Este trabalho avalia a relação entre a empresa e o fornecedor durante o processo de desenvolvimento de produto em três empresas do setor calçadista do Rio Grande do Sul. O seu principal objetivo é identificar as possíveis oportunidades de integração, assim como as possibilidades de melhoria. Os resultados indicam uma real viabilidade da cooperação com o fornecedor como uma alternativa para a empresa melhorar o desempenho do seu PDP. Verifica-se uma relação mais intensa com o fornecedor quando a empresa possui um direcionamento ao desenvolvimento tecnológico e ao aprimoramento da performance do produto, como no caso da empresa de calçado infantil. A relação é mais incipiente quando o PDP está focado ao acompanhamento das tendências de moda, como nos casos das empresas de calçado feminino. O estudo identifica oportunidades de cooperação com os fornecedores durante o processo de desenvolvimento e no produto, assim como alternativas de projetos para incrementar a sua relação com seus fornecedores. / This work evaluates the relation between buyer and supplier during the product development process (PDP) in three companies of the shoe sector in Rio Grande do Sul. The main objective is to identify a possible integration and improvement opportunities in this relationship. The results indicate a viability for the cooperation between both parties to improve the PDP. A more intense relation with the supplier is verified when the manufacturer focuses on technological development and product performance improvement, as it is the case of the company of children footwear. This relation tends to diminish when the PDP follows fashion trends, as it is the case of woman footwear. The study identifies chances of cooperation between buyers and suppliers during the PDP as well as alternative projects to further develop the studied companies’ relation with their suppliers.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent Amanor-Boadu / The development of vaccines and similar pharmaceutical products in the animal health industry are expensive and follow very specific pathways to comply with regulatory requirements for product licensure and registration. The vaccine development process is complex and involves numerous individuals, assets and departments within and outside the organization, and is a long process. The study stage of this long and complex process allows a company to confirm particular solutions to particular health incidents can be efficacious. The study stage involves executives who decide on new products that may be developed, managers who oversee the development of the products and scientists who develop protocols to undertake animal studies to test various aspects of the new product. It also involves clinical study personnel and laboratory personnel who conduct the experiments and collect data for analyses about the new products being studied. The number of people and time sensitivity of the processes contribute to the complexity, making effective communication critical to getting new products developed on time and on budget. The objective of this research is to identify perceived gaps in communication among people in the different roles with the view to finding solutions to address these gaps. Data were collected using an industry-focused online survey instrument. The instrument was designed to have both closed and open-ended questions. Survey participants were purposefully selected from across the global animal health industry, focusing on those directly involved in the study stage of new product development. The results showed the majority of respondents were satisfied with their company’s processes and systems for study development, initiation and execution, but people resources were viewed as the highest contributor to bottlenecks, which could demonstrate gaps in the communication links between groups. However, perceptions about challenges and gaps in communication seem to be influenced by who is providing information and who is receiving it. The different roles perceived the effect of timeliness, accuracy and clarity of communication on product development costs differently, with scientists presenting the highest cost of communication challenges and executives the lowest. On average, the perception was that these communication challenges increased the cost at the study stage of new product development by about 84% for biologicals and over 100% for pharmaceuticals.

