andra individuella faktorer. / Product deletion is a method that companies can use to abandon products that are not performing satisfying. Studies have shown that companies with routines for product elimination have achieved several benefits in terms of higher sales volume and profitability. Nonetheless, research has proved that most companies do not have formal procedures for product deletion and that it is not considered quite as important as other product activities. For that reason, this essay will examine how highly developed the routines for product deletion are in two selected companies. The purpose of the study is to observe the procedures for product deletion in two selected companies. The findings will then be compared between companies in the survey and related to the theory to define similarities and differences. A qualitative method has been used to clarify how companies proceed when to abandon products. Empirical data has been collected by interviewing AB Karl Hedin and Spendrups Bryggeri AB for comparison to the theory and between the companies in our study in order to distinguish similarities and differences. The companies in the study have different routines when it comes to deleting products. Spendrups has a higher level of formality in their elimination procedures where the top management together with project managers and product managers collaborate all the way from the birth of the product to a possible deletion. AB Karl Hedin has no formal routines for product abandonment. These questions are dealt with at each separate district. What cause the companies to eliminate a product are mainly low profitability and sales volume among several individual factors.

Due to the impact of active matrix liquid crystal display (LCD), twisted nematic (TN)/super-twisted nematic display (STN) industry confronts the market recession worldwide. Therefore, STN-LCD companies try to seek another development opportunity positively. However, developing new market can not be achieved in the short term. Some corporations actively strengthen their competitive advantage by technical innovation in order to possess more important position in the industry. This research apply case study method and chose E-Company as sample company who ranked the third in Taiwan STN-LCD industry in terms of production capacity to find out the business model of E-Company through literature generalization, strategies analysis of rivals and enterprise interview. This study found that the business model of E-Company is that strengthening the ability of horizontal integration and expanding the application field of display. By way of business process reengineering (BPR) and implementing product life-cycle management (PLM) system, E-Company integrates the products of downstream customers and offers technical support and services during concept planning phase of product development. Customers and suppliers can early involve the product development and reduce the cost of design change via collaborative design. Besides, collaborative design offers E-Company the capability to integrate the design chain information about product development and reduce time to market. Key word: Business Model, Business Process Reengineering (BPR), Product Life-cycle Management (PLM), Collaborative Product Design (CPD)

Humanity is more civilized more cannot live without energy, but along with its heavier depending on the tradition fossil energy, also facing the resources exhausting and the environmental protection subject, the enhancement development of¡§renewable energy resources¡¨and¡§green energy resources¡¨has become the trend of global pursued. From the global climate vicissitude conference, proposed especially reduces the greenhouse gas emissions, every countries racks one's brains all, pondered how to reduce degree of dependency of the fossil energy and diversify the energy resources. Since developing new energy for future is an inevitably tendency, then how to position and how to plan the new energy strategy turns into the most important topic for each international energy company. This study namely takes A-Company as an example, discusses new energy strategy of the main global international energy company. This study aims at each advanced countries and the main international energy company first the new energy strategy, carries on the preliminary comparison and the analysis, then from competitive advantage theories and SWOT analysis, five strength analyses, product life cycle, diamond model, discusses the new energy strategy for A-Company .In this study case, To improve energy efficency, To manage emissions and To diversify the energy resources are the best new energy strategy, so that it can be well competitive advantaged . This study also suggests A-Company with some feasible planning actions to cope with the future energy developing scenario .

The semiconductor industry once again experienced the impact of business cycle on the end of 2008, after the global financial crisis. The investment of equipment is the largest Capex to a semiconductor manufacturer. The equipment firm is at the end of the semiconductor supply chain. The result of Bullwhip Effect makes the impact of business cycle disturbance severer, especially for the back-end supplier which is required to deal with the variant demand, larger customer bases and shorter lead-time, compared to front-end one. The study is to focus on identifying the key success factors of marketing strategy adapting business cycle for a semiconductor equipment firm. Under such environment, it is to understand how the firm should plan the strategy and structure organization to maintain competitive advantage. The manufacturing has been classified into detail process; each one has its own key technology. The industry leadership of each firm is different. To ensure the points well-captured from the line executives, the study adopts the qualitative research methodology through analyzing the industry environment, combining with the relevant literatures, as theoretical basis, and in-deep interview with the marketing and sales executives from the firm of case study. The research reveals five factors as the key success factors of marketing strategy adapting business cycle, including ¡§Segmenting and Differentiating for product development¡¨, ¡§broaden application and extend customer base¡¨, ¡§Overall Operation Capability¡¨, ¡§Sales Network to create partnership with customers¡¨ and ¡§High-quality Pre- and Post-sales support¡¨. The equipment supplier must consider his own advantage and disadvantage, together with realistic situation to keep the leadership or opportunity while understanding the industry trend. Except for riding through the cycle, the firm must keep the sustaining competitive advantage.

The equipment makers all over the world face the economic recession. They face many uncertainties and challenges when operation. In order to reduce the product development time to market, make the best utilization of the company resource, a suitable information system is helpful to achieve the goal. Applied Materials founded in 1976 is the world biggest equipment maker in the semiconductor industry. Because the growth rate is getting lower and lower, the company steps into other industries by merge and acquisition. Applied Materials expects to get revenue from these growing rapidly market requirements. This research is focus on Applied Materials company strategies. We analyzed the data transferred and information system structure changed during the company acquired Applied Films. We found out the information strategies aligned to company strategies. Through this research, we can understand more the suitable information system for equipment makers and help the equipment makers to get the capability to face the changing dramatically market.