SammanfattningDe flesta företag som arbetar med produktutveckling idag använder sig av någon form avproduktutvecklings-process. Även om en process är mycket användbar, så garanterar inte den enframgångsrik produktutveckling. En av de viktigaste aspekterna i projektarbete ochproduktutveckling är kommunikation – hur projektmedlemmar utbyter information medvarandra. En framgångsrik produktutveckling är svår att uppnå utan effektivprojektkommunikation.Temat för den här uppsatsen är baserad på denna bakgrund. De frågor som ska besvaras är: Vilkaproblem finns i produktutvecklings-projekten idag? Hur är de relaterade till kommunikation?Hur kan kommunikationen förbättras för att lösa dessa problem? För att svara på dessa frågor haren fallstudie på produktutvecklings-företaget ITT Water and Wastewater genomförts. Genom 37intervjuer har data rörande företagets kommunikationsmetoder och utvecklingsprocess insamlats.Dessutom har teorier på samma studerats. Tillsammans bildar de basen till examensarbetetsanalys.Den empiriska datainsamlingen visade på problem i utvecklingsprocessen: brister i utvärderingarav projekt, långa utvecklingstider, projekt med för svag marknadsorientering och beslut tagnabaserade på otillräcklig information. De två sistnämnda har identifierats att vara beroende avkommunikationen i processen.Vidare visade studien att en projektöversikt skulle lösa dessa problem. Som resultat harförfattarna skapat en utformning av denna projektöversikt. Fastän brister i kommunikation inte ärden enda anledningen till de identifierade problemen, tror författarna att den framtagnaprojektöversikten kommer att avstyra dem. Då det finns stora likheter i hur produktutvecklingutförs på olika företag idag, anses resultatet vara överförbart även till andra organisationer. / AbstractThe majority of companies working with new product development today are using a productdevelopment process. Although very helpful, a process will not guarantee successful productdevelopment. One of the most important aspects to consider in projects and product developmentis communication - how project members exchange information with one another. Successfulproduct development is hard to achieve without efficient project communication.This master thesis is based on the previously mentioned background. The questions to beanswered are: What problems exist within product development projects? How are these relatedto communication? How can communication be improved to solve them? To answer thesequestions, a case study at the product development company ITT Water and Waste Water wascarried out. By conducting 37 interviews, data regarding the company’s communication anddevelopment process has been collected. In addition, theories regarding project development andcommunication are researched. Together, theses constitute the basis for the thesis analysis.The empirical research showed that there indeed exist problems in the case company’sdevelopment process: a lack of project evaluation, too development times, a lack of marketorientation, and decisions being made without sufficient information. The later two where foundclosely dependent on communication.Further research showed that introducing a project overview would solve these problems. As afinal conclusion, a layout of the proposed project overview was introduced. Even thoughinsufficient communication is not believed to be the only cause for the identified problems, theauthors believe that the project overview would in part solve them. Since there are largesimilarities in how product development is carried out at different companies, the findings aremost likely transferable to other organizations.

The majority of companies working with new product development today are using a product development process. Although very helpful, a process will not guarantee successful product development. One of the most important aspects to consider in projects and product development is communication - how project members exchange information with one another. Successful product development is hard to achieve without efficient project communication. This master thesis is based on the previously mentioned background. The questions to be answered are: What problems exist within product development projects? How are these related to communication? How can communication be improved to solve them? To answer these questions, a case study at the product development company ITT Water and Waste Water was carried out. By conducting 37 interviews, data regarding the company’s communication and development process has been collected. In addition, theories regarding project development and communication are researched. Together, theses constitute the basis for the thesis analysis. The empirical research showed that there indeed exist problems in the case company’s development process: a lack of project evaluation, too development times, a lack of market orientation, and decisions being made without sufficient information. The later two where found closely dependent on communication. Further research showed that introducing a project overview would solve these problems. As a final conclusion, a layout of the proposed project overview was introduced. Even though insufficient communication is not believed to be the only cause for the identified problems, the authors believe that the project overview would in part solve them. Since there are large similarities in how product development is carried out at different companies, the findings are most likely transferable to other organizations.

