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- Flankegård, Filip
(författare)
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Supplier Involvement in Product Development: A Supplier Perspective
- 2022
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis explores the supplier perspective of supplier involvement in product development. Supplier involvement in product development is crucial for many companies to increase resource flexibility, access competence, reduce costs and time to market, among others. The existing literature focuses primarily on the customer perspective of supplier involvement, e.g., challenges and critical factors customers should consider. A few studies have focused on the supplier perspective. This research gap is addressed in this thesis by studying the conditions influencing the suppliers’ involvement in customers’ product development.This thesis explores two research questions: “What are the challenges suppliers experience when being involved in customers’ product development?”, and “What mitigating mechanisms and critical factors influence suppliers’ involvement in customers’ product development?”. The identified challenges originated [FF1] both from the customer and the supplier, indicating that both types of challenges must be focused on. The study also identified interdependencies between the challenges, implying that one challenge may lead to the occurrence of other challenges. The study suggests mitigating mechanisms to deal with the identified challenges. The identified critical factors influenced both the efficiency and effectiveness of supplier involvement in product development, e.g., lead-time, development cost, product quality, and cost. The study indicates that adopting a dual perspective and considering the challenges and critical factors for both the customer and the supplier, can support the involved supplier. The results build on findings from a case study including four SMEs.
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| 2. |
- Karlsson, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Innovation processes in SMEs : Exploring the influence of varying degrees of control
- 2017
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering Design, ICED. - Zagreb : The Design Society. ; , s. 447-456
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Previous research in the field of product innovation management has focused on large firms. This is unfortunate because small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have features that clearly distinguish them from their larger counterparts and also play an important role in the global economy. In addition, SMEs often have more varying control of the whole innovation process-from identification of a customer need to delivering customer value-compared to larger companies. This article addresses this research gap by exploring how SMEs with growth ambitions, and varying degree of control, can leverage their innovation process. The article outlines results from a SWOT analysis utilizing data from a multiple case study of eight SMEs. Both 'product owning' companies (with either in-house or outsourced manufacturing) as well as manufacturing industry subcontractors were sampled. The results show indications of the influence of varying degree of control of the innovation process-relating to different phases, how knowledge and competence are considered and being reliant on others-and how SMEs and their offerings can be considered as parts of larger systems.
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| 3. |
- Karlsson, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Product-Service System Innovation Capabilities : Linkages between the Fuzzy Front End and subsequent development phases
- 2018
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Ingår i: International Journal of Production Research. - : Taylor & Francis. - 0020-7543 .- 1366-588X. ; 56:6, s. 2218-2232
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In an attempt to remain competitive, manufacturers increasingly offer integrated product-service systems (PSSs). This transition from physical products to PSSs calls for new ways of working, for example in the product development process. However, so far only limited attention has been put on capabilities needed to succeed with PSS innovation in the very early development phases – often referred to as the fuzzy front end (FFE). This article, therefore, has a dual aim: first, to further our understanding of capabilities for PSS innovation in the FFE, and second, to determine how these capabilities are linked to PSS innovation capabilities needed in subsequent development phases. Empirical data were collected from an ongoing industrial project developing an innovative PSS offering in a large manufacturing company. Individuals connected to the project reported major challenges, both experienced in the FFE and anticipated in later phases, which provided valuable information regarding capabilities needed to succeed with the endeavour. Findings reveal four links of PSS innovation capabilities: (1) adapting vocabulary and mental models to PSS, (2) handling the ‘intangible aspect’, (3) bridging organisational structures, and (4) managing new business models. PSS innovation capabilities in the FFE are also found to be of higher order (dynamic) compared to capabilities in later development phases
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| 4. |
- Larsson, Lisa, 1980-
(författare)
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Characteristics of Production Innovation
- 2017
