This article explores the role of logistics and supply chain management (SCM) in retailers’ corporate strategy and is based on reviewing multiple qualitative case studies of companies in the Swedish food retail sector. The article proposes that the role of logistics for what is referred to in this paper as modern retailers is twofold: to create profitability and to support growth and market expansion. International modern retailers are empirically compared with similar companies in the Swedish market. The dominating Swedish food retailers have taken command in the food supply chain but are primarily concerned with traditional logistics roles in cost cutting. This role is perfectly fine as long as the strategic intent of the companies is focused on market retention and not on geographical expansion and/or new marketing or store concepts. We argue that the success of modern retailers in terms of growth rate, profitability, and market expansion is explained to a large extent by the role of logistics in corporate strategy—when the role for supporting growth and increasing customer value from high-performance supply capabilities is a driver for market expansion. However, in many of our cases the traditional logistics roles of cutting costs and lead-times is still the dominating pattern that limits the possibility of expanding into new markets. Better knowledge of logistics’ role in retail corporate strategy can help companies develop and improve their strategic intent as well as redefine the role of logistics.

A detailed simulation of a large 33 metric ton wheel loader, carrying out the short loading cycle, has been performed. Two systems have been compared and examined side by side:

• The conventional system, having a mechanical transmission for driving the wheels and a conventional load sensing hydraulic circuit for the work and steering cylinders.
• A new hydraulic hybrid system for the wheel drive and the implements, applying new and efficient hydrau- lic pumps and motors.The core of the new system is the hydraulic transformers which convert and control all the hydraulic power flows inside the loader.

The new system results in a reduction of the fuel consumption of about 50% in the analyzed cycle. The new transmission and hydraulic system also results in a strong reduction of the cooler demands.

Volvo Aero Corporation är en stor leverantör till de tre stora flygmotortillverkarna, General Electric, Pratt & Whitney och Rolls Royce. Komponenter som företaget producerar används i över 80 % av dagens kommersiella motorer. Nya motorprogram, där Volvo Aero eftersträvar att ha en mer aktiv roll gällande design och utveckling, har lett till nya utmaningar för företaget. Samtidigt har en komplicerad leverantörsmarknad, bland annat på grund av konsolidering, blivit svårare att hantera. Av denna anledning finns ett intresse av att förbättra företagets relationer och samarbeten med sina leverantörer, bland annat för att höja effektiviteten och sänka kostnader och ledtider.

I ett led att klara detta, gav Volvo Aero oss uppgiften att studera och analysera teorier kring hantering av leverantörsrelationer för att se om vi kunde hitta passande modeller som är applicerbara på de nya situationer som företaget står inför.

Vi utförde studier av en mängd teorier, och sökte att finna vilka som passade Volvo Aeros situation bäst. Många av de teorier vi funnit har sitt ursprung i fordonsindustrin eller Lean produktion, men vi har även använt mer generella teorier. Vi identifierade från dessa teorier de parametrar som har inflytande på vilken typ av förhållande företaget bör ha. Vi sökte speciellt efter de nyckelparametrar som bestämmer förutsättningarna för relationen, exempelvis maktbalansen eller mängden anpassningar och investeringar som företagen gjort.

Utifrån detta har vi skapat en modell bestående av de teorier vi funnit relevanta, där vi applicerar parametrar specifika för en given relation. Modellen ger sedan underlag för att dra slutsatser om vilka strategier som är lämpliga för relationen givet den förenklade verklighet som parametrarna beskriver.

Vi applicerade denna modell på tre specifika fall, och gjorde dessutom en generell analys av företaget leverantörsrelationer. De specifika fallen utgjordes av leverantörsrelationer som vi valt ut tillsammans med Volvo Aero. I den generella analysen tvingades vi till ett mer abstrakt resonemang, men vi baserade även där analysen på de parametrar och teorier som utgjorde modellen.

Vad vi fann med analysen var att modellen fungerade på önskat sätt, och att det var möjligt att applicera teorierna på företaget med till synes goda resultat. Vi kan från detta även dra slutsatsen att modellen är applicerbar även på andra leverantörsrelationer, så väl som på andra företag, men då eventuellt med mindre justeringar.

