Providing added value to standalone products by adding services is at the core of product service systems (PSS) offered in manufacturing industries. Providing PSS requires a change not only in the way products are sold, but also in the way they are designed and developed. Engineers need to assess the value of a forthcoming PSS solution as soon as possible in the design process, addressing service-related issues that often fall outside their technical horizon and are challenging to seamlessly translate into the product technical requirements. The aim of the thesis is to investigate the early stages of aerospace product development, proposing methods and tools in order to improve the decision-making process, by enhancing the awareness of engineers and designers about the value contribution of different design alternatives. This academic work was performed through action research in close collaboration with major European aerospace manufacturers, research centers, and academic institutions conducting research in product development. The thesis first depicts the current practices and limitations of value assessment in early design stages, describing the increasing complexity of the aerospace development projects. Improvements for current practices are proposed in terms of developing value assessment capabilities coupled with requirements analysis and enhancing communication of the expected value contribution of a forthcoming solution.Second, this thesis proposes a conceptual approach aiming to enhance the communication between engineers and designers of the value-related aspects of a solution in early design stages. This approach allows for the visualization of the results of a value assessment activity using color-coded features on the product computer aided design (CAD) model. The characteristic of the approach is to allow for the simultaneous visualization of value scores and knowledge maturity in a unique representation. The approach is meant to increase the awareness about the multifaceted aspects of the value assessment of different designs, promoting tradeoff and impact analysis.In conclusion the thesis summarizes the findings of the empirical analysis, showing the need to complement requirements information with the assessment of value and knowledge maturity, and proposing color coded CAD models as technological enabler for the communication of the outcomes of the value assessment. Finally guidelines for future research are provided. / CRESCENDO - Collaborative and Robust Engineering using Simulation Capability Enabling Next Design Optimisation

Manufacturing firms’ attention to innovations and the innovation process has during the last decade gained in intensity of interest. One trigger for such an interest is that these companies have extended their business models towards an integrated product-service approach, where the introduction of a service perspective in early development challenges the traditionally temporary formative nature of processes. This new business model of Product-Service Systems (PSS) puts an emphasis on delivering added value to the customer: instead of providing goods the manufacturing firm should provide a service based solution. This does not mean that they stop producing physical goods, but rather that more service aspects should be considered by the engineering team in the planning and design of the goods. When the ownership of the physical goods stays within the firm it is through a challenge and an opportunity to provide “what the user wants” and, at the same time, what is beneficial for the firm. Hence, an innovative and dynamic organisation is desirable. Typically, in product development the team consists of engineers that are domain experts, but novices when it comes to understanding services and often in interpreting customer information. For a firm to create product-service solutions that meet customer needs, innovation and creativity within the early development processes are important (thus the aspects that have gained an increased interest among manufacturing firms). Product development is commonly viewed as an innovative process, though the degree of innovation is usually low (i.e. incremental improvements of the goods). The integration of services into early development could be perceived as radically challenging such an innovation process. The purpose in this thesis is to improve the understanding of development teams working with PSS innovation. This is done in order to facilitate discussion of the challenges for a firm to shift into a product-service process. The empirical data in this study comes from a business-to-business company in the aeronautical industry, but also from student innovation projects. The focus for the study is how teams collaborate in early phases of innovation projects. The qualitative data was generated by performing both observations and interviews. The results indicate not only the importance of heterogeneous teams in the innovation process but also the lack of a sufficient approach for innovative PSS development. Because of this, new tools and methods are vital, but this is not to ignore how traditional tools and methods can be reused and retro-fitted into such a process. Further, the results indicate that personal motivation has an impact on how teams perform innovation activities. This could have the implication that, for example, a goal-oriented engineer surrounded by similarly motivated teammates could more likely fail in interpreting customer information because none of them is likely to assign importance to that information. Therefore, to support engineers to provide product-service solutions not only methods and tools, but also training for how to perform and reflect on user needs could be necessary. KeywordsProduct-Service Systems, Team Based Innovation, Radical Innovation, User oriented design, Engineering design