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Today firms must maintain high levels of efficiency, quality control, customer responsiveness and speed, but even the full set of these attributes is not sufficient for sustainable competitive advantage. A further challenging requirement is to innovate successfully, not only in product development but also in production. Traditionally, innovation is regarded as successful product development, and delivering innovative products of sufficient quality at a reasonable price is seen as the primary means of acquiring and maintaining competitiveness. In this context, the role of production development is simply to provide production solutions required for the realization of new products. However, production development (sometimes called ‘production improvement’ or ‘process innovation in production’) may also involve continuous incremental or radical improvement of current production processes or systems in terms of productivity, cost, speed, quality, and/or flexibility.Previous research provides a rather narrow view of production development, largely ignoring value creation, which obscures its importance for organizations. Due to the lack of attention to innovativeness in production development, limited effort is also made to understand how to manage production development projects as innovation processes, where the emphasis is on obtaining value. This retards progress and restrains organizations’ competitiveness, and to some extent the potential social benefits (such as increases in sustainability) of new production technologies. Thus, the primary objective of the research this thesis is based upon was to increase understanding of distinguishing features and valuable outcomes of production innovation, together with challenges in managing production innovation processes. Data underlying this research were collected through case studies of development projects in firms operating in several industries.The research findings show that the pursued outcomes of production innovation are mainly cost reductions and increases in quality. Nevertheless, production innovation also contributes with expansion of product design space, and strengthening innovation capabilities, which in themselves provide sustainable competitive advantage. Further, production innovation is highly dependent on successful implementation – a complex endeavour involving internal organization, external customers and other actors contributing to the production system. Organizations lack support for capturing, prioritization, decision making and resource allocation in production innovation processes, a topic that warrants further research.
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| 5. |
- Lind, Erika, 1971-, et al.
(författare)
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Constraints and Capacities in Small Established Firms : The Role of Managerial Levers in the Innovation Process
- 2017
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Ingår i: XXVIII ISPIM Conference.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The importance of innovation for sustained competiveness is well stated in the literature. However, most product innovation research has so far focused on large firms or small high tech, start-up or spin-off companies. This study investigates innovation process practices in small established firms through the use of five managerial levers considered to determine the process. Based on a case-study design involving eight small established firms with growth ambitions, the results show that the levers “mission, strategy and goal” and “organizational learning” are important throughout the process, and that the lever “resource allocation” is directed towards the later phases of the process. The levers “structure and systems”, as well as “organizational culture” are less emphasized. By developing and testing an analysis model based on the innovation process and managerial levers, this paper contributes with insights of innovation in established small firms valuable for further research.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Svensson, Peter, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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The contradiction in strategic research programmes : Support established processes or nurture new product ideas, or do both?
- 2005
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The path between science and innovation is not yet fully mapped. The path is not linear from the discovery of a research finding, to the creation of a technology, and to the market introduction of a physical product, service or process based on scientific findings. Instead, innovation, technology, and science interact. The actors, i.e. the scientist, the engineer, and the entrepreneur or the intrapreneur, are involved in processes facilitated by social networks. The objective of this paper is to explore and explain critical issues for technology transfer and commercialization from a university research programme. Findings are based on a longitudinal in-depth case study of a Swedish university research programme in microelectronics, Eproper. The conclusions of this article are: a) the actors involved in the start of a research programme influence the social network for the whole programme b) there are two different rationales of developing research results: the academic loop and the commercial loop, and c) different sets of skills are needed to license a technology or to build a new venture.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Abdullah, M Ailieen, et al.
(författare)
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Building Networks for Delivering Integrated Product-Service Offerings (IPSOs)
- 2010
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Ingår i: Industrial product-service systems -IPS². - Linköping : CIRP. - 9789173933810 - 9173933813
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The paper describes the effect of forming business networks and collaborations for the purpose of developing an Integrated Product-Service Offering (IPSO) using the Product/Service Systems (PSS). The research method is an in-depth case study of a joint venture formed by four companies developing a new technology for chemical extraction from water sludge waste within the pulp and paper industry.Combining literature from PSS, network theories and collaborative product development, this paper puts forward the benefits for SMEs to collaborate in business networks and produce IPSOs when introducing a new technology in an emerging market. The case study shows that working towards the new market would not have been possible if each party acted individually or maintained their traditional buyer-supplieroperator roles, and that IPSOs can reduce the business risk.
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