The industrial trend is currently to increase product customization, and at the same time decrease cost, manufacturing errors, and time to delivery. These are the main goal of the e-FACTORY project which is initiated at Linköping university to develop a digital framework that integrates digitization technologies to stay ahead of the competitors. e-FACTORY will help companies to obtain a more efficient and integrated product configuration and production planning process.

This thesis is a part of the e-FACTORY project with Weland AB which main mission is the optimization of spiral staircase towards multiple disciplines such a scost and comfortability. Today this is done manually and the iteration times are usually long. Automating this process could save a lot of time and money.

The thesis has two main goals, the first part is related to develop a generic multi-objective optimization toolbox which contains NSGA-II and it is able to solve different kinds of optimization problems and should be easy to use as much as possible. The MOO-toolbox is evaluated with different kinds of optimization problems and the results were compared with other toolboxes. The results seem confident and reliable for a generic toolbox. The second goal is to implement the optimization problem of the spiral staircase in the MOO-toolbox. The optimization results achieved in this thesis shows the benefits of optimization for this case and it can be extended by more variables to obtain impressive results.

Saab Aerostructures är en del av Saab-koncernen och företaget utvecklar och tillverkar strukturer för flygindustrin. Tillverkningen av stridsflygplan är den dominerande verksamheten, men antalet civila projekt ökar stadigt. I många av de civila projekten verkar Saab Aerostructures som underleverantör till antingen Boeing eller Airbus. Det finns flera skillnader mellan de militära och de civila projekten, exempelvis är leveranstakten betydligt högre i de civila projekten. I och med de förändrade förutsättningarna görs försök med att tillämpa lean production. Detta har påbörjats i två pilotprojekt varav ett är tillverkningen av luckor till Boeing 787.

Syftet med denna rapport är att komma med rekommendationer för hur produktionen av luckor till Boeing 787 skall planeras och styras. Då företaget började använda ett nytt ERP-system under hösten 2006, är det även av intresse att se hur detta system skall användas utefter de rekommendationer som uppkommer. För att utreda dessa frågor undersöks både produktionsstrategiska och operativa aspekter i de två produktionsavsnitten Sammanbyggnad och Kompositverkstad.

Sammanlagt tillverkas sju olika luckor, varav de två största produceras i en lina som håller en jämn produktionstakt. Projektet är försenat, bland annat på grund av svårigheter att tillverka de 20 kompositartiklar som ingår i de tre största luckorna. Komposittillverkningen sker i en funktionell verkstad, med många transporter mellan byggnader för att knyta ihop flödet. Undersökningen visar att Saab Aerostructures har en mismatch mellan planeringsstrategin och den kapacitetsstrategi som tillämpas i Kompositverkstaden. Företaget försöker följa den efterfrågan de olika projekten har, men har samtidigt ont om kapacitet. Det leder till överbeläggning och leveranssvårigheter. På grund av kapacitetsbristen bör en cyklisk planering användas i Kompositverkstaden, där flaskhalsen styr takten. På detta sätt kan kötiderna i verkstaden minskas. Kompositverkstaden bör bli mer flödesinriktad för att minska ledtider och få till en enklare styrning. På detta sätt blir det möjligt att hålla en jämn leveranstakt även för dessa artiklar.

Tillverkningstider, kötider och transporttider i ERP-systemet bör anpassas efter den cykliska planeringen som tas fram. Att uppdatera dessa tider blir extra viktigt i inkörningsförloppet, då tiderna är betydligt längre och varierar kraftigt. På grund av den hantverksmässiga produktionen i Kompositverkstaden och den stora kassationsrisken som föreligger är det viktigt att införa säkerhetsmekanismer. När den cykliska planeringen tas fram bör en säkerhetsledtid användas för de operationer som har stor variation i operationstid. För att inte linan skall stå stilla vid störningar är det även viktigt att skapa buffertar, dels innan linan men även framför den flaskhals som identifieras i flödet.

