Sweden is one of five nations in the world manufacturing fighter aircrafts. Highly advanced technology is needed in order to develop a fighter aircraft. When developing advanced technology, new applications, other than those initially intended occur, spin-off. Some of Sweden’s largest companies are spin-offs from the fighter aircraft industry. Saab Automobile is an example of this. Spin-off as a concept appears in different contexts, from television series to audit terms but foremost in connection with splitting of companies. In the initial phase of our study we came across numerous definitions and concepts as explanation of spin-off and we therefore choose to adopt our own definition. Our study defines civil spin-offs from military aircraft projects. The Swedish aircraft industry consists of three large companies, Saab, Volvo Aero and Ericsson Microwave and we have for our case studies chosen spin-off processes within those companies. We interviewed persons well familiar with the above mentioned process in the respective companies, individually. The answers from the interviews, which we have analysed based on theory and literature, have enabled us to identify, describe and analyse factors promoting as well as counteracting spin-offs arising from military aircraft projects. From our study we have drawn the conclusion that all companies want to achieve spin-offs. One important way of creating opportunities for spin-offs is organising in cross functional groups, one of many internally acting factors that we have tried in our study. A factor that strongly counteracts the development of a spin-off is a strict focus on the core business of the company. This comes as a result of demand for saving measures, which has also led to much less time or no time at all for reflecting on new ideas. The historic role of the Swedish Government as a long term and demanding customer of military aircraft systems has over the last years shown less significance. The Government now has to play the role of co-operative link between the industry and the university in what is called a Triple Helix. The role of the Government is thus to support new enterprising as spin-off through technique parks, incubators and VINNOVA. Another significant factor supporting the development of spin-offs is co-operation in networks and clusters. In the spring of 2005 SwedCat was founded, a cluster between Saab, Volvo Aero and Ericsson microwave with the aim to take advantage of spin-offs from the respective companies and to support each other in developing them. We are of the opinion that this collaboration sets an excellent example for the industry, irrespective of line of business.

Examensarbetet inleddes med en förstudie där olika förbättringsområden inom organisationen identifierades. Kommunikation i praktiken kan liknas vid ett förstärkningsverktyg vilket påverkar de vanligaste faktorerna för ett lyckat förändringsarbete. Idag måste en ledare och chef vara kommunikativ och det fungerar inte längre med att peka med hela handen. Medarbetarna måste förstå sin chef och ledare och det måste finnas ett samspel mellan dem. För att chefer och ledare ska styra förändringsprocessen behövs kommunikation. Syfte med examensarbetet är att undersöka hur kommunikationsprocessen kan användas som styrmedel mot en social förändring. Målet med examensarbetet är att beskriva kommunikation för förändring på Volvo i Olofström och att identifiera förbättringsområden inom organisationen. Examensarbetets avsikt är att undersöka olika synvinklar ur kommunikation, ledarskap och förbättringar kring en förändringsprocess. De slutsatser som examensarbetet visar är att kommunikationsprocessen kan användas som styrmedel via information, kommunikation, möten och genom dialog. Kommunikation måste ske via chef och ledare och visuellt ledarskap. Kommunikation innebär att i dialog tala med varandra. Förbättringsarbetet som påbörjats bör fortsätta som del i organisationens förändringsarbete. Utifrån målbeskrivningen - Hur ledare kommunicerar för att uppnå förändringsmål visar resultat att chef/ledare ansvarar för kommunikations-processen när det gäller planering och genomförande av förändring i en arbetsgrupp. Organisationen kan då se chef/ledare som en förändringsledare. Förändringens resultat påverkas av hur kommunikationen genomförs. Förändring och utveckling sker via kommunikation och dialog i en samverkan. Utifrån målbeskrivningen – Hur kommunikation kan leda medarbetare mot förändring bör chef/ledare börja med att diskutera och kommunicera vad det innebär att gå från ett läge till ett annat läge i en LEAN förändring. Vidare visar resultat att chef/ledare behöver studera innebörden av resultat via analys och diskussion men framför allt vad det innebär att ge support och feedback. Strategisk kommunikation kan vara den del som saknas då kommunikation inte förstås. Utifrån målbeskrivningen – Hur Kommunikationen påverkas av LEAN ledarskap på Volvo Personvagnar AB Karosskomponenter (VCBC) noteras i resultatdelen att förändring och ledarskap inte kopplas ihop. Då kan chef/ledare inte utveckla kommunikationsprocessen mot en social förändring. / This thesis work began with a pre-study which intended to identify areas of improvement within the organization. Communication in practice is like a strengthening tool, which affects the most common factors for successful change management. Today, a manager must be communicative; just to point out the direction is not longer working. Employees must understand their manager and leader, and there must be an interaction between them. For managers to guide the change process communications is needed. The purpose of the thesis work is to investigate how the communication process can be used as instruments of social change. The goal of the project is to describe the communication of change at Volvo in Olofström and to identify areas for improvement within the organization. The intention is to examine different perspectives from communication, leadership and improvement on a process of change. The conclusions of the thesis work are that the communication process can be used as instruments through information, communication, meetings, and through dialogue. Communication goes through the manager and leader, and visual management. Communication means dialogue and to talk to each other.  The Improvement work which has started should be continued as part of the organization's change process. The central part of - How leaders communicate in order to achieve the goals of implementation. The responsibility of the communication process lies with the manager / leader for planning and implementing of the change in a workgroup. The organization can see the manager / leader as a leader of change. The results of implementation are affected by how communication is carried out. Change and development is done through communication and dialogue in an interaction. The central part of - How communication can lead people through implementation and development. It is up to the manager / leader to begin to discuss and communicate the meaning of transformation in a LEAN implementation. Furthermore the manager / leader need to study the implications of the results through analysis and discussion, but above all what it means to give support and feedback. Strategic communication can be the part that is missing when communication is not to be interpreted. The central part of - How communication is affected by LEAN leadership at Volvo Cars Body Components (VCBC). Found in the results is that change and leadership can’t connect to each other. In this case manager / leader do not develop the communication process of social change.

