| 1. |
- Flankegård, Filip
(author)
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Supplier Involvement in Product Development: A Supplier Perspective
- 2022
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)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. |
- Larsson, Lisa, 1980-
(author)
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Characteristics of Production Innovation
- 2017
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)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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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Luthfa Karim, Sabrina, 1973-
(author)
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The Uncertainty-Embedded Innovation Process : A study of how uncertainty emerges in the innovation process and of how firms address that to create novelty
- 2017
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Despite much discussion in the literature of uncertainties in relation to the innovation process, there is little knowledge of how they emerge in this process. This thesis accordingly aims to understand how uncertainty emerges in the innovation process and how firms address that uncertainty to create novelty from the process. Uncertainty is embedded in the innovation process (Jalonen, 2012), which implies that it is not only a factor affecting the innovation process but also an outcome of the process itself. To fulfil the purpose of this study, it is important to understand how the innovation process unfolds over time. It is well established that innovation is a process of recombining resources (Schumpeter, 1934) through the performing and linking of certain activities in sequence (Richardson, 1972; Dubois, 1994; Bankvall, 2011) by various actors (i.e., firms and organizations) in a network context (Håkansson and Olsen, 2012; Lampela, 2012; Love and Roper, 2001; Pittaway et al., 2004; Powell et al., 1996). To fulfil the purpose of this study, the following research question has been asked: How and why do actors undertake and link resource recombination activities in a network context, thereby managing uncertainties in the innovation process?The thesis investigates the innovation process in two companies. One of the companies had completed its innovation journey and the other had almost done so. The discussion gives a detailed account of: the activities these companies performed alone and jointly with their partners in a network context; the resources they exchanged with each other and recombined to bring new solutions to the market; the uncertainties created in the process of recombining the resources; and the activities they undertook in response to address these uncertainties. The innovation process in the case companies is analysed in light of a conceptual model developed here based on Dubois’ (1994) “end product related activity structure model”, Håkansson’s (1987) “ARA model/network model”, and Goldratt’s (1997) “critical chain concept”.This study identifies the conditions under which uncertainties emerged in the innovation process in the studied companies. One of the significant conditions was resource unavailability, which was caused by actors’ reluctance to share resources, prohibition by government policy, and the resources’ own conflicting conditions and internal resistance (Håkansson and Snehota, 1995; Håkansson and Waluszewski, 2002; Waluszewski, 2004). Resource unavailability caused inertial and repetitive activities and delayed the process of producing an outcome, having such an impact on the activities under the condition of path dependency (Arthur, 1994; David, 2000). Another observed condition was the actors’ lack of knowledge of resource combination (Jalonen, 2011).A type of uncertainty that seriously affects the outcome of the innovation process is the activity void, a situation in which no activity is taking place. Activity voids are created from resource unavailability either by an actor’s reluctance to share resources or by the outcome of combining conflicting resource properties.The outcome of the innovation process is therefore affected by the key actor’s attempt to reduce the activity void by making compromises at the three levels, interplay among which construct the process, i.e., actors, resources, and activities. To manage uncertainties, managers make many compromises when they perform and link various activities. Although the underlying motivation for making compromises is rational, it is boundedly rational (Simon, 1957) because by making compromises, managers forego expectations of having all the properties or of being able to plan, undertake, and link activities as intended. This study also reveals that sometimes actors prefer not to make compromises despite knowing that this might cost a great deal. Accordingly, the findings suggest that compromises made within a working relationship allow actors to produce novelty without deviating from the desired path by ensuring access to resources and partners’ abilities. On the contrary, compromises not made in the relationship can threaten actors’ ability to produce the desired novelty, as the exchange of partners’ resources and abilities is hindered in a poor relationship. Compromises made in resource configuration and activities threaten actors’ ability to produce the desired novelty by limiting their choices, while compromises not made in resource configuration and activities allow actors to produce the desired novelty without deviation.
