The aircraft industry is viewed as a prestigious industry by many countries. Emerging economies regard the establishment of aircraft production capabilities as contributing to their competitiveness and technological development. Therefore, in the defence aircraft industry, politics play a key role in competitiveness. Governments can strategically trade market access for technological development, often in the form of offset business. “Offset” is defined as an agreement in which a large system is bought and the seller assumes obligations that both benefit the buying nation and have long-term effects on the development of the buyer’s national industry. When the offset obligations are directly connected to the product or system sold, they are called “related offsets”. The realization of an offset agreement is in most cases including some form of technology transfer. Technology transfer is the transfer of technology from a sending company, to a receiving company, where it is implemented and adapted to use. The empirical data presented in this thesis were gathered through six in-depth studies performed at the unit for aircraft production at the Swedish company Saab. The findings from the studies are presented in six appended papers. The objective of this thesis is to extend the current understanding of technology transfer realization connected to related offsets within the defence aircraft industry. The research objective is fulfilled through the addressing of two research questions. The first research question aims to identify factors that can have a major effect on technology transfer realization in the research context. As an answer to the first research question. Following factors were identified: Capability gaps, Knowledge transfer, The purpose of related offset business, Seller’s fulfilment of offset obligations before contract termination, Related offset business include hierarchical levels, Related offset work package identification to meet the buyer’s request, and Assessment of the receiver in two steps, and finally Cultural and communication challenges. These factors set the basis for research question two. The second research question addresses how to manage future related offset technology transfer realization connected to aircraft production. As an answer to the second research question, a structured related offset process and facilitation tools for managing capability gaps between the sending and the receiving company was presented. The purpose of the suggested structure is to maintain the link between the negotiated related offset agreements and the employees, working to achieve the agreement within the realization of the technology transfer.

Este trabalho estabelece um procedimento metodológico para padronizar a inspeção de recebimento, eliminar conflitos com os fornecedores e desencontros de informações, causados por processos e equipamentos incompatíveis com as especificações, propondo a inclusão de roteiros de inspeção no processo licitatório para auxiliar as especificações na contratação de serviços de fornecimento de peças usinadas para uso em veículos espaciais de sondagem e lançadores de satélites. Esta proposta tem por base a pesquisa e análise das necessidades do Instituto de Aeronáutica e Espaço (IAE), sobre as formas de inspeção de recebimento dos serviços de usinagem fornecidos por empresas do setor aeroespacial e revisão bibliográfica sobre o assunto. Espera-se obter como resultado, a eliminação de conflitos no recebimento de peças, a confiança na inspeção dos fornecedores e o recebimento de produtos com a qualidade necessária ao cumprimento dos requisitos especificados. / This work establishes a methodological procedure to standardize the reception inspection, to eliminate conflicts with the suppliers, and divergence of information, caused by processes and incompatible equipments with the specifications, proposing the inclusion of inspection itineraries in the acquisition process to aid the specifications in the recruiting of services of supply of manufactured pieces for use in space vehicles of survey and throwers of satellites. This proposal has for base the research and analysis of the needs of the Institute of Aeronautics and Space (IAE), on the forms to inspection of reception services of manufacture supplied by companies of the aerospace section and bibliographical revision on the subject. It is waited to obtain as result, the elimination of conflicts in the reception of pieces, the trust in the inspection of the suppliers and the reception of products with the necessary quality to the execution of the specified requirements.

After opening of China‟s borders to foreign trade and investment, over the last decades, a growing number of foreign company‟s attention has been drawn to China due to the immense market potential, and a huge source of cheap labor. Swedish industry, however, is not an exception from this tremendous trend in the world, as their recent acquisitions have given access to production facilities in China. This transfer of product/production from Sweden to China has emerged two major concerns including Design and Manufacturing (DM) interaction between geographically distant settings, in conjunction with inter-cultural considerations. Lately, the concept of interaction between DM has been growing in the scholar thoughts. Typically, different challenges such as different personalities and cultural differences exist towards having an enhanced collaboration during the development process. This study uses a framework for integration mechanisms which comprises number of approaches such as DfX, CE, cross-functional teams, and modern quality management. Second, this study by carrying out 6 interviews within the Chinese plants in four Swedish-Chinese based companies identifies the main challenges of interaction of design in Sweden and manufacturing in China (2 pilot companies and 2 target companies). The most frequent challenges are spotted as cultural clashes, ineffective collaboration, frustrating verification process, inadequate management system, and lack of technical knowledge. By including cultural attributes, a literature based classification is adopted to classify the determined challenges. Eventually, this study comes up with suggestions for managing challenges associated with geographical distance. More face-to-face interactions instead of electronic communications in order to have a better insight to the cultural differences (such as trust, lose face, and direct/indirect confrontation), cross-functional integrations, localizing the verification process, facilitating the early involvement of suppliers, rotation of the expertise across projects, use of DfA index, and function-wise motivation system, are stated in our recommendations to cope with these challenges. Besides, the influence of reward system on challenges of dispersed settings, is proposed to be investigated for further studies.