Produktionstakten för kompositartiklarna är högre än takten i Sammanbyggnad, vilket inte stöds av ERP-systemet. För att systemet ändå skall föreslå rätt antal tillverkningsorder bör en kassationsfaktor användas. På detta sätt ges stöd för den långsiktiga planeringen. Slutligen visar undersökningen att styrning via ett kanbansystem ej bör genomföras, främst på grund av de höga kassationstalen och produktionsupplägget som en funktionell verkstad.

I dagens osäkra och ständigt föränderliga affärsklimatet har kunskap blivit den enda säkra källan till långsiktig konkurrenskraft. Att lära sig av misstag och undvika att återuppfinna hjulet är idag av yttersta vikt; dagens organisationer har helt enkelt inte råd med att inte använda sin kunskap på bästa sätt. I och med att Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB (SIT) verkar i en komplex och högteknologisk industri är det absolut nödvändigt att tillvarata och använda den kunskap som finns internt. Det har emellertid kommit till författarnas insikt att projektledningsavdelningen (GL) inom gas divisionen på SIT upplever ett behov av förbättrade processer för kunskapshantering och återanvändning av den kunskapsbas som finns inom organisationen.

Den första januari 2010 genomförde Siemens AG en stor omorganisation vilket innebar att två tidigare separata projektledningsavdelningar inom SIT och GL slogs ihop till en enhet. Det nuvarande arbetet med att harmonisera de två avdelningarnas tidigare arbetssätt medför en fördelaktig tidpunkt för att se över och undersöka hur organisationen bör förbättra sin kunskapshantering framöver. Med detta som bakgrund har det följande examensarbetet fokuserat på att undersöka och belysa de förbättringsmöjligheter som finns gällande spriding av kunskap internt mellan projekt och mellan projekt och den övriga organisationen. Vidare studerar rapporten hur verktyg och processer bör utformas för att samla in, bevara, sprida och återanvända erfarenheter, kunskaper och lärdomar inom en projektbaserad organisation på bästa möjliga sätt.

Studiens tillvägagångssätt är av kvalitativ karaktär och inkluderar intervjuer med de 16 projektledarna inom GL samt med andra nyckelpersoner inom både SIT och de nya affärsenheterna CS och IP inom Siemens Oil & Gas division. Medverkan i projektledarmöten och observationer av projektledarna i deras dagliga verksamhet har vidare bidragit till en fördjupad förståelse av den nuvarande situationen inom SIT och GL; en förståelse som visat sig nödvändig för att kartlägga de faktorer och bakomliggande orsaker som gett upphov till organisationens låga kunskapsbevarande och användning av intern kunskap; en förståelse som gett upphov till den modell som belyser de viktiga aspekterna för att uppnå framgångsrik kunskapshantering, och dessas beroende och påverkan på varandra.

För att förbättra den interna kunskapsanvändningen krävs att lärdomar och erfarenheter samlas in kontinuerligt under hela projektets livscykel. Insamlandet bör primärt ske genom dagens regelbundna projektmöten tillsammans med specifika workshops avsedda för att tillvarata erfarenheter och lärdomar. Insamlandet och användningen av lärdomar bör på detta sett integreras i projektledningsprocessen. Det finns även ett behov av att förbättra och utveckla organisationens forum för kunskapsdelning; vilka behövs för att möjliggöra att humankapital kan omvandlas till strukturkapital, vilket leder till att organisationens kunskapsbas utökas. Förbättrade forum tillsammans med ett visualiserat stöd från ledningen genom handling, feedback och införandet av en organisationskultur som förespråkar ett organisatoriskt lärande, ser gemensamt till att förbättra bevarandet och användandet av organisationens kunskapsbas.

Även om tillvägagångssättet för denna studie baseras på en fallstudie av SIT:s organisation anses slutsatserna kunna vara av värde för andra projektbaserade organisationer; slutsatserna anses därmed generaliserbara och tillämpbara inom andra branscher. Den allmänna slutsatsen av denna studie är att ett framgångsrikt kunskapshanteringssystem bör beakta och involvera alla faktorer i den presenterade modellen.