Följande rapport är skriven vid Örebro Universitet och skrivs som avslut på författarnas ingenjörsstudier. Problemet som rapporten behandlar är att tillfälliga projektgrupper har svårt att prestera och samarbeta. Detta påverkar produktutvecklingsprojektets genomförandeprocess samt projektets resultat. Denna rapport redogör för hur processen för produktutvecklingsprojekt påverkas av projektgruppers sammansättning, med avseende på Belbins teamroller, samt om det finns några gemensamma faktorer hos lyckade produktutvecklingsprojekt som kan kopplas till projektgruppens sammansättning. För att angripa problemet har en litteraturstudie utförts samt intervjuer på ett produktutvecklingsföretag. Med hjälp av släktskapsdiagram har all data strukturerats upp. Analys av data påvisade en bild av att projektgruppens sammansättning har en stor inverkan på produktutvecklingsprojekt och att processen i produktutvecklingsprojekt påverkas positivt av olikheter i projektgruppen. Den mest bidragande teamrollen är Plant vars påhittiga sida förser projektet med den kreativitet som krävs för att genomföra ett produktutvecklingsprojekt. Slutligen fastställdes att överskott av starka karaktärer i produktutvecklingsprojekt skapar konflikter, vilket medför att tidsram och budget för projekt riskerar att bli lidande. / This thesis is written at Örebro University as an ending of the writers’ time at the university. The report examines the problem that temporary project groups does not perform well and has troubles with collaboration. This affects the process of product development projects and can affect the result of the project. This thesis describes how the composition of the project group, with respect to Belbin’s team roles, affects the process of product development projects. The report will also examine if it is possible to find any links between successful product development projects and the composition of the project group. The thesis is based on a literature study that has been combined with interviews at a product development company. By analyzing the data from the interviews and the literature study the writers could see positive effects due to differences in the project groups. By adding a person with the team role Plant to the project group the level of creativity increases, which can improve the result of the project because of better ideas. The writers also found out that if you hold too many strong individuals in a project group it can cause the timeframe and the budget of the project to fail. The strong characters may have problems collaborating, which will create conflicts, causing the project to take longer time than expected.

The ongoing globalization of companies has resulted in a highly competitive business climate where companies have to be cost-effective but still flexible with fast response to customer feedback and present in the international scene. In order to meet the fast paced technological development from the competition and changing demand of the customers, companies focus on creating new products and reducing their time-to-market with an early product launch to gain profits from increased market shares. However, in order to maintain profitability of the new product, it becomes even more important for the company to quickly deploy a full-scale production of the product, also known as the production ramp-up phase. Despite being known as a major cost driver in new product development projects, production ramp-up is a research area which have yet received sparse attention compared to research on product launch and time-to-market in new product development projects. However, with shorter product life-cycles and higher market competition it has resulted in a need to shorten the length of a new product’s ramp-up time without making any trade-off to the cost-effectiveness of the ramp-up project and the end product’s final quality. The study identifies the common problems in volume production of a contract electronics manufacturer and their sources of disturbances from the new product introduction process. It also identifies the factors influencing the new product introduction process at the company and how these factors are connected different sources of disturbances. To identify these findings, a single case study was designed and performed at Orbit One AB, a contract electronics manufacturer with a low-volume production of products. The data collection course was executed in an iterative manner over a period of four months through interviews, observation and internal documentation and was backed up and analyzed with a literature study. The data collection through interviews was carried out in two separate rounds, where the first round of interviews was focused on identifying the common problems in volume production and the second round was focused on the factors influencing the output from the new product introduction process. The discoveries from the interviews were analyzed together with the other sources of collected data to reach a conclusive analysis. The results of the study showed that the most common problems in volume production of the company could be traced to six different sources of disturbances: Product, Production System, Design-Production Interface, Quality, Resource Management, and Personnel. The most common problems could also be summarized as: Problems with manufacturability of product; High variation of process performance, Poor correctness of information, Quality issues with products, and High workload on resources. The factors identified in the findings of the study shows that there are multiple and connected factors which affects the final output of the new product introduction process which corroborates with earlier studies and research in the area of production ramp-up. The study did identify two factors which has not been identified by other ramp-up studies, these were: Lack of organizational project culture and customer flexibility.

