Nya produkter är avgörande för framgångsrik tillväxt och konkurrenskraft. En ny produkt kan ibland vara en förbättring av en tidigare produkt hos ett företag. Företag strävar efter att leverera något som kunderna efterfrågar och det är då viktigt att lyssna på konsumenterna angående vad de vill ha och hur produkterna designas, produceras och hanteras. Konsumenter vill ha en dialog med företag då de vill vara med och bidra i produktutvecklingsprocessen. Konsumenter förväntar sig få svar från företag och vill skapa en relation. Syftet med denna studie är att få svar på hur konsumenten tycker kring textil produktförbättring inom kläder samt undersöka hur produktutvecklingsprocessen för en produktförbättring på ett klädesplagg kan se ut. Studien bygger på en litteraturstudie och en empirisk studie. Litteraturstudien berör ämnena konsumentbeteende och New Product Development. Det empiriska materialet är från intervjuer med en strategisk materialutvecklare och en global CRM-chef. Utöver detta har en enkätundersökning gjorts riktat mot konsumenter. Utifrån dessa visar resultatet flera problem som kan uppstå under produktutvecklingsprocessen för en produktförbättring. Resultatet visar även hur kunderna vill interagera med det utvalda företaget, vilka faktorer som påverkar konsumenten samt hur konsumenten vill vara med och påverka vid en produktförbättring. Slutsatsen som studien har kommit fram till visar att konsumenter vill vara med och påverka vid produktutvecklingsprocessen. Många av konsumenterna är engagerade i vad företaget utvecklar och vill därför vara med och påverka. I produktutvecklingsprocessen visade det sig att många tekniska problem kunde uppstå. Många tester och förändringar behövdes därför genomföras för att uppnå ett bra resultat. / New products are crucial for successful growth and competitiveness. A new product can sometimes be an improvement on a previous product in a company. Companies strive to deliver something that customers inquire for and it is at those times important to listen to consumers regarding what they want and how the products are designed, produced and managed. Consumers want a dialogue with companies as they want to be involved in the product development process. Consumers expect answers from companies and want to create a relationship. The purpose of this study is to get answers on how the consumer thinks about textile product improvement within clothing and how the product development process for a product improvement on a garment can look like. The study is based on a literature study and an empirical study. The literature study concerns the topics consumer behavior and New Product Development. The empirical material is from interviews with a strategic material developer and a global customer relationship management manager. In addition to this a questionnaire survey has been conducted aimed at consumers. Based on these, the results show several problems that can occur during the product development process regarding a product improvement. The result also shows how customers want to interact with the selected company, which factors that affect the consumer and how the consumer wants to be involved in a product improvement. The conclusion that the study has come up with shows that consumers want to participate and influence the product development process. Many of the consumers are dedicated regarding what the company is developing and therefore want to participate and affect. In the product development process, it showed that many technical problems could occur. Many tests and changes were therefore needed to achieve a good result.

Rolls-Royce AB in Kristinehamn, Sweden, part of Rolls-Royce Marine, is a leading developer and supplier of water jet and propeller based propulsion equipment. Its low volume production series and wide product variety offered to its customers along with an increasingly competitive market has entailed an increased demand on both delivery time and cost reductions. The on-site manufacturing engineering department is responsible for developing all tools and fixtures, and programming required to maintain the on-site production, assembling and quality testing. As part of the departments streamlining efforts this study aimed on evaluating streamlining possibilities related to the existing tool design used for static balancing and function testing controllable pitch propeller assemblies before packaging and shipping, along with the related tool development and manufacturing processes has been conducted.The process evaluation started from the point when a hub assembly design was finalized until when a manufactured tool was delivered for use in production. Work focused on locating inefficient activities and product properties, with respect to tool cost and lead time, followed by setting up an amendment proposal, implementing it and producing an alternate tool design of which the effects on tool cost and manufacturing lead time would be evaluated. Post evaluating the current state of the process and product a set based front loaded product development methodology known as Modular Function Deployment was chosen to be the applied method. This application resulted in a modular tool design that avoided the determined most inefficient manufacturing operation combination of welding and annealing. Modularity increased manufacturing flexibility, enabling more concurrent manufacturing, to reduce the lead time. The tool design also applied integral properties by identifying the common components and features between tool sizes. This led to reducing manufacturing and material costs. Possible lead time reduction for manufacturing was determined to be 35-45%, 3-4weeks, in comparison with the original tool design due to increased parallel manufacturing and avoiding inefficient manufacturing methods. The estimated cost reduction for combined development and manufacturing was determined to be 105K SEK the initial year followed by 175K SEK the second year assuming the current tool manufacturing rate. The combined effects of reduced cost and lead time would be beneficial to Rolls-Royce AB by contributing to an increase in delivery reliability and competitive prices on the market

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