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| 5. |
- Salim, Roaa, 1990-
(author)
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Exploring the content and process of automation decisions in manufacturing system development projects : A study in the Swedish wood products industry
- 2021
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The wood industry has great potential to support the development of a more sustainable future based on a circular economy. For Sweden to be able to maintain its competitive position as a leading wood industry nation, products with increased added value are needed. To realize this development, new and efficient automated solutions supporting the manufacturing systems in place in the industry are essential. However, although automation of manufacturing can result in competitive advantages, this is far from always being the case. A number of researchers have convincingly argued that investments in automation of manufacturing are more likely to succeed if they are the expression of well-grounded decisions made during the design of a manufacturing system. It is further argued that such decisions need to be linked to a company’s manufacturing strategy. And yet despite this, automation decisions are often made ad hoc and based on gut feelings.The essential purpose of this thesis therefore is to support informed automation decisions in the context of manufacturing system development projects carried out in the wood products industry. To fulfill the purpose, multiple research studies have been conducted including literature reviews and case study method.This thesis contributes with increased knowledge on the content and process of automation decisions in manufacturing system development projects conducted in the wood products industry. Close study of automation decisions made during manufacturing system design from a manufacturing strategy perspective has produced a set of guiding suggestions. These include the identification of aspects that need consideration when automation decisions are being made during the design of manufacturing systems. Furthermore, through studying the process leading to automation decisions during manufacturing system design, potential pitfalls for the wood products industry are exemplified and tactics used to support decision-making related to automation are suggested. Last, this thesis extends the current understanding about manufacturing systems in the wood products industry by presenting the drivers and challenges for automation of manufacturing.
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| 6. |
- Dordlofva, Christo
(author)
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Qualification of Metal Additive Manufacturing in Space Industry : Challenges for Product Development
- 2018
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Additive manufacturing (AM), or 3D printing, is a collection of production processes that has received a good deal of attention in recent years from different industries. Features such as mass production of customised products, design freedom, part consolidation and cost efficient low volume production drive the development of, and the interest in, these technologies. One industry that could potentially benefit from AM with metal materials is the space industry, an industry that has become a more competitive environment with established actors being challenged by new commercial initiatives. To be competitive in these new market conditions, the need for innovation and cost awareness has increased. Efficiency in product development and manufacturing is required, and AM is promising from these perspectives. However, the maturity of the AM processes is still at a level that requires cautious implementation in direct applications. Variation in manufacturing outcome and sensitivity to part geometry impact material properties and part behaviour. Since the space industry is characterised by the use of products in harsh environments with no room for failure, strict requirements govern product development, manufacturing and use of space applications. Parts have to be shown to meet specific quality control requirements, which is done through a qualification process. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate challenges with development and qualification of AM parts for space applications, and their impact on the product development process. Specifically, the challenges with powder bed fusion (PBF) processes have been in focus in this thesis.Four studies have been carried out within this research project. The first was a literature review coupled with visits to AM actors in Sweden that set the direction for the research. The second study consisted of a series of interviews at one company in the space industry to understand the expectations for AM and its implications on product development. This was coupled with a third study consisting of a workshop series with three companies in the space industry. The fourth study was an in-depth look at one company to map the qualification of manufacturing processes in the space industry, and the challenges that are seen for AM. The results from these studies show that engineers in the space industry work under conditions that are not always under their control, and which impact how they are able to be innovative and to introduce new manufacturing technologies, such as AM. The importance of product quality also tends to lead engineers into relying on previous designs meaning incremental, rather than radical, development of products is therefore typical. Furthermore, the qualification of manufacturing processes relies on previous experience which means that introducing new processes, such as AM, is difficult due to the lack of knowledge of their behaviour. Two major challenges with the qualification of critical AM parts for space applications have been identified: (i) the requirement to show that critical parts are damage tolerant which is challenging due to the lack of understanding of AM inherent defects, and (ii) the difficulty of testing parts in representative environments. This implies that the whole product development process is impacted in the development and qualification of AM parts; early, as well as later stages. To be able to utilise the design freedom that comes with AM, the capabilities of the chosen AM process has to be considered. Therefore, Design for Manufacturing (DfM) has evolved into Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM). While DfAM is important for the part design, this thesis also discusses its importance in the qualification of AM parts. In addition, the role of systems engineering in the development and qualification of AM parts for space applications is highlighted.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Javadi, Siavash, 1984-
(author)
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Product Introduction in Low-volume Manufacturing : from an Information Quality Perspective
- 2024