This thesis explores and evaluates the design of control systems for a variable Power Take-Off (PTO) pump used in agricultural machinery, focusing on powering fans in air seeding drills and planters. The motivation stems from the increasing size of agricultural equipment and the consequent demand for increased hydraulic power, which current systems fail to provide efficiently under varying operating conditions. The primary objective is to evaluate different systems’ ability to compensate for disturbances while maintaining stability and efficiency. The research addresses responsiveness, stability, and energy consumption of different control system designs compared to existing solutions. A simulation model was created to benchmark various designs under different load cases. The control systems were implemented and evaluated using a purpose-built physical test rig. The physical test rig was employed to validate the benchmark performances and evaluate oil temperature dependence. The findings indicate significant performance improvements with the proposed variable PTO pump designs compared to an existing PTO unit. The authors’ recommendation is to move forward with a pressure-controlled pump utilising feedforward for major disturbances and feedback to compensate for varying operational conditions.

The hydraulic system in a fighter aircraft is not fully utilised during large parts of the flight mission were more electrical power is needed. To better utilise the hydraulic power the current Auxiliary Hydraulic Pump (AHP) and the Emergency Hydraulic Pump (EHP) can be exchanged to an Electro Hydraulic Energy Converter (EHEC). The EHEC has the possibility to provide hydraulic power to the system, but also convert hydraulic power into electric power. The control for such a unit can be implemented in different ways.

A literature study was performed to decide a suitable architecture for use in a fighter aircraft application. A simulation model representing the resulting architecture was created. The simulation model was successful in describing the basic behaviour of the hydraulic system, but lacks a realistic representation of hydraulic consumers. 

Different control strategies were created and tested on the simulation model with several test scenarios based on real flight data from tests performed on the aircraft. The control strategies were compared and suitable candidates were presented based on their relative performance and compared with the current hydraulic system behaviour.

An architecture consisting of a variable displacement pump with over-center capabilities combined with a permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) was decided to be used. A PI-controller with a feedforward on consumer flow was the best performing controller for use in emergency operation of the EHEC. For the case when regenerating electrical power a PI-controller with load pressure feedback is desired initially during start up. When reaching steady state a PI-controller without load pressure feedback is then advantageous.

In order to meet today’s environmental standards, diesel vehicles must capture the soot and ash emitted from the engine in what is known as a diesel particulate filter (DPF). The continual ash loading of this filter and subsequent exhaust backpressure, increase in fuel consumption, etc. is seen as an unavoidable expense. Replacing the DPF is time consuming and costly, representing significant lost profits to the vehicle owner. However, by reducing the volume of ash in the DPF, the pressure drop and fuel penalty can be curtailed while simultaneously increasing filter life. The thesis paper has presented a study intended to select the ideal method for reducing DPF ash volume in the context of system level integration on a Scania truck.

By following an adaptation of the TRIZ method, this work has selected an ideal solution for improving DPF performance. A brief study of two experimental methods for ash volume reduction is presented. From this study, awide-ranging concept generation phase was undertaken to evaluate the ways these methods could be implemented on a vehicle. Through collaboration with industry experts at Scania, a system of criteria was established to select the most promising concept. One concept was chosen for demonstration: water injection into the DPF through a sensor hole in the silencer housing.

The proposed injection strategy is such that when the vehicle comes in for scheduled maintenance, this water injection tool can be used to improve vehicle performance and reduce filter changes. In keeping with the criteria and design constraints, this solution eliminates the complication of additional vehicle components, while still effectively reducing ash volume. An initial prototype and subsequent on-vehicle testing is presented which demonstrates that wetting the DPF in this manner is a viable means of reducing ash volume. The result of this test shows that this method can reduce DPF backpressure from ash by 60% after just 3 minutes of water injection. From these results, suggestion for future improvement to the performance and ergonomics of the injection tool is presented.

