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En ökad konkurrens i flera branscher medför större krav på företagen inom dessa, där de behöver lansera sina produkter i en snabbare takt för att förbli konkurrenskraftiga. Tiden det tar för ett företag att börja utveckla en produkt tills att den kan lanseras på marknaden, ergo Time-To-Market (TTM), är ett av de mätetal som företag idag behöver förbättra. Denna studie var på uppdrag av konsultbolaget Combitech AB, där en fallstudie genomfördes på Epiroc Rock Drill AB i Örebro, en av deras kunder. Undersökningen syftade till att undersöka hur tiden för industrialisering kan reduceras inom en monteringslina på divisionen Operations Epiroc URE genom att implementera arbetssättet Model Based Definition (MBD). Detta är ett arbetssätt där ingenjörs- och affärsprocesser hanteras med hjälp av 3D-modeller. Utöver tiden för industrialisering beaktades även aspekterna kostnader, kvalitet och hållbarhet. Genomförandet av studien inleddes med en datainsamling inom två olika delar. Den första delen är Epirocs nulägesbeskrivning, där data angående den nuvarande arbetsprocessen inom den undersökta monteringslinan eftersöks. Den andra delen är MBD och dess användning, där data angående de olika fördelar och utmaningar som generellt följer av arbetssättet eftersöks. Utifrån all insamlade data genomfördes sedan en kvalitativ dataanalys för att identifiera kopplingar mellan Epirocs utmaningar och de olika fördelarna som MBD kan bidra med.   Resultaten visar att MBD kan bidra till kortare tid för industrialisering, lägre kostnader och en förbättrad hållbarhet för Epiroc utan att deras produktkvalitet kompromissas. Några faktorer som bidrar till detta är att; tvetydigheter kan reduceras, olika aktiviteter i produktutvecklingsprocessen kan genomföras parallellt och tvärfunktionellt samt att fel och problem kan upptäckas tidigare i processen. En utmaning som har identifierats med att implementera MBD är att det kräver en god företagskultur där det gäller att få med sig hela organisationen i omställningen. Denna studie är av kvalitativ karaktär och framtida arbete skulle därför kunna vara att kvantifiera de resultat som presenteras i denna studie. / Increased competition in several industries entails greater requirements on companies in these, where they need to launch their products at a faster pace in order to remain competitive. The time it takes for a company to start developing a product until it can be launched on the market, ergo Time-To-Market (TTM), is one of the metrics companies today need to improve. This study was commissioned by the consulting company Combitech AB, where a case study was conducted at Epiroc Rock Drill AB in Örebro, one of their customers. The study aimed to investigate how the time for industrialisation can be reduced within an assembly line in the Operations Epiroc URE division by implementing the Model Based Definition (MBD) approach. This is a way of working where engineering and business processes are handled using 3D models. In addition to the time of industrialisation, the aspects of cost, quality and sustainability were also considered. The implementation of the study began with a data collection in two different parts. The first part is description of the current situation at Epiroc, where data regarding the current work process within the examined assembly line is collected. The second part is MBD and its use, where data regarding the various benefits and challenges that generally follow from the working method are collected. Based on collected data, a qualitative data analysis was carried out to identify links between Epiroc's challenges and the various benefits that MBD can contribute.   The results show that MBD can contribute to shorter time for industrialization, lower costs and improved durability for Epiroc without compromising their product quality. Some factors that contribute to this are that ambiguities are reduced; the work can take place both in parallel and cross-functionally and that errors and problems can be detected earlier in the process. A challenge that has been identified with implementing MBD is that it requires a good corporate culture where it is important to involve the entire organization in the changeover. This study is of a qualitative nature and future work could therefore be to quantify the results presented in this study.

This thesis seeks to investigate the vastly varying time to market of newly approved drugs across Europe. Firtsly, I use a country fixed effects model on data of newly approved drugs from 2014 to 2017 from 18 European countries. I investigate the correlations between medication specific characteristics and the launch time and find that drugs intended to treat HIV, rheumatism or hepatitis are correlated with a faster launch time. Orphan drugs, though they represent a third of the dataset are found to be insignificantly correlated with time to market. Using a drug fixed effects model, I research important country characteristics in relation to the launch time and find that countries with higher imports of medications are correlated with a quicker time to market. Countries with larger medication export sectors experience a longer waiting time, which could be linked to companies trying to hinder the parallel export of new drugs.

