Employer branding is an area of growing importance and attention. Though the concept of attracting and recruiting employees is by no means a new one, the idea of the employer brand implies a more conscious opinion of companies as employers by potential employees and as a result a more considered approach by companies themselves.  The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how the attract stage of employer branding in an anonymous company could be improved and formulate suggestions for improvement. The analysis is performed with three different focuses: formulating an employer branding strategy, organizing a structure to implement this strategy and communication of the desired image and brand values. Results show that the company is lacking in many areas and have potential for improvement in several key areas. The general analysis is that focus in employer branding is moving towards a more active dialogue with the target group where transparency and relations are emphasized. The company could improve their employer branding management by defining on a more specific target group, prioritize the opinion of this group over the general student population and use local brands more in the communication.

The manufacturing sequence may to a large extent influence properties like residual stresses and hardness and, as a consequence, the fatigue life and shape accuracy of a component. By simulating the manufacturing sequence and extract important accumulated data, the possibilities of early analysis of a design concept of a component and optimisation of the complete manufacturing sequence may increase. An established methodology has the potential to reduce physical testing, increase the process knowledge and reduce product development time and costs. This thesis suggests principles for simulating manufacturing sequences for forged and sheet metal-formed components. It is possible to establish virtual manufacturing sequences and connect different commercial simulation softwares into a chain with support from methods for data communication and in process modelling. However, the data communication has pitfalls and also material data, process data and material models for single processes may be insufficient in order to conduct a quantitative analysis of the accumulated properties. Thus, a thorough validation of the sequential simulation results should be performed. Further, engineering simplifications of the sequence are recommended and e.g. a combination of numerical and empirical methods may be preferable in order to predict accumulated results with high accuracy. Future development concerning standards for data communication as well as meshing, mapping and modelling technique is recommended in order to improve the quality of the accumulated results. Finally, methods for integration of sequential simulation in the overall component design process, including conventional Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Finite Element Analysis (FEA), should be developed. The main advantage of sequential simulation may be conceptual studies of process and material parameter variations and their influence on the final product properties. Paper I describes how to select the most critical process parameters in a manufacturing sequence. Paper II describes how to establish a sequence using a combination of numerical and empirical methods and paper III describes state of the art concerning shot peening simulation.

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Manufacturing within a workshop layout raises multiple difficult problems with how the production is planned and how it is supposed to be run to be able to maintain quality, profitability, effectiveness while at the same time keep the lead time to a minimum. To succeed with the above, it requires a well-planned production process and clear prioritizing rules for special occasions.  For the personnel to be able to succeed and plan the production, they need have great knowledge in how the production works and what areas in which problems are likely to occur.  The study will use the process mining software Disco and combined with interviews and observations to determine if process mining could be utilized with the purpose to improve the company’s production process.   The result from the study shows that using process mining will support the company in getting better understanding in the productions current situation. It also shows that process mining can identify areas in the production process where long waiting times occur and deviations in the production data log. The study also shows that the company could profit from utilizing process mining in their work to improve the process to reach an improved current state in the future with being a complement to simulation models and can be seen as an early step in the PDCA-tool.

Widab är ett företag som är verksamma i Hjo, med delar av sälj och projektorganisationen i Stockholm. De erbjuder kompletta tjänster, service och produkter inom storkök för restauranger, pubar och hotell. Uppdraget innefattar att ta fram en modulär barstomme åt Widab, som de har som ambition att etablera i sitt sortiment. Målet med barstommen är främst att den ska vara modulär, men även tillgodose en lättare distribution samt montering och demontering genom att applicera metoden Design For Manufacturing and Assembly, som i rapporten kommer förkortas DFMA. Detta då Widab tidigare har haft problem med sina andra barer, då de är otympliga och tar onödigt stor plats vid leveranser. De har heller inte varit särskilt flexibla, vad gäller montering. Denna bar ska kunden kunna konfigurera även efter beställning, om de vill flytta på baren eller göra andra justeringar. Detta är något som marknaden inte erbjuder helt och hållet i dagsläget. En planerad produktframtagningsprocess har använts för att komma fram till slutprodukten, där metoder som intervjuer, enkäter, Morfologisk matris, Six thinking hats, Idéutvärdering och Konceptviktningsmatris har använts. Projektet resulterade i en bar med segment som är modulära, där användaren kan konfigurera segmenten utifrån sina behov till en komplett bar. Segmenten ställs bredvid varandra i önskad ordning och plats, där dem sedan sätts samman med en toppskiva på ovansidan. Segmenten och inventarierna kan konfigureras på olika sätt, oberoende av ordning och plats. Förflyttning av baren sker med hjälp av hjul. / Widab is a company located in Hjo, with part of their sales and project organization in Stockholm. They offer complete services and products within commercial kitchens for restaurants, pubs and hotels. The mission includes developing a modular bar for Widab, as they have the ambition to include it in their assortment. The goal with the bar is primarily to be modular, but also cater an easier distribution and also assembly and disassembly by applying the method Design For Manufacturing and Assembly, which will be referred to as DFMA in this report. This is something that Widab have struggled with, with their previous bars. They are awkward and take unnecessary large space when delivering them and that they are not flexible when it comes to assembly. This bar should be configurable even after an order, if the user wants to move it or adjust it in any other way. This is something that the market has not fully figured out yet. A well planned product development process has been used to generate the final product, were methods such as interviews, surveys, Morphological matrix, Six thinking hats, Idea evaluation and Concept weighting matrix have been used. The project resulted in a bar with segments that are modular, where the user can configure the segments based on their own needs. The segments are placed next to each other in desired order and space and are held together with the countertop on the upper side. These segments and the inventories can be configured in different ways, independent of order and space. Movement of the bar is possible due to the existing wheels.