Den här skriften presenterar ett urval resultat och texter från forskningsprogrammet ”Kunskapsintegration och innovation i en internationaliserande ekonomi” (Knowledge Integration and Innovation in Transnational Enterprise, KITE) som finansierats av Riksbankens Jubileumsfond i två faser under åren 2007–2015. I programmet har vi analyserat hur företag, speciellt i tekniktunga industrier, påverkas av den allt mer globala konkurrensen om nya produkter och tjänster, hur nya specialiserade kunskaper växer fram och tas tillvara, och hur de kan förenas med existerande kunskapsbas. I denna skrift finns studier på tre olika nivåer: branschnivån, med analyser av innovationsprocesser och kunskapsutmaningar i industriella sektorer; företagsnivån, med skildringar av förändringar i företagens interna organisering av kunskapsbildande processer och undersökningar av nya former för utbyte och samspel mellan företag; samt mikronivån, med undersökningar av samspelet mellan individuella specialister inom företag. Skriften vänder sig både till den intresserade allmänheten och till forskare med annan vetenskaplig bakgrund. Fokus är på internationellt konkurrerande branscher och företag, men analyserna av kunskapens delning och sammanflätning, separation och integration, har bäring också på andra kunskapsintensiva sektorer och verksamheter, från statliga verk till sjukvård.

En vetenskaplig presentation av programmets forskning under de första fyra åren finns i boken Knowledge Integration and Innovation: Critical Challenges Facing International Technology-Based Firms (redigerad av Berggren, Bergek, Bengtsson, Hobday & Söderlund och utgiven av Oxford University Press 2011). En uppföljande volym, Managing Knowledge Integration Across Boundaries, planeras av samma förlag 2016 (redigerad av Tell, Berggren, Brusoni & Van de Ven). I den medverkar ett antal internationella författare vilket visar kunskapsområdets globala tyngd och intresse. Under programmets drygt åtta år har deltagarna publicerat ett mycket stort antal artiklar, konferensbidrag, bokkapitel och liknande. För dessa hänvisar vi till programmets hemsida www.liu.se/kite.

Vi har under hela programperioden arbetat intensivt med att diskuteraoch konstruktivt kritisera och utveckla varandras bidrag. Därför har det varit naturligt att denna skrift inbegriper många programdeltagares medverkan. En presentation av samtliga medverkande finns i slutet av denna skrift. Följande KITE-forskare har medverkat i nedan angivna kapitel:

Hans Andersson (kapitel 4)

Lars Bengtsson (kapitel 7)

Marie Bengtsson (kapitel 3)

Anna Bergek (kapitel 2)

Christian Berggren (kapitel 1)

Karin Bredin (kapitel 6)

Cecilia Enberg (kapitel 5, 7)

Mattias Johansson (kapitel 4)

Nicolette Lakemond (kapitel 7)

Lars Lindkvist (kapitel 3)

Thomas Magnusson (kapitel 1)

Camilla Niss (kapitel 6)

Jonas Söderlund (kapitel 6)

Fredrik Tell (kapitel 5)

Vi vill också tacka Jenny Björkman på Riksbankens Jubileumsfond och Makadam förlag för deras engagerade arbete med redigering och produktion av slutresultatet.

While creativity is often understood as the generation of valuable novelty, we extend that view into a framework based on well-known and established models from the creativity literature. In addition to generation of novelty which forms our frameworks first dimension, we add selection of novelty, and type of creative contribution.  

Based on interviews with inventors and managers in three large, patent-intensive firms, representing completely different industries, we show how the framework can be employed in order to better understand in what ways different practices exploit and/or support the inventors’ creative abilities. By relating the practices not to creativity in general but to components of creativity (c.f Amabile 1997) the paper enriches the discussion of how inventors’ can be leveraged in technology-based firms.