This bachelor thesis in product development and design, done at Jönköping University in collaboration with Husqvarna AB, presents a design study for a new product. Jari Oikarinen and Alfred Smith performed the design study.  Initial research, including a project plan and a pilot study, provided the framework for the work ahead. The implementation contains a case study, concept study and an experiment involving the product. Different concepts were evaluated but one was chosen as most viable.  The design study finishes with the results, that some internal components needed to be changed or modified to operate the product, presentation of the final concept and the test of the product.  Lastly, further work is recommended based on this report. / Detta examensarbete inom produktutveckling och design, genomförd på Jönköping University i samarbete med Husqvarna AB, presenterar en designstudie för en ny produkt. Designstudien är utförd av Jari Oikarinen och Alfred Smith.  Inledningsvis strukturerades arbetet av en projektplan och en pilotstudie. Genomförandet innehåller en fallstudie, konceptstudie och ett experiment på produkten. Flertal koncept blev utvärderade tills en var kvar. Designstudien avslutar med resultaten, att vissa interna komponenter behöver bytas eller förändras för att kunna använda produkten, presentation av det slutliga konceptet och prövning för produkten. Slutligen rekommenderas ytterligare arbete utifrån denna rapport

Rapporten innehåller ett examensarbete i produktutveckling som är utfört hos uppdragsgivaren Projektengagemang i Karlstad. Projektengagemang är en del av Projektengagemang Sweden AB som har sin bas i Stockholm. Företaget är en konsultverksamhet som är verksam inom många branscher, men som i Karlstad inriktar sig mest mot industri och energi samt produktutveckling.   Anledningen till att detta arbete har genomförts är för att Projektengagemang vill reducera det interna slitaget i en utlösningsventil som är en del av en dykarprodukt som företaget utvecklar. Projektengagemang önskar att få en reviderad utlösningsventil med samma funktioner i en smartare design. Ventilen bör också möjliggöra en gynnsam serieproduktion och således skall antalet ingående komponenter försöka minimeras. Projektengagemang önskar underlag i form av en CAD-modell där ingående komponenter redovisas i en stycklista samt en beskrivning av ventilens funktion. De ingående komponenterna behöver inte beräknas då arbetet skulle bli för stort.   Med hjälp av produktutvecklingsprocessens olika faser; projektplan, förstudie, kravspecifikation, litteraturstudie, konceptgenerering, konceptval samt konfiguration/ detaljkonstruktion har den befintliga utlösningsventilen analyserats och lösningsförslag baserade på ställda krav och önskemål tagits fram. Pneumatik, strömningslära, mekanik samt tidigare framtaget underlag har varit till stor hjälp för att analysera den befintliga utlösningsventilen och beräkna det interna luftflödet genom dykarprodukten.   Arbetet resulterade i en ny designlösning med erforderligt underlag för att vidareutveckla produkten. Den lösning som tagits fram är en helpneumatisk ventil som bygger på att man låter systemtrycket verka mot en konisk area. I normalfallet då ventilen är stängd verkar systemtrycket mot en minimal yta för att vid öppning verka mot en stor yta vilket möjliggör fortsatt öppning av ventilen även då öppningstrycket avtagit. Övriga tryck i ventilen har balanserats mot varandra med hjälp av olika stora tryckytor.   Arbetet har utförts i kursen Examensarbete för högskoleingenjörer MSGC17. Kursen ges på programmet Högskoleingenjör, Maskinteknik vid fakulteten för hälsa-, natur- och teknikvetenskap. Kursens omfattning är 22,5 högskolepoäng och utförs under vårterminen 2018. / This report contains a thesis in product development that has been performed at Projektengagemang in Karlstad, Sweden. Projektengagemang is part of Projektengagemang Sweden AB, which is based in Stockholm. The company is a consulting company that operates in many areas, but which in Karlstad focuses mostly on industry, energy and product development. The reason why this work has been carried out is that Projektengagemang wants to reduce the internal wear inside a trigger valve, which is a component in a diving product that the company developes for scuba diving. Projektengagemang wishes to have a revised trigger valve which contains the same features but in a smarter design. The valve should enable a favorable serial production and thus the number of components in the valve should be minimized. Projektengagemang wants a CAD model in which the included components are listed in a paragraph list. They also want a description of the valve's function. The components included in the concept need not be calculated as the project would be too large.   Using the following different phases of the product development process; project plan, preliminary study, requirement specification, literature study, concept generation, concept selection and configuration / detail design, the existing triggering valve has been analyzed and solution proposals based on set requirements and wishes have been developed.   Pneumatics, flow theory, mechanics and previously developed substrates have been very helpful in analyzing the existing trigger valve and calculating the internal airflow through the dive product for scuba diving.   The work resulted in a new design solution with the necessary support to further develop the product. The solution developed is a fully-pneumatic valve based on allowing the system pressure to work against a conical area. Normally, when the valve is closed, the system pressure appears against a minimal surface, thus when the valve is open, the pressure works against a large surface, which allows for further opening of the valve even when the opening pressure decreases. Other pressures in the valve has been balanced against each other by means of different pressure surface sizing.   The work has been done in the course Degree Project for Higher Education MSGC17. The course is offered at the Faculty of Health, Science and Engineering, Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering. The extent of the course is 22.5 credits and is carried out during the spring term of 2018.