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Volvo is one of the most visible and famous symbols of Swedish engineering industry. After the recent world economic crisis the Chinese-based Geely Holding Group became the new owner of Volvo Cars. The question is whether the acquisition affects the image of the brand, and if so what is the character of this effect. Thus, this thesis provides the insight in the situation and attempts to give the answer to this question. It identifies the tendencies and provides an example of what changes in the brand image of Volvo have already occurred and what can be expected.Purpose:The purpose of this research is to identify, describe and analyze the effect that the acquisition by Geely Holding Group had on the brand image of Volvo.Method:Within this research a survey was conducted. The issues of concern regarding the change of the Volvo brand image were identified through literature study and observations in the specialized automobile on-line discussion panels. Based on the collected information and theoretical background, a questionnaire was designed and placed in the Volvo discussion forums in three countries – USA, Germany, and Great Britain. The total of 172 responses were received. The obtained data was processed statistically and theoretically on the basis of the theoretical framework.ResultsThe obtained results demonstrate that the brand image has been affected by the acquisition, and the character of this effect varies depending on the aspect of the brand image. Such attributes of Volvo, as safety, quality, and design have been influenced positively, whereas the associations with environment and family are found to be affected in a negative way. The image of a typical Volvo owner has been blurred too.

Volvo Personvagnar är ett av de starkaste varumärkena i bilindustrin, med en lång och stolt historia av världsledande innovationer. Fabriken i Skövde tillverkar motorer i både bensin- och dieselvarianter. I framtiden planerar Volvo att införa nya typer av motorer med gruppnamnet VEA, Volvo Environmental Architecture. Dessa nya motorer kommer att vara standard i alla nya Volvobilar, men tillverkning av de gamla modellerna kommer att finnas kvar För att förstå hur de nya transportsystemen i fabriken kommer att fungera tillsammans med de gamla transportsystemen och för att veta om de transportsystemen kan hantera framtidens krav krävs en simuleringsmodell. Under våren 2011 gjordes ett liknande projekt, då en simuleringsmodell av transportsystemen skapades. Men eftersom modellen var för komplicerad och krävde mycket simuleringstid beslutades att en ny modell ska byggas för att kunna hantera optimering. Det finns tre huvudsakliga transportsystem, automatiskt styrda fordon (AGV), elektrisk hängbana (EHB) och manuella transporter med truckar. Detta projekt syftar till att simulera de automatiska transportsystemen mellan bearbetningsfabrikerna och monteringen, och att se till att Volvo klarar framtidens krav genom att: Samla in alla uppgifter som påverkar transportsystemen, så som transportlayouter, tillgänglighet, kommunikationsprotokoll och så vidare. Detta för att vara säker på att en realistisk simuleringsmodell kan byggas. Bygga en simuleringsmodell över det nuvarande systemet och validera att modellen överensstämmer med det verkliga systemet, genom att jämföra in- och utgångar, så som produktionsplan, lagerutnyttjande, produktion per timme under en viss tid. Utveckla och skapa en modell för ett framtida scenario. Simuleringsmodellen ska kunna varieras i olika buffertstorlekar, transportenheter, skiftformer och kunna klara av att hantera olika testscenarion beroende på kundernas efterfrågan. Analysera resultaten av den framtida modellen för att besvara frågorna: Kommer transportsystemen klara av att transportera i och med den ökade takten? Hur många AGVer och EHB-vagnar är nödvändiga? Vilka typer av skift bör användas i de olika fabrikerna och vilken kapacitet för varje lager behövs vid de olika scenarierna? I detta projekt används simuleringsprogrammet Tecnomatix Plant Simulation 9, eftersom det kan hantera mycket komplexa modeller. Det kommande användandet av vår simuleringsmodell för Volvo är ytterligare en anledning till varför detta program väljs då Volvo är på gång att införskaffa sig Plant Simulation. Därför kan den modell som utvecklats under detta projekt tillämpas av Volvo i framtiden för att besvara framtida frågor. Vissa förenklingar görs i projektet och i modellen, händelser som inte är viktiga för resultatet är förenklade till en process. Till exempel påverkar tillverkningsprocesser inte transportsystemet mer än produktionens takt. Genom att förenkla modellen kan den bli mycket snabbare och enklare att använda då det kommer att finnas mindre data att hantera under simuleringen. Två scenarion har körts i projektet där ena scenariot bygger på att alla motortyper testas varav det andra scenariot testar enbart de nya motortyperna. Resultatet från scenario 1 har visat att Volvo klarar att producera enligt planerat kundbehov genom att införskaffa nya AGVer och att göra om skiftformerna för både montering samt bearbetning. Antalet EHB-vagnar som behövs är mindre än