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The purpose of this thesis is to explore how the standardization of a New Product Development (NPD) process affects creativity and efficiency. The research was conducted on a case company through several interviews with employees connected to the process with various experience within the company. Standardization and creativity have in the past been considered to be mutually exclusive. However, recent research shows a connection between them and suggests that they could complement each other. This thesis is built upon a framework of six factors affecting creativity in NPD and has further explored how these are connected to efficiency as well. The research concludes that creativity and efficiency in NPD can work in harmony, complementing and supporting each other by focusing on the content rather than the process.

The power of financial innovations to impact societies at global scales compels us to ask how innovation occurs, how it is governed and how to support the responsible initiation and emergence of such innovation in society. This thesis focuses on investigating and comparing current approaches to, and limitations of, the governance of financial innovation and perceptions of responsible financial innovation in three very different institutional settings: a large, global asset management company; a SME developing disruptive, technology - related platforms and services based on big data and associated analytics supporting customer relationship management in the banking and retail sectors; and a global insurance broker. To date there has been almost no published empirical research into the processes and governance of financial innovation in such corporate settings. The initial hypothesis that financial innovation is not governed (internally, externally) was not supported by the empirical data: rather these suggest the existence of formal and informal mechanisms for innovation governance. As suggested in the literature, financial innovation was observed to be largely incremental in nature and involve multiple stakeholders, co-ordinated internally by an ‘innovation owner’ (e.g. an individual, a group of individuals or a department). The research suggests that while there is broad statutory (regulation) and non-statutory governance of the financial sector, there is limited direct regulation of financial innovation per se. Despite this, contextual regulation (e.g. EU) and industry standards set an important governance frame within which innovation was observed to occur, complemented by a range of organizational innovation governance approaches, which ranged from completely informal, ad hoc (‘de facto’) processes to formal staging innovation management tools. It was not possible to generalize across sectors, emphasizing the need for more empirical work in other organizations in order to understand innovation management and governance across the financial sector as a whole. Responsible financial innovation is an emerging concept associated with a very small body of academic literature. The case study data show responsible financial innovation to be perceived as an ‘interpretively flexible umbrella’ term, underpinned by a value system that leads to quantifiable positive outputs (e.g. creating customer satisfaction). The research suggests that several ‘competencies’ (e.g. compliance, learning, communication, monitoring, and ownership) were perceived as relevant to responsible financial innovation by respondents. Themes emerging from the study mirrored to some extent the seven framings suggested by Armstrong et al. (2012) and Muniesa and Lenglet (2012) and the four dimensions of responsible innovation proposed by Owen et al. (2013); these however were very narrowly framed, especially with regard to second-order reflexivity (e.g. on the normative purposes and functions of finance in society). While dimensions of anticipation, reflection, deliberation and responsiveness (Owen et al., 2013) were evident to varying degrees in the cases these were narrowly configured (e.g. around ethics of data monetization, or on anticipation of operational risks), with deliberation often being internally focused, or including only a limited range of external stakeholders. These observations cause me to argue that current mechanisms for governing financial innovation are not sufficiently robust to support their responsible emergence in society. I conclude that any framework for responsible financial innovation should endeavor to broaden the scope for stakeholder engagement and make use of multi-level governance mechanisms (including committees in the innovation and governance process), while continuing to acknowledge the importance of contextual legislation in the framing of innovation trajectories. I recommend the initiation of a cross sector and independent institution for systematic financial innovations assessment, the establishment of formal cross-sector fora and communication channels to facilitate engagement with external stakeholders, and the codification of responsible financial innovation competencies into contextual legislation.