This dissertation examines a profit-maximizing project selection and scheduling problem. Assume that a set of potentially profitable projects are available, yet limited available resources may not allow all of them to be pursued. Profit profiles for projects are assumed to be non-increasing functions of project completion times, i.e. profit returns are sensitive to time-to-market. Decision needs to be made on which sub-set of projects should be chosen and how resources should be allocated to these projects such that the total profit is maximized.Formal mathematical models are formulated for various versions of the problem, including such ones incorporating a third team formation aspect. Structure of the problem is examined and insights are gained regarding prioritization of project, specifically. Although prioritization is sub-optimal in general, heuristic solution methods based on prioritization are pursued, since the scheduling sub-problem itself is NP-hard.A decomposition heuristic framework is first proposed to obtain good solutions using minimum computational time. Sets of test instances are generated using project network data from well-known source in the literature. Computational runs reveal that three priority rules achieve significantly better profits than the benchmarking random priority rule.Improving upon the prioritization based decomposition heuristic, an implicit enumeration is proposed. This algorithm does not examine all priority sequences, yet guarantees an optimal priority sequence when the computation is completed. Several fathoming rules are proposed to cut back computational time effectively. Comparison to the profits achieved by the best priority rule and the benchmarking random priority rule shows a significant improvement on profits, yet at a cost of reasonable added computation time.Future research areas include identifying general conditions under which prioritization of projects would lead us to an optimal solution. Developing better upper bounds for the implicit enumeration scheme is also of interest. The team formation aspect has yet to be treated computationally. It would also be of interest to consider how synergy deviation information may be fed back to the earlier stages of project selection and scheduling decision. Trade-off between profit and team synergy may also be considered in the future.

Thesis (M.B.A.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 194-203). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:20:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 120593.pdf: 1547743 bytes, checksum: fcb1e1e2cfa522c55c4b337e794d4905 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-11-29T00:00:00Z / O desenvolvimento da sociedade pós-industrial, voltada para a valorização da informação, exige das empresas um alto nível de adaptação às necessidades do consumidor, com o escopo de assegurar posição competitiva no mercado. A exposição do consumidor a novas tecnologias e a ciclos de vida útil, associados aos produtos progressivamente mais exíguos, exige das empresas a obrigatoriedade de introdução de velocidade nos processos de concepção e desenvolvimento de produtos. O presente trabalho propõe o estudo de caso de uma empresa da indústria de terminais celulares, mediante sua análise diante de um modelo descritivo de melhores práticas de geração de valor significativo, a partir da política de redução do time-to-market nas atividades de manufatura das empresas, embasada em profunda revisão bibliográfica sobre o tema. Assevera-se como a velocidade representa atributo constitutivo de vantagem competitiva e quais os recursos, atributos e ativos, a empresa deve constituir para assegurar o apropriado embasamento de uma política voltada para a redução dos ciclos de produção. A integração dos diversos elos da cadeia de valor apresenta essencialidade para a persecução do time-to-market, razão pela qual, outros dois aspectos são estudados com relativa profundidade. A terceirização autoriza a possibilidade da empresa se focar nas atividades consideradas primárias, delegando aos fornecedores o desempenho das atividades não-essenciais. Igualmente, destacam-se as principais conseqüências associadas a este processo. Não obstante, um segundo determinante da integração é alvo de avaliação, pela sua crescente representatividade no âmbito empresarial: a utilização da tecnologia de informação como estratégia para alavancagem dos negócios corporativos e integração dos parceiros diretamente envolvidos na fabricação dos produtos. O estudo pauta-se, fundamentalmente, na propositura de um modelo que pode ser adotado em qualquer empresa, com o escopo de se alcançar a vantagem competitiva sustentável.

This study aimed to answer the question whether time to market and competition pressure are important issues for new companies with a software products and whether they affect the development process and decision-making regarding releasing or the product. The study is based on the literature data and interviews with six technology startup companies. It investigated how the concept of minimum viable product is used by the companies for testing the product-market fit and how they apply principles of user-centred design for providing a good user experience of their products. I found that innovative products helped the companies escape direct competition. The development cycle was mostly defined by the industry standards and concrete customer needs rather than the competition pressure. User-centred design practices are widely implemented by the startups, but they are not always complete. In today's software market, the experience that the customers are provided with new products seems to be more important for the startups than formalisation of the development process and the product's time to market. / Den här studien sökte besvara frågan huruvida tid till marknadsintroduktion och tryck från konkurrenter är viktiga faktorer för nya uppstartbolag inom mjukvaruutveckling och huruvida dessa faktorer påverkar utvecklingsprocessen och beslut rörande produktlansering. Studien baserar sig på en litteraturgranskning och intervjuer med sex teknologiuppstartbolag. Studien undersökte hur konceptet av minsta bärkraftiga produkt används av uppstartbolagen för att testa hur bra produkten passar marknaden och hur bolagen använder principer från användarcentrerad design för att ge en god användarupplevelse i sina produkter. Jag fann att innovatina produkter hjälpte bolagen undvika direkt konkurrens. Utvecklingscykeln bestämdes framför allt av industristandarder och konkreta behov från kunderna i stället för av trycket från konkurrenter. Användarcentrerad designpraxis är vida erkänd hos uppstartbolagen, men tillämpningen är inte alltid komplett. I dagens mjukvarumarknad verkar kunders användarupplevelse i nya produkter vara viktigare för uppstartbolagen än att formalisera utvecklingsprocessen och produktens tid till marknadsintroduktion.