Aquesta tesi intenta descobrir els elements del pensament estratègic individual que proposen Bonn (2001, 2005) i Liedtka (1998), però que no s'havien demostrat empíricament, i la relació entre aquests elements en el seu rol com a facilitadors de la capacitat d'absorció organitzacional -reconceptualitzada per Zahra i George (2002)- en el context d'un projecte de desenvolupament de productes.A aquest efecte, la tesi ha seguit un enfocament qualitatiu, amb el marc metodològic de l'estudi del cas. La tesi comprèn quatre estudis del cas de desenvolupament de productes, en quatre filials llatinoamericanes d'una empresa farmacèutica multinacional. Seguint l'enfocament metodològic de Yin (2003a, 2003b) per als estudis del cas, i el mètode de comparació constant de la teoria fonamentada (grounded theory) de Glaser i Strauss (1967) i d'Strauss i Corbin (1998) per a l'anàlisi de dades, aquesta tesi aprofundeix els elements del pensament estratègic individual i la seva relació amb la capacitat d'absorció potencial (adquisició i assimilació de coneixements) i amb la capacitat d'absorció realitzada (transformació i aplicació de coneixement) de Zahra i George (2002).Aquesta tesi ha trobat que els principals elements relacionats amb el pensament estratègic individual són: creativitat individual, perspectiva holística i visió. Aquest descobriment concorda amb el model de Bonn (2005) sobre la matèria. També s'ha descobert que hi ha una relació facilitadora d'aquests elements (entre d'altres) sobre la capacitat d'absorció realitzada que proposen Zahra i George (2002) i, al seu moment, sobre l'èxit de projectes de desenvolupament de productes.Des del punt de vista teòric, els resultats d'aquesta dissertació contribueixen també amb un model de fluxos de coneixement que interrelaciona els elements del pensament estratègic individual, junt amb altres elements que s'han descobert en la recerca, amb la capacitat d'absorció organitzacional de l'equip, que faciliten l'èxit de projectes de desenvolupament de productes. Des del punt de vista pràctic, aquesta tesi ofereix als gerents la possibilitat de fer atenció al desenvolupament sistematitzat dels elements del pensament estratègic individual, com també als membres dels equips que tenen al seu càrrec projectes de desenvolupament de productes, per tal d'obtenir-hi més èxit. / Esta disertación, intentó descubrir los elementos del pensamiento estratégico individual, propuestos por Bonn (2001, 2005) y Liedtka (1998), pero no probados empíricamente; y la relación entre esos elementos en su rol como facilitadores de la capacidad de absorción organizacional - reconceptualizada por Zahra and George (2002) - en el contexto de un proyecto de desarrollo de productos.Para ese propósito la disertación usó un enfoque cualitativo con un marco metodológico del caso estudio. La disertación comprende cuatro casos estudio de desarrollo de productos, en cuatro subsidiarias latinoamericanas de una empresa farmacéutica multinacional. Usando el enfoque metodológico de Yin (2003a, 2003b) para los casos estudio; y el método de comparación constante del grounded theory de Glaser and Strauss's (1967) y Strauss and Corbin (1998) para el análisis de la data; esta disertación profundiza en los elementos del pensamiento estratégico individual y en su relación con la capacidad de absorción potencial (adquisición y asimilación de conocimiento) y con la capacidad de absorción realizada (transformación y aplicación de conocimiento) de Zahra and George's (2002).Esta disertación encontró que los principales elementos asociados al pensamiento estratégico individual son: creatividad individual, perspectiva holística, y visión. Este descubrimiento concuerda con el modelo de Bonn (2005) sobre el tema. También se descubrió que existe una relación facilitadora de esos elementos (entre otros) sobre la capacidad de absorción realizada propuesto por Zahra y George (2002) y en su momento, sobre el éxito de proyectos de desarrollo de productos.Desde el punto de vista teórico, los resultados de esta disertación contribuyen también con un modelo de flujos de conocimiento que interrelaciona los elementos del pensamiento estratégico individual, junto con otros elementos descubiertos en la investigación, con la capacidad de absorción organizacional del equipo, que facilitan el éxito de proyectos de desarrollo de productos. Desde un punto de vista práctico, esta disertación ofrece la posibilidad para los gerentes de prestar atención al desarrollo sistematizado de los elementos del pensamiento estratégico individual, en los miembros de los equipos a cargo de proyectos de desarrollo de productos, para lograr aumentar el éxito de dichos proyectos. / This dissertation attempted to uncover the individual strategic thinking elements proposed, but not empirically tested, by Bonn (2001, 2005) and Liedtka (1998); and the relationships between those elements and its role as facilitator of the team's absorptive capacity - as reconceptualized by Zahra and George (2002) - that a team develops within the context of NPD project.For that purpose this dissertation used a qualitative approach within the case-study methodology framework. The study comprises four case studies amidst New Product Development (NPD) projects in four Latin American subsidiaries of an American Multi-National Company (MNC) within the pharmaceutical industry. Using Yin's (2003a, 2003b) methodological approach to case studies as framework, and Glaser and Strauss's (1967) and Strauss and Corbin (1998) constant comparative method from the grounded theory as the data analysis tool, this dissertation deepened in the elements of individual strategic thinking and their relationship with Zahra and George's (2002) Potential Absorptive Capacity (knowledge acquisition and knowledge assimilation) and Realized Absorptive Capacity (knowledge transformation and knowledge application).This dissertation found that the main elements related to individual strategic thinking were: individual creativity, holistic perspective, and vision. This finding supports Bonn's (2005) model on the topic. Those elements were found to have a role as facilitators (among other elements) of Realized Absorptive Capacity proposed by Zahra and George (2002) and in turn, as an enabler of NPD project's success improvement.From a theoretical point of view, this dissertation also contributed with a framework of knowledge flows as present in a NPD project that interrelate individual strategic thinking elements, and other elements uncovered by the study, with the team's absorptive capacity facilitating the NPD success. From a practical stand point, this dissertation provided the possibility for managers to pay attention on a systematic development of the individual strategic thinking skill through its elements, among the members of a team in charge of a NPD project, in particular within the pharmaceutical industry.