Many companies depend on their innovation capabilities to increase sales in an increasinglycompetitive market. This affects the companies’ R&D departments, which have to identify and develop new products that the market demands. However, even though new product development has been a well-researched area, there is still a gap between theory and practice regarding how to implement efficient new product development processes. Therefore, this study has investigated how the outcomes of new product development projects can be more  consistent. Particularly, the study has focused on how project governance of new product development can be improved. This investigation has been done by conducting a case study of six new product development projects at Sandvik Materials Technology in Sandviken, Sweden, a world-leading manufacturer of high-value added steel products. The results indicate that new product development at Sandvik Materials Technology works well, however there is still room for improvement. The findings suggest that in order to improve the consistency of the project outcomes, education in the process and workshops are needed. Furthermore, roles and responsibilities should be more specific and a structure for how to handle projects in the matrix organization has to be implemented. The findings of this study have implications both on the theoretical and practical aspect. Regarding the theoretical aspect, the findings provide additional data in a well-researched area  that still has a knowledge gap between literature and practice. Furthermore, from a theoretical point of view, the findings show how a world-leading manufacturer can improve the consistency of its new product development project outcomes. / Många av dagens företag måste förlita sig på sin produktutveckling för att öka försäljningen på enalltmer konkurrensutsatt marknad. Detta påverkar företagens forskning- och utvecklingsavdelningar som måste identifiera och utveckla produkter som marknaden efterfrågar. Trots att produktutveckling är ett väl utforskat område finns det ett gap mellan de teoretiska modeller och den praktiska implementeringen av dem. Denna studie har därför studerat hur resultatet av produktutvecklingsprojekt kan förbättras. Mer specifikt har denna studie fokuserat på hur styrningen av produktutvecklingsprojekt kan bli bättre. En fallstudie på sex produktutvecklingsprojekt i Sandvik Materials Technology, en världsledande tillverkare av högt förädlade stålprodukter, i Sandviken, Sverige har bidragit till empirin. Resultatet indikerar att produktutvecklingen på Sandvik Materials Technology fungerar bra, däremot finns det utrymme för förbättringar. Förbättringarna gäller framförallt utbildning i processerna, workshops, förtydliga roller och ansvar och en tydlig struktur för hur produktutvecklingsprojekt ska hanteras i matrisorganisationen. Studien kommer att bidra till teorin genom empiri i form av en fallstudie. Denna fallstudie kan tillsammans med andra studier fylla gapet mellan teoretiska projektmodeller och den praktiska implementeringen av dem. Denna studie kommer även att bidra till en förbättring av Sandvik Materials Technologys produktutvecklingsprojekt.

This thesis project has been carried out with Husmuttern AB as the requestor for the job. Husmuttern AB is a company in the start-up phase which works with developing module houses which are recyclable, disassemblable and standardized. The goal for the thesis project is to design an assembly station for mobile tool boards in a Husmuttern factory. There should also be instructions for the assembly station. The tool boards are used as storage for tools, safety equipment and more. The station must be usable for people without professional experience and regardless of language knowledge and background. The research questions are: * How should the instructions be designed so that a person regardless of language background can understand them? * What are the most important factors regarding ergonomics and protection against misassembly? The method used is based on the product development process described in Produktutveckling by Ulrich, K and Eppinger, S (2012), but adapted to the current project. To obtain a complete tool board one needs to place all hooks and other storage on the board and thereafter mount the boards to legs to make it mobile. To make sure that all hooks, nuts, etc. are placed correctly, installation templates are used to show where everything needs to be placed. A fixture is used for the legs, where one stands the legs, installs the boards in the correct order and uses screws to secure them. The instructions are in the shape of a Powerpoint presentation which is displayed on TV monitors in the factory. The instructions contain pictures and video showing every step of the assembly. There are also symbols, like for example arrows, pointing out important details which need to be observed. The instructions contain no current text, the only writing is numbers, which the workers are expected to understand. The project group has carried out tests with the workers in the factory. The tests have shown that the concept works. The installation templates combined with the instructions makes it easy for the workers to understand where everything needs to be placed. The fixture for the legs has not been tested with the workers in its final form, but the concept has been tested and is working satisfactorily. / Detta examensarbete har gjorts med Husmuttern AB som uppdragsgivare. Husmuttern AB är ett företag i uppstartsfasen som utvecklar modulhus som ska vara återvinningsbara, demonterbara och standardiserade. Examensarbetet går ut på att konstruera en monteringsstation för mobila verktygstavlor till en Husmuttern-fabrik. Det ska även finnas instruktioner till stationen. Tavlorna används som förvaring för verktyg, säkerhetsattiraljer m.m. Stationen ska kunna användas av människor utan yrkeserfarenhet och oavsett språkkunskaper och bakgrund. Forskningsfrågorna är: * Hur ska instruktionerna utformas så att personer oavsett språklig bakgrund kan förstå dem? * Vilka faktorer är de mest avgörande när det gäller ergonomi och skydd mot felmontering? Metoden som använts baseras på produktutvecklingsprocessen som beskrivs i Produktutveckling av Ulrich, K och Eppinger, S (2012), men är anpassad till det aktuella projektet. För att få en färdig verktygstavla behöver man montera alla krokar och annan förvaring på tavlorna och därefter montera tavlorna på ben så att den blir mobil. För att alla krokar, muttrar m.m. ska hamna på rätt plats på tavlorna har man använt hålmallar som visar var varje del ska sitta. Till benen används en fixtur som man ställer benen i, lägger i tavlorna i rätt ordning och skruvar fast dem. Instruktionerna är i form av en powerpoint-presentation som spelas upp på tv-apparater i fabriken. Instruktionerna innehåller bilder och video som visar varje moment i monteringen. De innehåller också symboler som t.ex. pilar som ska uppmärksamma viktiga detaljer. Instruktionerna innehåller ingen löpande text, den enda skrift som finns är siffror, vilka arbetarna förväntas förstå. Projektgruppen har gjort tester med arbetare i fabriken. Testerna har visat att konceptet fungerar. Hålmallarna i kombination med instruktionerna gör att arbetarna enkelt förstår var alla delar ska monteras. Fixturen för benen har inte testats på arbetarna i sin slutgiltiga form men konceptet har testats och det fungerar tillfredsställande.