A company’s ability to introduce new products and services is a key success factor for sustaining competitive advantage. In parallel, the manufacturing industry faces the challenge of delivering customer-perceived value, so-called service offerings, rather than merely goods. Consequently, innovation capabilities become more important than ever. In particular, companies acting in a business-to-consumer market environment have found that launching innovations is crucial to business success.A product development process generally starts from some kind of user need or the identification of a market opportunity. Such a process is commonly described as consisting of stages and decision gates, supporting a fairly sequential process where information about a known solution is managed. Some argue that innovation projects fit into this kind of process, and some argue that they do not since the requirements of innovations cannot be known beforehand. One cause of these conflicting arguments could be that perceptions of what constitutes an innovation differ. The literature describes two types of innovation: incremental (step wise) and radical (disruptive). This thesis builds on the assumption that these two types have to be managed differently. One key issue for the company studied is that there seem to be aspects that hinder the implementation of really creative and great innovations into products. The company has a history of technical innovations, but currently needs processes that assure innovations will be implemented into products, and thus will actually benefit users and strengthen the company’s competitiveness. Consequently, an overall purpose of the research project upon which this work is based, is to increase the possibilities for implementation of innovations of products. The work outlined in this thesis has been guided by two research questions: how is innovation perceived within the company? And, how are innovation projects managed today?The study is based on an action research approach that has generated qualitative empirical data. The methodology is explorative and descriptive in nature. Data have been generated by participation in projects, interviews and workshops.The initial studies focused on innovation as a concept, and a number of keywords describing the company view were identified, thus providing a point of view for continued research efforts. The literature review has shed light on the perspectives explore (related to radical innovation) and exploit (related to incremental innovation) as adding a dimension to the management of innovation projects. The perspectives have been tested in a workshop with innovation managers and resulted in insights about how to balance different types of projects. Moreover, the study of the gated processes for product development and interviews with decision makers indicate that further investigation of the gate criteria is important. In light of the explore and exploit perspectives, it seems that the applied gates might sort out innovation early on.

Hälso- och sjukvården ska verka utifrån olika lagar där hälso- och sjukvårdslagen beskriver målsättning och riktlinjer för hälso- och sjukvården. Hälso- och sjukvården kan behöva genomföra prioriteringar om det finns brist på kapacitet till att ge vård till alla invånare som har hälso- och sjukvårdsbehov samtidigt som vården ska ges på lika villkor. Vid kapacitetsbrist ska hälso- och sjukvårdens resurser enligt hälso- och sjukvårdslagen prioriteras till de patienter som har bedömts till att ha ett högre hälso- och sjukvårdsbehov framför de patienter som har bedömts ha ett lägre behov. Att prioritera innebär att ”rangordna eller välja ut” och är centralt vid beslut om när ett vårdbehov är mer angeläget att tillfredsställas före ett med ett lägre vårdbehov. Syftet med examensarbetet är att analysera några centrala begrepp som finns inom lagstiftning och styrdokument för offentlig hälso- och sjukvård med koppling till bedömning av patients hälso- och sjukvårdsbehov och prioritetsgrad på åtgärd. Med aggregationsteori som teoretiskt ramverk analyseras begreppen hälso- och livskvalitetstillstånd, hälso- och sjukvårdsbehov, hälso- och livskvalitetseffekt och kostnadseffektivitet som flerdimensionella aspekter som är centrala vid bedömningen av en åtgärds prioritet. Ett resultat av analysen är aggregationsträd som visualiserar den grundläggande strukturen för de sammanvägningar som behöver göras i samband med bedömning av prioritetsgrad för åtgärd inom hälso- och sjukvården. Resultatet skulle kunna användas i vidare arbete att skapa mer transparenta och jämlika prioriteringsbeslut som i förlängningen kan skapa vård på än mer lika villkor för befolkningen.

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No description available.

I detta arbete ligger skillnader i riskaversion för finansiella beslut inom olika åldrar ifokus. Riskaversion definieras av Society of Risk Analysis (SRA) som en motvilja att ta risker. Riskavert beteende karaktäriseras av preferens för alternativ med lägre risk framför alternativ med högre risk. Uppfattningen av risk är en väsentlig fråga sompåverkar vårt beslutsfattande, inte minst inom finansiella beslut. Det finns forskning som visar att äldre är mer riskaverta än yngre, men hur detta förhåller sig när det gäller finansiella beslut i dagens samhälle är inte lika tydligt. För att få större förståelse för hur riskaversion varierar mellan yngre och äldre vuxna inom finansiella beslut har en enkätundersökning baserat på Holt-Laurys lotterimetod genomförts. En kvantitativ analys av den data som samlades in visar att äldre vuxna är mer riskaverta än yngre vuxna när det gäller finansiella beslut, vilket är i linje med tidigare forskning. Denna information kan förhoppningsvis användas inom den finansiella sektorn för att anpassa informationen som presenteras för yngre och äldre vuxna när det kommer till finansiella beslut.