Este trabalho avalia a relação entre a empresa e o fornecedor durante o processo de desenvolvimento de produto em três empresas do setor calçadista do Rio Grande do Sul. O seu principal objetivo é identificar as possíveis oportunidades de integração, assim como as possibilidades de melhoria. Os resultados indicam uma real viabilidade da cooperação com o fornecedor como uma alternativa para a empresa melhorar o desempenho do seu PDP. Verifica-se uma relação mais intensa com o fornecedor quando a empresa possui um direcionamento ao desenvolvimento tecnológico e ao aprimoramento da performance do produto, como no caso da empresa de calçado infantil. A relação é mais incipiente quando o PDP está focado ao acompanhamento das tendências de moda, como nos casos das empresas de calçado feminino. O estudo identifica oportunidades de cooperação com os fornecedores durante o processo de desenvolvimento e no produto, assim como alternativas de projetos para incrementar a sua relação com seus fornecedores. / This work evaluates the relation between buyer and supplier during the product development process (PDP) in three companies of the shoe sector in Rio Grande do Sul. The main objective is to identify a possible integration and improvement opportunities in this relationship. The results indicate a viability for the cooperation between both parties to improve the PDP. A more intense relation with the supplier is verified when the manufacturer focuses on technological development and product performance improvement, as it is the case of the company of children footwear. This relation tends to diminish when the PDP follows fashion trends, as it is the case of woman footwear. The study identifies chances of cooperation between buyers and suppliers during the PDP as well as alternative projects to further develop the studied companies’ relation with their suppliers.

Abstract Product development plays a crucial role in the survival of high technology companies. High technology product development projects typically are multi-technical, multicultural, geographically dispersed, inter-connected and organized in a network of companies. These settings pose extra challenges for communication. In this qualitative multiple-case study, communication challenges and possible solutions for developing communication were studied. The empirical data were collected from five high technology product development projects. Each project represented a different high technology company operating in the Oulu area, in Finland. Multiple data collection methods were used, including interviews studying organizations’ internal documents, web-based surveys among project personnel and case-internal focus groups. After studying each of the five cases separately, a cross-case analysis was conducted by the researcher. The findings of this research show that communication challenges depend on the business role of the company. Efforts to enhance communication should be considered in relation to the business realities of companies. Typical challenges include a lack of communication planning, lack of project personnel’s communication competence and obstacles caused by physical & organizational boundaries. Possible solutions for developing communication include systematic planning of project communication and defining communication development targets based on internal analyses and the business realities of the company. Data management systems should be set up to enhance the work done and information flows in projects. Another solution is continuous trust building through feedback between the companies participating in the same product development project. According to the results of this study, companies can direct their efforts when enhancing communication in product development projects. Companies can also utilize of the process described in this research to identify their communication challenges and to define communication action plans.

Abstract The workload of Verification and Validation (V&V) has increased constantly in the high technology industries. The changes in the business environment, with fast time-to-market and demands to decrease research and development costs, have increased the importance of efficient product creation process, including V&V. The significance of the V&V related know-how and testing is increasing in the high tech business environment. As a consequence, companies in the ICT sector have pressures for improving product development process and verification and validation activities. The main motive for this research arises from the fact that the research has been scarce on verification and validation from product development process perspective. This study approaches the above mentioned goal from four perspectives: current challenges and success factors, V&V maturity in different NPD phases, benchmarking automotive sector, and shifting the emphasis of NPD efforts. This dissertation is qualitative in nature and is based on interviewing experienced industrial managers, reflecting their views against scientific literature. The researcher has analysed the obtained material and made conclusions. The main implications of this doctoral dissertation can be concluded as a visible need to shift the emphasis of V&V activities to early NPD. These activities should be viewed and managed over the entire NPD process. There is a need for companies to understand the V&V maturity in different NPD phases and develop activities based on this understanding. Verification and validation activities must be seen as an integral element for successful NPD. Benchmarking other sectors may enable identifying development potential for NPD process. The automotive sector being a mature sector, has developed practices for successfully handling requirements during NPD. The role of V&V is different in different NPD phases. Set-based type V&V can provide required understanding during early product development. In addition, developing parallel technological alternatives and platforms during early NPD also support shifting the emphasis towards earlier development phases.

Abstract The main motive for this research arises from the fact that the research has been scarce on verification and validation (V&V) activities from the management viewpoint, even though V&V has been covered from the technical viewpoint. There was a clear need for studying the management aspects due to the development of the information and communications technology (ICT) sector, and increased significance of V&V activities. ICT has developed into a turbulent, high clock-speed sector and the importance of V&V activities has increased significantly. As a consequence, companies in the ICT sector require ideas for improving their verification and validation activities from the product development management viewpoint. This study approaches the above mentioned goal from four perspectives: current V&V management challenges, organisational and V&V maturities, benchmarking another sector, and uncertainty during new product development (NPD). This dissertation is qualitative in nature and is based on interviewing experienced industrial managers, reflecting their views against scientific literature. The researcher has analysed the obtained material and made conclusions. The main implications of this doctoral dissertation can be concluded as a need to overcome the current tendency to organise through functional silos, and low maturity of V&V activities. Verification and validation activities should be viewed and managed over the entire NPD process. This requires new means for cross-functional integration. The maturity of the overall management system needs to be adequate to enable higher efficiency and effectiveness of V&V activities. There are pressures to shift the emphasis of V&V to early NPD and simultaneously delay decision-making in NPD projects to a stage where enough information is available. Understanding enhancing V&V methods are a potential way to advance towards these goals.