This thesis is about product and process development. The thesis has been done at ABB Robotics AB in Västerås under 20 weeks with half study pace, which is equivalent to 15 higher education credits (15hp). Thesis purpose was to improve an assembly station for assembling of robot IRB 360. Problems at the assembly station are that there are some non-value-creating activities and assembling methods which correspond to low safety factor for workers. The focus of thesis was to investigate opportunities and to produce solid proposals for how to eliminate these problems. After a written contract with ABB AB, the work started with the planning with the company supervisor and Gantt Schema was created to schedule all steps for this project, to ensure during the process. The project has followed the methods described in the book "Produktutveckling konstruktion och design " by Karl T Ulrich & Steven D Eppinger. Product development tools like Quality function deployment (QFD), functional analysis, specification of requirement and Pugh's analysis matrix have been used in the development process. In the first phase of the project, observation and investigation has been performed to identify and analyse problems. In the later phases, ideas and concepts has created to solve the problems and achieve successful results. The result of the project is an improved material flow at assembling stations which eliminates nonvalue-creating activities and leads to better safety for workers. Another result of the project is an elimination of hand hammering at assembling station and for this purpose a new pressing tool has been developed for pressing down a seals around radial shaft in assembling process. The software Solidworks has been used to create a new 3D layout for the existing assembly station to understand and find the better solution for material flow. Solidworks is also used for doing Finite element method (FEM) analysis to validate the new developed pressing tool. / Detta examensarbete handlar om produkt och processutveckling. Arbetet utfördes hos ABB Robotics AB i Västerås och bedrivs under 20 veckor långt på halvfart vilket motsvarar 15 högskolepoäng. Uppdraget är att förbättra en monteringsstation för plockningsrobot IRB360 FlexPicker. Problem på monteringsstation är att det sker icke värdeskapande aktiviteter, och monteringsprocess som leder till arbetsmiljöproblem. Arbetet fokus var att undersöka möjligheter och ta fram konkreta förslag att hur man kan eliminera dessa problem. Efter skriftligt kontrakt med ABB AB, arbetet började med planeringen med företaget handledare och skapades Gantt Schema. Projektet har följt metoderna som beskrivs i boken ”Produktutveckling konstruktion och design” av författare Karl T Ulrich & Steven D Eppinger. I utvecklingsprocessen har använt produktutvecklingsverktyg, några av dessa är QFD, funktionsanalys, kravspecifikation och Pughs analysmatris. I första fas av projekt gjorde undersökning och observation för att hitta och analysera problem. I senare faserna genererade koncepter för åtgärden och sedan vidare utvecklades utvalda koncept för nå framgångsrikt resultat. Resultatet av arbetet blev förbättrad materialflöde som eliminerar icke värdeskapande aktiviteter. Dessutom utvecklades fram ett nytt pressverktyg som eliminerar arbetsmiljöproblem. Mjukvaran Solidworks har använt för att skapa en ny layout för monteringsstation. Med hjälp av Solidworks gjordes FEM -analys (Finita elementmetoden) för att validera den nya pressverktyg

Examensarbetet inom produktutveckling – konstruktion utfördes under perioden februari till juni 2013 och omfattar 15 högskolepoäng (C-nivå), och är den slutliga kursen inom högskoleingenjörsprogrammet Innovation och produktdesign. Examensarbetet behandlade problematiken kring produktionsanpassning och kostnadsoptimering av två stycken elektromagnetiska omrörare vid företaget ABB, Process Automation, Metallurgy i Västerås. Efter kontakt med handledaren från ABB, Jan-Erik Eriksson, påbörjades projektarbetet med att tillverkningsanpassa konstruktionen av produkterna ORD 43P och EM Stabilizer. För att åstadkomma kostnadsoptimerad och produktionsanpassad konstruktion tillämpade författarna följande produktutvecklingsverktyg: Design