Samverkan mellan olika vårdaktörer, verksamheter och nivåer finns mer eller mindre i alla delar inom hälso- och sjukvården. Brister i denna samverkan kan innebära en risk för att avvikelser sker. Lagen om samverkan vid utskrivning från sluten hälso- och sjukvård trädde i kraft 1 januari 2018. Syftet med lagen är att skapa en trygg, säker och smidig övergång för patienter som blir utskrivna från slutenvården till öppenvård och omsorg. Det finns behov av en gemensam målbild mellan beslutsfattare inom utskrivningsprocessen när det gäller vad man önskar uppnå med samverkan. Detta examensarbete undersöker fem beslutsfattares mål och värderingar med avseende på samverkan vid utskrivning från slutenvård åter till öppenvård och omsorg. Beslutsfattarna i utskrivningsteamet utgår från olika verksamheter inom öppenvården samt från kommunal verksamhet. Med värdefokuserat tänkande som referensram har fem semistrukturerade intervjuer utförts. För varje respondent har en målstruktur bestående av fundamentala och instrumentella mål konstruerats. Överst i en målstruktur finner man de fundamentala målen som är viktiga i sig själv och presenteras hierarkiskt. Instrumentella mål är viktiga för att de leder vidare till ett annat mål, dessa ordnas i ett nätverk. Målstrukturerna i detta examensarbete visar de olika respondenternas värderingar och mål som de önskar uppnå vid samverkan med varandra. Vid konstruktion av respondenternas målstrukturer framkom att flera av respondenterna hade liknande fundamentala mål, nämligen att maximera säker vård, omsorg och trygghet för den enskilde och närstående i utskrivningsprocessen och att maximera tydligheten och ändamålsenligheten hos utskrivningsplanen. Flera av de instrumentella målen för att uppnå de fundamentala målen var för respondenterna lika. Genom välfungerande kommunikation, mötesplatser och förståelse för varandras ansvarsområden kan ett effektivt handläggande av ärenden uppnås. Att arbeta personcentrerat och att arbeta i utskrivningsteam är även återkommande instrumentella mål. Samtliga instrumentella mål leder slutligen till det instrumentella målet att skapa tydliga utskrivningsplaneringar som sedan leder vidare till de fundamentala målen. Resultatet kan användas för att identifiera beslutsmöjligheter som är i linje med beslutfattarnas fundamentala värderingar vid planering av den enskildes insatser vid utskrivning från slutenvården. / Cooperation between different care actors, activities and levels is more or less found in all parts of health care. Shortcomings in this collaboration can mean a risk of deviations occurring. The law on collaboration on discharge from inpatient healthcare came into force on January 1, 2018. The purpose of the law is to create a secure, safe and smooth transition for patients who are discharged from inpatient care to outpatient care and social care. There is a need for a common goal image between decision makers within the discharge process when it comes to what one wish to achieve with collaboration. This thesis examines the goals and values of five decision-makers with regard to collaboration during discharge from inpatient care back to outpatient care and social care. The decision makers are based on various activities within outpatient care as well as municipal activities. With value-focused thinking as a frame of reference, five semi-structured interviews have been conducted. For each respondent a goal structure consisting of fundamental and instrumentalgoal has been constructed. At the top of a goal structure, you find the fundamentalgoals that are important in themselves and are presented hierarchically. Instrumental goals are important because the lead on to another goal, these are arranged in a network. The goal structures in this thesis show the different respondents’ values and goals that they wish to achieve when collaborating with each other. When constructing the respondents goal structures, it emerged that several of the respondents had similar fundamental goals, namely to maximize safe care, social care and safety for the individual and relatives in the discharge process and to maximize the clarity and effectiveness of the discharge plan. Several of the instrumental goals for achieving the fundamental goals were the same for the respondents. Through well-functioning communication, meeting places and understanding of each other’s areas of responsibility, efficient handling of matters can be achieved. Working person-centered and working in discharge teams are also recurring instrumental goals. All instrumental goals ultimately lead to the instrumental goal of creating clear discharge planning, which then leads on to the fundamental goals. The result can be used to identify decision-making opportunities that are in line with the decision-makers’ fundamental values when planning the individual’s actions upon discharge from inpatient care.

When recording classical instruments, access to a physical space of acoustic properties associated with classical music might not always be available. This study seeks to investigate if classical music recorded in an environment with a short reverberation time can be treated with an impulse response from a concert hall and still maintain the same sense of naturalness. The study is broken down into three phases of analysis. Phase one seeks to analyze to what extent people can tell the difference between the two reverberation types: real recorded reverberation and convolution reverb. Phase two analyses if people perceive the amount of naturalness to be different between the two reverberation types. Phase three analyses the potential influence that certain spatial or timbral attributes might have on perceived amount of naturalness. Samples for the listening test were recorded in a studio, and in a classical concert hall where the impulse responses also were created. A two-part listening test (pre-study and main study) was conducted utilizing a 5.1 surround sound speaker system. The results showed that the convolution reverb could replace the real recorded reverbation to a small- to fair degree, and still maintain the same sense of naturalness.

No description available.