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Manufacturing companies must continually innovate and introduce new products to compete globally, relying on a well-executed product introduction process for success. This involves a successful transition from design to production, ensuring alignment between product and production systems. A successful product introduction process results in a shorter time-to-market and fewer production disruptions. Collaboration and information sharing between design and production are pivotal, with the content quality of shared information crucial to the product introduction process.Low-volume manufacturing companies are integral to the European manufacturing sector but face unique challenges with regard to new product introduction due to their specific characteristics. Existing studies often overlook low-volume manufacturing, leading to a lack of comprehensive understanding, particularly regarding the role of information quality in the process.This research project aims to examine the product introduction process in low-volume manufacturing by focusing on the role of information content quality. To fulfil this aim, seven case studies were conducted in two manufacturing companies to investigate the influences of the characteristics of products and production systems in low-volume manufacturing on the product introduction process, the role of information content quality in the process, and the management strategies that enhance information content quality.The findings of this thesis map the characteristics of products and production systems in low-volume manufacturing and their influences on the product introduction process. The characteristics, activities, and phases of the product introduction process for low-volume products are thus defined. Moreover, the types and sources of disturbances during product introduction in low-volume manufacturing are identified. Furthermore, the role of information content quality in the low-volume product introduction process and the identified disturbances are investigated. Information correctness, completeness, accuracy, clarity, consistency and timeliness are identified as dimensions of information content quality affected by the characteristics of product introduction in low-volume manufacturing. Additionally, adapting product introduction management strategies to suit the requirements and characteristics of low-volume manufacturing is investigated, with a focus on enhancing the quality of information in the design–production interface. In total, the study identifies four main product introduction management strategies that are well suited to companies in low-volume manufacturing. Finally, the study explores the integration of advanced digital technology practices – such as interactive digital design reviews, digital test assemblies, virtual builds and digital clinics – into various product introduction management strategies to improve information content quality.This research contributes to the product introduction research area by delving into aspects of the process in low-volume manufacturing. It specifically addresses the role of information content quality and management strategies for improving information quality. The findings will benefit practitioners in low-volume manufacturing by providing insights into process characteristics and challenges in their industry.
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| 9. |
- Larsson, Lisa, 1980-
(author)
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A Conceptual Framework for Production Innovation
- 2020
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Production plays a central role in the global sustainability challenge the world is facing. Rising population numbers and increased middle class lead to even higher consumption and production of goods. Hence, the production industry has a large responsibility, and innovative products and ways of producing can make a significant difference in terms of sustainability, both on company and global level, by increased consideration of long-term benefits and consequences. In addition, a major shift in the global production industry takes place, from previously mainly manufacturing goods, towards currently providing more and more sophisticated solutions to satisfy the ever increasing and varying needs of customers. To address these challenges, well-developed abilities to innovate production processes are required, in order to deliver both incremental and radical improvements on a short-term and long-term basis. One of the more enduring ideas in organization science is that an organization’s long-term success depends on its ability to exploit its current capabilities while simultaneously exploring fundamentally new capabilities. Although it is known that both approaches are needed in a long-term perspective, exploitative innovations tend to be over-represented in established manufacturing firms, since short term measures, meeting demands of existing customers, and ease of measurement often are dominant concerns. To focus solely on exploitative innovation is not truly sustainable from a business perspective, since at some point the production system optimization will just start delivering marginal improvements. Hence, we need explorative production innovation in parallel to accomplish sustainable development in production. There is however very little focus in production development literature on realization of innovation that could be categorized as explorative. The overall objectives of the research presented in this thesis were to advance understanding of production innovation, and to provide support for management of explorative production innovation. As a result, a conceptual framework for production innovation is proposed, which conceptualizes and describes the phenomenon, and highlights important factors for explorative production innovation management. The conceptual framework is a result of an iterative research process of incorporating findings acquired in empirical studies and from previous research, which have been reported in five appended papers. The empirical data derive from four case studies, studying production development projects where innovative solutions have been developed in four companies in different industries. The conceptual framework describes and distinguishes between exploitative and explorative production innovation. The application of an increased production capability that builds upon existing knowledge to improve the production systems performance could be described as exploitative production innovation, and the application of new production capability, i.e. the capability to do new tasks by exploring and using new knowledge could be described as explorative production innovation. The thesis also highlights aspects of innovation management related to the distinct characteristics of explorative production innovation that often may be perceived as challenging, i.e. the systemic nature, intangible outcomes, need for dynamic capability, and lack of process support. Based on this, four factors that have been identified as important in managing explorative production innovation are highlighted: (1) Making production innovation a strategic matter, (2) Assessing unfamiliarity in production innovation, (3) Adapting the production innovation process, and (4) Implementing a systemic change.The conceptual framework presented in this thesis provides a conceptualization of production innovation, and thereby a theoretical framing of an underexplored phenomenon. The findings also begin to frame production innovation management as a management discipline, where the conceptual framework and the identified key factors for explorative production innovation is an initial step to interpret, adapt and apply relevant theoretical knowledge from the innovation management field in a production context. The understanding provided by the conceptual framework may be valuable for companies seeking to complement existing production development efforts (e.g. continuous improvement and production optimization) with explorative production innovation.