for Cost, Design for Manufacture och Design for Assembly. För att kontrollera att konstruktionen blev optimal, men också att den inte brister under belastning använde examensarbetarna det datorbaserade hållfasthetsverktyget finita elementmetoden i CAD-programmet SolidWorks. Val av komponenter baserades på komponenternas pris per kilo. För att välja det optimala materialet, det vill säga högsta hållfasthet till lägsta pris använde författarna materialdatabasprogrammet CES EduPack. De utvalda materialen från programmet kunde inte författarna påfinna som standard på marknaden, varför författarna ändrade strategi till att jämföra och välja material utifrån marknadsundersökning av standardmaterial hos leverantörer.   ORD 43Ps komponenter optimerades konstruktionsmässigt gentemot befintliga komponenter och härvstag och isolerplattor kostnadsreducerades markant. Komponenten stomme grundutförande undersöktes översiktligt.  Genom att produktutveckla komponenterna härvstag, isolerplattor och stomme grundutförande minskade kostnaderna för ORD 43P med 2,47 %.  Författarna ansåg att ORD 43Ps totala kostnader kan minska mellan 10-25 % eftersom många av dess komponenter är överdimensionerade och består av dyrare material än vad som krävs.  EM Stabilizer’s komponenter, lock och tryckluftsslang, utformades med optimal konstruktion och kostnadsreducerades.  Genom att produktutveckla komponenterna lock och tryckluftsslang minskade kostnaderna för EM Stabilizer med 1,3 %.  Författarna förmodar att EM Stabilizer’s kostnader kan minska, eftersom den är relativt ny på marknaden. ABB vill säkerställa att produkten uppnår sin garanterade livslängd genom att överdimensionera många av produktens komponenter och använda dyrare material än vad som är nödvändigt. / The thesis in product development – design was carried out between February and June 2013 and includes 15 credits (C-level), and is the final course of the Bachelor Program in Engineering, Innovation and Product Design.  The thesis dealt with the problem of adaptation to production and cost optimization of two pieces of electromagnetic stirrers at the company ABB, Process Automation, Metallurgy in Västerås. After contact with the supervisor from ABB, Jan-Erik Eriksson, the project work commenced to adapt the manufacturing design of the product ORD 43P and EM Stabilizer. To achieve cost-optimized production and production adapted design, the authors applied the following product development tools: Design for Cost, Design for Manufacture and Design for Assembly. To verify that the design was optimal, but also that it did not break during stress, the authors used the computer based module finite element method of the CAD program SolidWorks.  The selection of components was based on the component’s price per kilo.  To select the optimum material, that is high strength and affordable, the authors used the material database software CES EduPack. The materials selected from CES EduPack could not be found by the authors as standard material at the market. Therefore, the authors changed strategy to compare and select materials based on market research of standard materials with suppliers. The components of ORD 43P were optimized in terms of design in comparison with existing components coil bracket and insulation boards. They were also cost reduced significantly. The component frame base was examined briefly.  Through product development the components coil bracket, insulating boards and frame base the total cost of ORD 43P was reduced by 2,47 %.  The authors found that the total cost of ORD 43P could be reduced between 10-25 % as many of its components are oversized and made ​​of more expensive materials than needed.  The components of EM Stabilizer, cover and pneumatic hose, were designed with optimum design and was cost reduced.Through product development the components cover and pneumatic hose the costs of EM stabilizer were reduced by 1,3 %.  The authors assume that the costs of the EM Stabilizer can be reduced, because it is relatively new at the market. ABB want to ensure that the product reach its guaranteed life by over-sizing many of the components of the product and use more expensive material than necessary. / Kostnadssänkningsprojekt