Requirements from the market on customer responsiveness and pressure on the environmental profiles of companies, both internally and externally, are challenging companies to amend their processes in all possible aspects in order to stay competitive. For product development companies, the challenges often lie in developing and delivering products rapidly, customized and meeting the set requirements. For highly customized products, mass customization is a term describing a company setting in which products meet each customer’s individual requirements but are still produced and delivered at near mass-production efficiency. The concept of mass customization is becoming a prerequisite for the survival of companies within this niche. For more complex engineering products, the complexity increases as new technology is introduced, which needs to be integrated to increase the product’s performance at a rapid pace. Also for complex products, the level of customization is increasing, which motivates the support of tools enabling an increase in customization. In both mass customized and complex products, the obstacles to overcome are the repetitive resource inefficient work, knowledge capture and reuse, uncoordinated processes, and a high number of iterations between departments within the company. This often boils down to the well-established so-called design paradox describing the lack of knowledge about a product and process in the early stages of design, where the design freedom is still high. As knowledge increases throughout the process, the design freedom in contrast shrinks, and the costs of changes increase exponentially. Design automation, design optimization and the use of configurators are all methods used to reduce repetitive work, increase and capture knowledge, and integrate the product development process. This thesis presents how configurators based on optimization can be used and integrated into the product development process of engineering intensive configurable products and components, such as engineer-to-order (ETO) products. Design automation and design optimization have been identified as key building blocks to extend the use of configurators. This has been done in two different application cases within two different research projects, to evaluate how these configurator systems may be modeled and utilized. The first application case concerns the automation of hose routing in vehicles and the second application case concerns spiral staircases intended for mass customization.

Arbetet har utförts vid Högskolan i Skövde i samarbete med Parker Hannifin AB. Arbetets fokus har kretsat kring de frågeställningar som initialt sattes upp. Den inledande förstudien omfattar informationsinsamling angående Design for Manufacturing and Assembly vilket var essentiellt att utforska innan arbetet fortsatte. Litteraturstudien undersöker även hur hållbarhetsaspekter, användbarhet och Reversed Engineering kan inkluderas i arbetet. Ett stort fokus har även lagts på att analysera den nuvarande produkten för att få klarhet i problemet, vad produkten är, vad den används till, hur den används och vem som använder den. Analyseringen av produkten i kombination med litteraturstudien la sedan grunden för kravspecifikationen som i sin tur används vid konceptutveckling. Resultatet är konceptförslag på en omkonstruktion av snabbkopplingen som tillåter att likadan adapter kan användas på båda sidor om kopplingen, konceptförslaget kan även kombineras med olika omkonstruktioner som gjorts utifrån Design for Assembly på några av de ingående komponenterna. / The work has been carried out at the University of Skövde in collaboration with Parker Hannifin AB. The focus of the work has revolved around the research questions that were raised in the beginning of the project. The initial literature study includes information gathering regarding Design for Manufacturing and Assembly, which was essential to explore before future work was carried out. The literature study also examines how sustainability aspects, usability and Reverse Engineering can be included through the work. A great deal of focus has also been placed on analyzing the current product to get clarity on the problem, what the product is, what it is used for, how it is used and who uses it. The analysis of the product and the literature study then laid the foundation for the requirements specification, which in turn is used during the concept development. The result is a concept proposal for a redesign of the quick coupling that allows the same adapter to be used on both sides of the product, the concept proposal can also be combined with various redesigns made on some of the included components based on aspects of Design for Assembly.

Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology (SMRT) tillverkar olika rullborrkronor som används för bergborrning. Rullborrkronan består av tre hopsvetsade ben. Benen är smidda och levereras från en extern leverantör. Rullborrkronebenen kommer in på en EU-pall sedan lyfts dem in i en fräs for bearbetning. Efter fräsen lyfts rullborrkronebenet igen till en mönsterpall. Metoden som används idag för att lyfta rullborrkronebenen anses inte vara optimal för operatörerna. Syftet med arbetet är att förbättra ergonomi vid förflyttning av rullborrkronebenen. Målet är att utveckla ett säkrare lyftverktyg. Lyftverktyget ska vara ergonomisk och lätt för operatörerna att använda. För att uppnå målet undersöktes tidigare forskning om riskbedömning av arbetspositioner samt att standarden SS-EN 13155:2009 användes. Metoden Ovako Working Posture Analyzing System, OWAS, användes för att bestämma vilka arbetsställningar som var mest påfrestande för operatörerna och som behöver åtgärdas. Resultatet från OWAS visade att den mest påfrestande arbetsställningen var lyftet av rullborrkronebenet från EU-pall. För att förbättra ergonomin hos operatörerna har ett vakuumlyftverktyg tagits fram. Konceptet som har tagits fram består av en sugtapp kopplad till en vakuumpump med en T-stycke. En trycksensor är även kopplad till t-stycket för att kontrollera vakuumsvärdet för lyftverktyget. Med hjälp av en backventil säkerställs behållningen av vakuumtrycket vid eventuell händelse av strömavbrott. Med det framtagna konceptet behöver operatörerna inte lyfta rullborrkronebenet för att fästa eller lossa lyftstroppen. Detta betyder att de arbetsställningarna med hög risk för belastningsskador kommer att minimeras. / Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology (SMRT) manufactures various roller-cone bits that are used for rock drilling. The roller-cone bit consists of three welded cones. The cones are forged and delivered from an external supplier. The roller-cone bit’s cones are collected in an EU-table then lifted into a milling machine for processing. After the milling, the roller-cone bit’s cone is lifted again to a pattern table. Today, the method used today to lift the roller cone bit’s cones is not considered optimal for the operators. To improve the ergonomics of the operators, a vacuum lifting tool has been developed. The purpose of the work is to improve ergonomics through the lifting process of roller-cone bit cones. The goal is to develop a safer lifting tool. The lifting tool must be ergonomic and easy to use. To achieve the goal, previous research was examined on risk assessments of the working positions and standard SS-EN 13155:2009 followed. The Ovako Working Posture Analyzing System (OWAS) method was used to determine which working positions are considered most stressful for operators and needed to be addressed. The result from OWAS showed that the most stressful working position is the lifting of the roller-cone bit from the EU table. The concept, that was developed, consists of a suction pin connected to a vacuum pump with a T-piece. A pressure sensor is also connected to the t-piece to control the vacuum bar for the lifting tool. With the help of a non-return valve, the maintenance of the vacuum is ensured in case of power failure. After using the lifting tool, there will be no need to lift the roller-cone bit to load and unload the lifting strap. This means that the work positions with a high risk for load damage are going to be minimized.

The versatility of open source technologies could grant them an intriguing place in the industry. Moreparticularly, an open source hardware automated guided vehicle (AGV) might show up as an idealsolution for low-scale logistic process, as well as a useful development and didactic tool. What is more,a modular vehicle with interchangeable components would comply even better with this philosophy.Hereafter, besides from a literature review including research related to the many subjects that thisproject attempts to orchestrate, an open source hardware methodology has been followed, acomparison analysis of each component and structure performed and configurations of possible AGVsselected, in order to shed light on the viability of conducting this sort of project in reality. Plus, a modularframe has been designed and tested with computer-aided and simulation tools. The conclusions showthat constructing an open source-based industrial vehicle is to a high extent feasible, although theprecise economic outcomes are not clear and building a real model is a future requisite to give evidence. / <p>There are other digital material (eg. film, imgage or audio files) or models/artifacts that belongs to the thesis and need to be archived.</p>