vad som finns tillgängligt i dagens läge. Resultaten från scenario 2 visar att Volvo klarar att producera enligt kundbehov genom att införskaffa fler AGVer än vad som krävs till scenario 1. Antal EHB-vagnar som behövs är också mindre i detta fall än vad som finns tillgängligt i dagens läge. / The Volvo Car Corporation is one of the strongest brands in the car industry, with a long and proud history of world-leading innovations. The factory in Skövde produces engines in both petrol and diesel variants. In the future Volvo is planning to introduce new types of engines with the group name VEA. These new engines will be the main engines in all new Volvo cars, but the old models will remain indefinitely. To understand how the new transport systems in the factory will work together with the old transport systems and also to know if the transport systems can handle the future demands, a simulation model is required. In the spring of 2011 a similar project was done where a simulation model of the transport systems was built, but since the model was too complex and required a lot of simulation time it was decided that a new model will be built. There are three main transport systems; Automated guided vehicles (AGV), electric track systems (EHB) and manual transports with trucks. This project is aimed to simulate the automated transport systems between the Manufacturing factories and Assembly factories, to make sure that Volvo can handle future demands by: collecting all data that affects the transport systems, such as transport layouts, availability, communication protocols and so on, to be certain that a realistic simulation model can be built; building a simulation model over the current system and validating that the model conforms to the real system by comparing inputs and outputs, such as production plan, store utilization, throughput per hour, over a certain period of time; developing and create a model for a future scenario. The simulation models should be able to vary in different buffer sizes, quantities of transportation and be able to create various test scenarios depending on customer demand; analyzing the results of the future model to answer the questions: will they be able to keep up with the customer demands with the planned transport systems, how many AGVs and EHBs are necessary, shifts that is necessary for each factory and the capacity that is needed for each store; In this project Tecnomatix Plant Simulation 9 is used as the simulation software since it can handle very complex models. The future adoption of our simulation model by Volvo in Plant Simulation is another reason why this software is chosen. Therefore, the model developed during this project can be applied to answer future questions. Certain simplification is made in the project and in the model; events that are not important to the outcome are simplified to one process. For example, manufacturing processes do not affect the transport system other than the throughput. By simplifying the model, it may become much faster and easier to use since there will be less data to manage during simulation. Two scenarios have been simulated in this project where one scenario is based on testing all engine types whereas the other scenario only tests the new engine types. The result from scenario 1 has shown that Volvo will be able to produce according to the customer demands by acquiring new AGVs and by making certain shift arrangement for the different lines in the factory. The amount of EHB wagons needed is less than the current amount today. The results from scenario 2 shows that Volvo will produce according to the customer demand by acquiring more AGVs than needed for the scenario 1. The amount of EHB wagons needed in this case is also less than what exists today.

Zhejiang Geely holding Co. succeeded in purchasing Ford Motor Co’s Volvo unit, which was the hottest news in the world in 2010. Volvo needs the Chinese potential car market; Geely needs Volvo cars’ advanced technology. Such purchase arouses our interesting to conduct a research study on Chinese consumers’ attitude and intentions toward Volvo cars.   Our aim with this study was to identify the most important attributes of Volvo for Chinese consumers; to analyse how Chinese consumers were influenced by other people’s opinions and to explore how Chinese culture factors such as face concern and group conformity influence consumers’ attitudes  towards Volvo.   In order to find the result, we used online self-completion questionnaires and choose customers from a life insurance company in Shanghai as our sample group. From the survey result we found that Volvo is the second most favourable brand that Chinese consumers want to own in the near future. The top three car attributes for the Chinese consumers when they were going to choose a car were quality, safety and fuel economy. But they had less knowledge or beliefs that Volvo car has an advantage with those attributes. Besides that, we find that Chinese consumers’ behavioural intention of buying Volvo is influenced by family, friends, perceived behaviour control and group conformity, but there is no relationship between face concern and buying behaviour.