Detta arbete har gjorts i samarbete med Camatec Industriteknik AB som önskade att undersöka hur man kan tillverka hydrauliska ventilblock, så kallade säkerhetsblock, enligt ISO 13849 och PL-skalan. Då denna standard implementeras allt mer i allt från industrimaskiner till mobilhydraulik vill man tidigt undersöka möjligheterna att saluföra ventilblock enligt denna standard. Arbetet pågick under en period på 10 veckor och utfördes på LiU (Linköpings Universitet) samt Camatecs kontor i Karlstad. Man började med att ta reda på huruvida en konstruktion kunde uppfylla PL-skalan som definierades i ISO 13849 och hur detta då skulle realiseras. En kravspecifikation sammanställdes utifrån de krav som berörde själva blocket. Ett befintligt konceptförslag itererades och låg till grund för en beräkningsmodell. Med ett preliminärt spänningsfall hittades ett antal material utifrån rekommendationer och databaser som uppfyllde de satta kraven. Materialen viktades i en viktningsmatris och två slutgiltiga material kunde bestämmas. Ett slutgiltigt koncept gjordes där man utförde en utmattningsanalys med de valda materialen. När materialval, konstruktion och beräkning var klart skapades ett ritningsunderlag som kom att användas för tillverkningsofferter. Resultatet blev en konstruktion med två olika materialförslag. Den ena versionen är konstruerad för ett MTTFD-värde på 150 år och den andra är konstruerad för ett MTTFD-värde på oändligheten. Beroende på ett systems övriga komponenter och struktur är dessa säkerhetsblock kompatibla upp till PLe, den högsta nivån i skalan. Vid en implementering av detta säkerhetsblock måste övriga delar av systemet uppfylla ställda krav, det rekommenderas att man noga följer utvecklingen kring ISO 13849 även i framtiden.

Marknaden för armbandsur är stor, och den del av denna marknad som utgörs av exklusiva ur med högt pris tycks ha helt andra egenskaper än den för armbandsur i övrigt. Hur övertygas en konsument om att ett mekaniskt ur som avviker flera sekunder per dygn är att föredra framför ett elektroniskt som avviker några sekunder på ett år?

Syftet med denna rapport är att ge en övergripande bild av marknaden för exklusiva ur och urverk, samt att analysera ett antal av de aktörer som finns på marknaden utifrån val av urverk och positionering.

Rapporten beskriver elva exklusiva urmärken, med avseende på hur man i sin marknadskommunikation positionerar sig på marknaden. Märkena placeras in i en modell med två huvudsakliga dimensioner: pris och påverkan. Rapporten belyser även de mekaniska urverken. Vilka tillverkar dem? Hur används de, och vilken effekt får valet av urverk på märkenas prisläge och påverkan?

Bland de märken som ingår i undersökningen visar rapporten att främst en tillverkare av urverk anlitas i mycket stor utsträckning: det Schweiziska företaget ETA. Med ett undantag - Rolex - köper samtliga av de i undersökningen ingående märkena urverk från ETA.

Intresset för sömlösa stålrör med stora ytterdiametrar i förhållande till tunna väggtjocklekar har ökat tillsammans med att högre hållfasthet i olika stålsorter tillkommit. Detta gör det möjligt att tillverka lättare, billigare och mer materialeffektiva stålprodukter med samma eller högre hållfasthet som tidigare.

Denna nya utvecklingsriktning medför förändringar och utmaningar i en av företaget Ovakos produktionslinor i Rörverk 5 Hofors, vilket de har behov av att samarbeta med maskinkonstruktionsföretaget BEKAB för att utvärdera och utveckla.

I Ovakos produktionslina i Rörverk 5 finns en del av ett asselvalsverk som kallas för "förreducerare". Denna del av asselvalsverket ser Ovako ett stort intresse i att utvärdera och utveckla för att bättre anpassas till den nya utvecklingsriktningen.  En känd utmaning hos förreduceraren sen tidigare är att den från början är framtagen för att reducera ner ett kvalitetsproblem hos rörprodukterna som kallas för trattbildning. Projektet fördjupar sig därför inom trattbildning för att bättre förstå grunden till förreducerarens nuvarande design för att därefter genomföra en redesign av förreduceraren.

I en nulägesanalys av nuvarande förreducerare framkommer ett flertal olika produktionsutrustningsproblem med tillhörande kvalitetsproblem hos rörprodukterna. Projektet väljer därmed att fokusera på de produktionsutrustningsproblem som ger störst effekt för förreduceraren om de löstes. Detta resulterar i ett nytt produktkoncept av förreduceraren i form av en visuell 3D-CAD-modell med tillhörande hållfasthetsberäkningar och materialoptimering.

Studien behandlar ämnen som design, konstruktion, produktutveckling, hållfasthet samt materialoptimering.