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| 10. |
- Radits, Markus, 1981-
(author)
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A Business Ecology Perspective on Community-Driven Open Source : The Case of the Free and Open Source Content Management System Joomla
- 2019
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis approaches the phenomenon of open source software (OSS) from a managerial and organisational point of view. In a slightly narrower sense, this thesis studies commercialisation aspects around community-driven open source. The term ‘community-driven’ signifies open source projects that are managed, steered, and controlled by communities of volunteers, as opposed to those that are managed, steered, and controlled by single corporate sponsors.By adopting a business ecology perspective, this thesis places emphasis on the larger context within which the commercialisation of OSS is embedded (e.g., global and collaborative production regimes, ideological foundations, market characteristics, and diffuse boundary conditions). Because many business benefits arise as a consequence of the activities taking place in the communities and ecosystems around open source projects, a business ecology perspective may be a useful analytical guide for understanding the opportunities, challenges, and risks that firms face in commercializing OSS.There are two overarching themes guiding this thesis. The first theme concerns the challenges that firms face in commercialising community-driven open source. There is a tendency in the literature on business ecosystems and open source to emphasise the benefits, opportunities, and positive aspects of behaviour, at the expense of the challenges that firms face. However, business ecosystems are not only spaces of opportunity, they may also pose a variety of challenges that firms need to overcome in order to be successful. To help rectify this imbalance in the literature, the first theme particularly focuses on the challenges that firms face in commercialising community-driven open source. The underlying ambition is to facilitate a more balanced and holistic understanding of the collaborative and competitive dynamics in ecosystems around open source projects.The other theme concerns the complex intertwining of community engagement and profit-oriented venturing. As is acknowledged in the literature, the subject of firm-community interaction has become increasingly important because the survival, success, and sustainability of peer production communities has become of strategic relevance to many organisations. However, while many strategic benefits may arise as a consequence of firm-community interaction, there is a lack of research studying how the value-creating logics of firm–community interaction are embedded within the bigger picture in which they occur. Bearing this bigger picture in mind, this thesis explores the intertwining of volunteer community engagement and profit-oriented venturing by focusing on four aspects that are theorised in the literature: reinforcement, complementarity, synergy, and reciprocity.This thesis is designed as a qualitative exploratory single-case study. The empirical case is Joomla, a popular open source content management system. In a nutshell, the Joomla case in this thesis comprises the interactions in the Joomla community and the commercial activities around the Joomla platform (e.g., web development, consulting, marketing, customisation, extensions). In order to achieve greater analytical depth, the business ecology perspective is complemented with ideas and propositions from other theoretical areas, such as stakeholder theory, community governance, organizational identity, motivation theory, pricing, and bundling.The findings show that the common challenges in commercialising community-driven open source revolve around nine distinct factors that roughly cluster into three domains: the ecosystem, the community, and the firm. In short, the domain of the ecosystem comprises the global operating environment, the pace of change, and the cannibalisation of ideas. The domain of the community comprises the platform policy, platform image, and the voluntary nature of the open source project. And finally, the domain of the firm comprises the blurring boundaries between private and professional lives, the difficulty of estimating costs, and firm dependencies. Based on these insights, a framework for analysing community-based value creation in business ecosystems is proposed. This framework integrates collective innovation, community engagement, and value capture into a unified model of value creation in contexts of firm–community interaction.Furthermore, the findings reveal demonstrable effects of reinforcement, complementarity, synergy, and reciprocity in the intertwining of volunteer community engagement and profit-oriented venturing. By showing that this intertwining can be strong in empirical cases where commercial activities are often implicitly assumed to be absent, this thesis provides a more nuanced understanding of firm involvement in the realm of open source.Based on the empirical and analytical insights, a number of further theoretical implications are discussed, such as the role of intersubjective trust in relation to the uncertainties that commercial actors face, an alternative way of classifying community types, the metaphor of superorganisms in the context of open source, issues pertaining to the well-being of community participants, and issues in relation to the transitioning of open source developers from a community-based to an entrepreneurial self-identity when commercialising an open source solution. Furthermore, this thesis builds on six sub-studies that make individual contributions of their own.In a broad sense, this thesis contributes to the literature streams on the commercialisation of OSS, the business value and strategic aspects of open source, the interrelationships between community forms of organising and entrepreneurial activities, and the nascent research on ecology perspectives on peer-production communities. A variety of opportunities for future research are highlighted.
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