Today's global economy requires many organizations to co-ordinate work across a variety of intra and inter-organizational boundaries (Armstrong & Cole, 1995; Lipnack & Stamps, 1997). Global competition, re-engineered product life cycles, mass customization, and the increased need to respond quickly to customer needs are just some of the more pronounced trends currently driving organizational change (Grenier & Metes, 1995; Miles & Snow, 1986; Miles & Snow, 1992). An organizations growth and profitability is largely due to the strategies of globalization. Firms developing products with global applications must build competencies to connect and leverage knowledge on a worldwide basis (Bartlett and Ghoshal, 1998). In several industries product development is a crucial ingredient and therefore factors such as cost of development, cycle time and increased productivity are key drivers for market share and profitability. Product development is an expensive process particularly in the engineering and technology intensive segments. Technological advances have enabled many companies to assemble teams of employees from across the country or around the world into global teams to solve complex organizational problems (Lipnack and Stamps, 1997). Such teams are sometimes temporary, culturally diverse, geographically dispersed, and electronically communicating collections of individuals (Kristof, Brown, Sims, and Smith, 1995). These teams allow organizations to increase efficiency and effectiveness by tapping the knowledge, skills, and expertise of employees around the globe, increasing opportunities for information or knowledge exchange through expanded social networks (Wellman 1996). A large amount of investment is spent in human resources and hence ways to optimize the spending by leveraging global resources, directly helps the bottom line (Govindarajan & Gupta 2001). Models that could be used to understand better team development and effectiveness have been limited to those based on the traditional colocated group perspective. Theory development and empirical research are needed to help managers better understand and respond to the challenges that global teams face (Furst, Blackburn & Rosen, 1999). A literature review conducted found though team effectiveness has been fairly well researched the extension of the topic and as applied to global teams remains a gap. This study attempts to understand team effectiveness and its relevance when applied to a global team in a product development environment. The study involves developing a suitable model and understanding the causal relationships between the identified factors and explains the model based on the findings. Review of Literature The study reviewed a vast amount of literature relating to teams and small workgroups and summarized findings under; Team Definition, Team Types and Nature, Team Composition, Task Design, Team Development, Team Processes, Organizational Context and Global Teams. The literary review suggests that though research is steadily increasing, empirical studies on performance and effectiveness are limited. There has been very few studies on effectiveness as applied to global teams. Literature review on the subject of global teams, suggests that these teams, face even greater challenges because of their geographical separation, diverse cultures, and language. The study identified factors as applicable to global team effectiveness based on previous studies and calibrates them with findings in general team and workgroup study. The study considers Task design, Team composition, and Organizational context factors and attempts to empirically determine causal relationships with Team Processes and Team Effectiveness. Objectives and Methodology The objectives of the study are as follows: 1 To develop and validate a conceptual model that explains global team effectiveness in a product development environment. 2 To establish relationship between team design, team composition, knowledge management context and senior management context towards global team effectiveness in a product development environment. 3 To illustrate the application of the validated model and relationships for developing interventions to enhance effectiveness in a product development environment through a qualitative case study. The methodology adopted was to study contemporary team effectiveness models from literature and get an understanding of the key variables and factors that influence effectiveness. Next, based on prior studies on global teams, a model was developed using an established effectiveness model and extended it to global teams. The main study comprised of analyzing responses from 376 participants from 64 projects working together as global teams. The conceptual model developed consists of two key factors measuring effectiveness namely; Product Development Effectiveness and Team Process Effectiveness. The enabling factors, that are called as ‘global factors’ in the study that influence effectiveness in the model are; Team Design and Composition, Senior Management Context and Knowledge Management Context. Measures defining each factor were developed, refined and checked for reliability and validity. The factor analysis conducted suggested that Product development effectiveness variables include; Schedule compliance, Functional completeness, Product Quality, Cost compliance and Innovative Problem solving. Team Process effectiveness includes; Internal motivation in the team, Looking forward to team challenges, Willingness to share Knowledge, Conflict resolution, Openness to Learning and Quality team interaction. Similarly, factor analysis suggests Task design and team composition be combined as Team Design and Composition. The variables included are; Clear Goals, Well defined output or deliverable, Use of Judgment, Adequate skill sets (Technical, Functional, Program Management and Diversity) and Right size. Knowledge Management Context variables following factor analysis are; Knowledge management practice, Perceived importance of knowledge management, adequate infrastructure and Existent