For decades, globalization has introduced both opportunities and pressures for companies around the world by introducing freer trade, increasing foreign direct investment and the international use of intellectual property that boosted the diffusion of knowledge and technology. As a result, the international competition has become more intense for many firms. Hence, putting a good or service into the market has never been as demanding as now and the demand to be early mover and have a low time-to-market is increasingly important for first be successful. This research will focus on determining whether a low time-to-market will contribute to a higher firm performance and what relation the time to market has with a firm’s business model framework and business model openness, preference for external funding and type of innovation. A theoretical framework was created based on relevant literature to be able to reach the objective of this thesis. The conceptual model was created from the literature which consisted of the hypotheses and variables that the study aimed to investigate. From the theoretical framework using a confirmatory approach, a survey was designed that was shared online to available network that the authors had. In summary, 43% of respondents had some sort of managing positions (upper management, manager and project management), 83% were mainly based in Sweden but also in Denmark, Germany, USA etc. and the work experience of the respondents was fairly distributed. Overall, 50% of the firms were between 0 to 30 years (1% did not respond) and more than 50% were considered to be a large firm depending if the classification was based on turnover with 51% as large firms (17% did not respond) or based on the number of employees with 58% as large firms. Data with 200 applicable responses (eight were removed i.e., 3.8%) was collected over four weeks of time. With the use of structural equation modeling and exploratory factor analysis, the collected data could be analyzed, and the hypotheses relevance could be answered. The final model was concluded to be adequate, as GOF indices and standardized factor loadings were on a sufficient level. As a result, the research showed that a fast time-to-market had a positive impact on firm performance measured in monetary measures (sales, profit, and market share) and that marketing innovation had a positive mediating effect on time to market and thus financial performance. The hypotheses regarding business model framework and capital structure correlating positive time to market were removed since the model was reworked. However, the study showed that technological innovation (product and process innovation) had a positive correlation to preference for external funding such as debt or issuance of equity. Since the construct validity of open business model and technological innovation was proved to be non-convergent, any deeper conclusion of this must be carefully reviewed. The results reinforced what other studies had shown, which is that open innovation or a more open business model contributes to both technological and marketing innovation. In summary, this demonstrated that a positive mediating effect existed for an open business model and marketing innovation which will speed up the time-to-market and hence increase the financial performance. Suggestion of future work could be to conduct similar studies in specific industry sectors to observe whether there is a difference in time-to-market depending on industry and what effect innovation and business model framework has.

The explosion of information and information technology has led many firms to evolve a dispersed product development process with people and organizations spread throughout the world. To coordinate such dispersed processes managers attempt to establish a culture that implicitly rewards product development teams based on their ability to perform against a set of strategic metrics such as customer satisfaction, time to market, defect reduction, or platform reuse. Many papers have focused on selecting the right metrics and establishing the culture. In this paper we focus on a practical method to fine-tune a firm's relative emphasis on the metrics that they have chosen. In particular, we seek to advise a firm whether to increase or decrease their emphasis on each metric such that the change in emphasis improves profits. Using a thermostat analogy we apply an adaptive control feedback mechanism in which we estimate the incremental improvements in priorities that will increase profits. Iterations of adaptive control seek to maximize profits even if the environment is changing. We demonstrate the metric thermostat’s use in an application to a firm with over $20 billion in revenue. In developing the metric thermostat we recognize that there are hundreds of detailed actions, such as the use of the house of quality and the use of robust design, among which the product development team must choose. We also recognize that they will act in their own best interests to choose the actions that maximize their own implicit rewards as determined by the metrics. Management need not observe or dictate these detailed actions, but rather control the process by establishing the culture that sets the implicit weights on the metrics. The thermostat works by changing those implicit weights. We define the problem, introduce the adaptive control mechanism, modify “agency” theory to deal with incremental changes about an operating point, and derive methods that are practical and robust in light of the data that firms have available. Our methods include statistical estimation and internal surveys. The mathematics identify the critical few parameters that need be determined and highlight how to estimate them. Both the measures and the estimation are illustrated in our initial application to a large officeequipment firm. The metrics thermostat suggests that this firm has about the right emphasis on timeto- market, but has overshot on platform reuse and has lost its focus on customer satisfaction. We describe how the firm reacted to the recommendations and changed its organization. We describe additional ongoing applications with the US Air Force, the US Navy, and a major automobile and truck manufacturer. / This research was funded by the Center for Innovation in Product Development (CIPD) and the International Center for Research on the Management of Technology (ICRMOT), M.I.T.

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