| 1. |
- Amann, Daniel, 1967-
(författare)
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Exploring affordability in concept generation for complex defence products
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- National defence budgets face pressure from intergenerational escalating costs for complex defence products, such as fighter aircraft and submarines. These escalating costs originate from ever-increasing performance requirements due to the competitive nature of warfare. In combat, only winning is good enough. Therefore, the products’ performance is considered crucial for gaining an edge over an opponent. As the continuous development of ever-costlier complex defence products is not sustainable, it is high time for a path change towards affordability, meaning less costly products without any compromises in terms of operational requirements. However, the fact that this cost escalation has long been recognised as unsustainable indicates that a path change towards affordability will not be easy to achieve. Such a path change will likely require radical changes in product concepts – even though costs might be reduced in other ways, product concepts are believed to have the greatest potential. In accordance with this assumption, this thesis suggest that the phenomenon of continuous generation of ever-costlier complex defence concepts is ultimately sealed in the front end of innovation, where opportunities are identified and product concepts are defined. Accordingly, this thesis aims to explore how firms and customers can influence activities in the front end of innovation in order to successfully manage the affordability of complex defence products. This aim is approached through phenomenon-driven research performed in a set of four concatenated studies, represented by five papers. By letting successive studies be informed by preceding studies, new knowledge and theory are added to this under-researched topic. Empirically, several factors and aspects influencing the front end of innovation are identified as potential barriers to or enablers of path changes towards affordability. In addition, different measures that companies and customers can adopt to support such path changes are proposed. The thesis contributes to extant theory by providing a definition of affordability adapted to complex defence products, and by contrasting affordability with established concepts and methods aimed at making products less costly. Furthermore, benefits and deficiencies in the industry’s handling of concept generation for complex defence products are highlighted from an affordability perspective, and the influence of specific characteristics on path changes towards affordability in relation to complex defence equipment is described and discussed. Finally, conditions supporting affordability related to opportunities, knowledge and motivations are described, and the benefits of providing those generating complex capability-oriented concepts with cost-related information are demonstrated.In addition to these contributions to theory, this thesis has several implications for the practice of companies and governmental customers. It highlights measures that these two sets of actors can take to shape conditions and, thereby, influence key activities in the front end of innovation to generate complex defence-product concepts that meet affordability criteria. These suggested measures constitute an embryo of an explicit approach to affordability management.
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| 2. |
- Kihlander, Ingrid, 1976-
(författare)
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Concept decisions in product development process
- 2009
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Successful concept decisions are crucial for product development organisations. Failure in theconcept decision-making process means costly rework, requiring resources that could havebeen spent on innovative work with new products instead. This licentiate thesis tackles theconcept decision-making process and how to improve it. The research presented here is thefirst part of a research project, with an action research approach, that will develop newsupporting working procedures for concept decision making and thereby contribute to moresuccessful products.Empirical studies were conducted in Swedish industrial practice, particularly focusing oneorganisation, and it was found that concept decisions are not made at a certain point in time.Instead, many decisions and activities, on several organisational levels, were adding up to theconcept decisions in the investigated organisations. The concept decision-making process wasfound to be a web of interconnected activities, with many decisions integrated and embedded in the process. Itwas also found that both formal and informal factors influence the concept decision-makingprocess and main factors were identified as: Project and product request, Supporting structures androutines, Individual competence and driving forces, Teamwork and company culture and Contextualcircumstances. These factors represent different perspectives, meaning on what level theyinfluence concept decision making: individual, team, project, organisation, and context, and in orderto create improvements in the concept decision-making process all levels have to beconsidered. The knowledge of the different perspectives has implications for howimprovements should be designed.Larger product developing companies do often have internally defined formal workingprocedures that prescribe how to develop products within the company. The thesis discusseshow the internal working procedures relate to academic theory and to practice. It wasconcluded that internal formal working procedures has not been discussed in a sufficient wayin earlier engineering design research. Furthermore, means for improving the concept decisionmakingprocess are discussed, and it was concluded, based on interviews with practitioners,that the strongest pragmatic means for improvement were developing mindset and applyingmethods. Mindset addresses the awareness, attitude and approach needed for management (andco-workers) working in early product development phases. Methods mainly addresses the needfor having relevant supporting working procedures in general and templates for evaluationalternative solutions in particular. Finally, recommendations for future design of a template forevaluation alternative solutions are presented.
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| 3. |
- Kihlander, Ingrid, 1976-
(författare)
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Managing concept decision making in product development practice
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Making concept decisions is a crucial activity for product-developing companies since these decisions have high impact on the subsequent development and launch of the product. Consequences of unsuccessful concept decisions can be severe, e.g. missing out on business opportunities or spending money on rework. This thesis investigates concept decision making in product development practice and contributes by enhancing the understanding of what is actually happening, the difficulties experienced in the process, and how to manage and improve concept decision making. Such enhanced understanding should serve as a basis when support methods for concept decision making are developed. In-depth studies have been conducted in a Swedish automotive company, focusing on the technical system level of the product. The concept decision process was found to be a web of interconnected activities, embedded in the concept development process, and with several actors on different hierarchical levels. An overarching challenge identified in concept decision making was to achieve compatibility before completeness, meaning that compatibility between product systems must be met before the system solutions are completely developed. In addition, a number of conflicts intrinsic in the process were revealed, pointing to underlying causes of the difficulties in managing concept decision making. These conflicts are omnipresent due to the product and organizational complexity and have to be handled by the product developers in their daily work. The thesis identifies key elements for improving an organization’s concept decision making: Create meta-knowledge and awareness regarding what influences the process and the actors in the process since there is a general lack of knowledge regarding one’s own and the organization’s decision-making processes; Ask questions to ensure that aspects, previously neglected, are considered; Provide visualizations to enhance understanding of both process and solutions; Provide vision as guidance in everyday decision making and trade-offs; and Ensure reflections since there is a need for actors in the process to reflect on the own decision-making process. In conclusion, a model to improve the concept decision making in practice is proposed. The model includes a set of proposed activities that are designed to address the previously identified challenges, and was developed in collaboration between researchers and practitioners.
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