reward system. Senior Management context variables are; Global Senior management support, Management review support and Easy information flow. In order to achieve the objectives of the study a detailed Structural Equation Modeling using Partial Least Squares method was conducted. The measurement model and structural model was assessed, path coefficients studied, moderating effects studied and model evaluated for goodness of fit. In addition, an in depth case study is conducted and the model is applied in a practical scenario. Results and Discussion The study suggests the importance of global teams in a product development environment. This is particularly so as distance, time, culture and technology interface make it all the more important for global teams to have means of measuring effectiveness. It is also necessary to have an understanding of the enabling factors aiding effectiveness. The study suggests a model for measuring effectiveness in global teams involved in product development as; Meeting milestones and timely delivery of the output, Meeting product functional and technical requirements, Quality of output delivered, Cost and budget targets and Innovative problem solving are typical measurements of effectiveness. The model encourages using Team Process Effectiveness as a measure and suggests it has a moderating influence it has on Product Development Effectiveness. The Team Process Effectiveness measures are; Internal motivation amongst members within the team, Identifying if the team looks forward to challenges, Willingness to share knowledge with each other, Resolving conflicts within the team in a positive manner, Openness to learning and Quality team interaction. The model developed indicates that all paths defined and relationships are positive and the model is structurally valid. As hypothesized, factors, Team Design and Composition, Knowledge Management Context and Senior Management Context has significant relationship with Team Process Effectiveness. Further, Team Process Effectiveness has positive causal relationship with Product Development Effectiveness. Knowledge Management Context and Senior Management Context have a significant and positive relationship with Team Process Effectiveness. The study confirms the moderating influence Team Process Effectiveness has on Team Design and Composition, Senior Management context, Knowledge Management Context with Product Development Effectiveness. The in depth case study on a department of 75 members of product development global teams provided the insight into the empirical analysis, strengthened it and helped understand several other aspects of global teams. Conclusion The study provided an in-depth understanding of global team effectiveness by reviewing literature and identifying variables that influence global teams in a product development environment. A model was developed, empirically validated and tested. The model includes effectiveness factors and enabling factors and relationship between factors have been explained. A case study spanning a period of five years on a global team involved in product development was conducted and the model applied in practice. This study suggests that the model can be used by organizations and practicing managers for understanding, developing and leading global teams involved in product development.

The purpose of this study was to increase the knowledge for both academia and practitioners on how to integrate sustainability aspects in product development by studying current research and comparing these findings to empirical material retrieved from an industrial company. Seco, which functioned as the case company of this study, was used as the source for the empirical data collection. The study used a deductive research approach, which implicates that the literature has steered the collection of the empirical material. In the literature, eight key drivers and seven challenges for sustainable product development were identified to be significantly important. The drivers were categorized as either internal or external for an organization and the challenges were all categorised as internal. Of these eight drivers, one internal and one external driver was identified at Seco to be particularly important. The internal driver was the corporate sustainability strategy from Sandvik Group, which is the corporation Seco is part of, and the external driver was upcoming and existing regulations. Moreover, all six challenges were found to be relevant for Seco. These were handling trade-off situations, short-term economic thinking, lack of information in early phases of product development, measuring sustainability, sustainability strategy remains at the strategic level, and perceived risk of implementing sustainability. This study also examined what attributes that are important in decision support tools to enable the integration of sustainability aspects in product development. To identify important attributes in this study, Seco’s current decision support tools at the strategic, tactical, and operational planning levels were analysed by putting the theoretical framework in relation to the empirical material. From the analysis, the initial seven attributes from the theoretical framework were complemented with the following five attributes identified as important: a top-down approach that focuses on integrating sustainability on all planning levels of the product development process, enabling follow-up on strategic decisions, reduce the room for free interpretations, reduce the complexity and amount of time to use decision support tools, and lastly methodologies to support the collection of the required information to use decision support tools. Thus, it is emphasized that researchers and practitioners continue to develop new and existing decision support tools so that the sustainability of products can be defined and measured. A focus on developing methodologies that guides how the required information can be obtained to use decision support that incorporates all life-cycle phases of a product is also identified as important.