Öhlins CES Technologies in Jönköping have in the last 30 years been developing control valves for semi active suspension systems used in the car industry. The system, marketed by Öhlins under the brand name CES (Continuously controlled Electronic Suspension), enables a wide working range and ability to adapt to the current road conditions. By controlling  the valve in different ways there are also possibilities to decide on a specfic damper characteristic such as sport or comfort.

The CES valve is working as a pilot controlled pressure regulator and is continuously controlled with help of an electro magnet. The CES valve is mounted in a uniflow damper which in turn guarantees the flow through the valve to go in only one direction independently ofdamper stroke direction.

The rst part of the thesis investigates the damping characteristics in the latest model of the CES valve (i.e the CES8700). A simulation model is made to approximate the damping in the solenoid plunger. Questions that are answered are: How is damping dened, what creates damping in the valve, how large is the damping, what parameters aect the damping. The second part of the thesis investigates new and already prototyped damping concepts with help of simulation. This has been done in order to optimize the valve damping and in turn the damper performance. The simulation results show that the valve dynamics can be improved but often at the expense of a slower valve.

This master's thesis has evaluated dierent system designs for the hydraulic system on an articulated hauler at Volvo Construction Equipment (CE). The current system suers from great losses when running on low pump displacement settings. This is due to large installed displacements as a result of regulations and market demands. New system concepts have been generated and simulations in Matlab and Amesim show that some of the concepts can be implemented in order to increase energy eciency up to 65%. However, increasing eciency does in most cases also increase cost, making some of the concepts unrealistic to implement. The suggested solution for Volvo CE is to remove one pump and allow for the fan pumps to supply oil to the steering and dumping, as described in the Displacement reduction concept. They should also examine the possibility to implement clutches further.

En av de största utmaningarna i dagens samhälle är att säkerställa hållbar utveckling, vilket ingick i FN:s sjunde milleniemål med måldatum 2015. Östersjön är ett särskilt känsligt innanhav med en hotad biologisk mångfald och en utbredd övergödningsproblematik. År 2001 gav Helcom, en samarbetsorganisation för alla Östersjöländer, rekommendationen att införa ett förbud mot utsläpp av toalettavfall från fritidsbåtar som ett steg i att begränsa tillförseln av näringsämnen till Östersjön. Den 1 april år 2015 infördes förbudet i Sverige. Under de följande månaderna blev förbudet mycket uppmärksammat i media och det har sedan dess förekommit en stor kvantitet synpunkter på förbudet. Från april till oktober 2015 inkom 182 anmälningar gällande brister i hamnars mottagande av toalettavfall till Transportstyrelsen.

Studien syftar till att utvärdera förbudets potentiella bidrag till hållbar utveckling, att undersöka fritidsbåtsägares syn på utsläppsförbudet samt att ge förslag till förbättringar för att förbudet enklare ska kunna efterlevas för fritidsbåtsägare. Studien genomfördes med en kombination av olika metoder. Huvudmomentet utgjordes av kvalitativa intervjuer med fritidsbåtsägare. Som komplement skickades en webbenkät till 109 personer. Svarsfrekvensen beräknades till 92 procent, vilket belyser det stora engagemang som funnits i att delta i studien. Därutöver sammanställdes de brister och synpunkter som rapporterats in till Transportstyrelsen. Författarna har även deltagit i seminarier.

Resultaten visar att majoriteten av fritidsbåtsägarna anser att förbudet är korrekt och att principen att inte släppa ut toalettavfall i Östersjön är riktig. Enligt webbenkäten skulle 64 av 99 personer tömma båtens septiktank i havet om det inte fanns någon fungerande mottagningsanordning inom deras färdväg. Situationen speglas även i förbättringsförslagen då det mest frekvent förekommande förslaget är att bygga ut nätet med mottagningsanordningar och att säkerställa att befintliga anordningar är i drift och fungerar. Fritidsbåtsägarna gav flera argument både för och emot förbudet och hade även synpunkter på förbudets utformning. Två vanligt förekommande argument för förbudet var vikten av att ta ansvar för sina egna utsläpp och den sanitära olägenheten att bada i samma vatten som någon släpper ut toalettavfall i. Tre vanliga motargument var att regleringar för andra aktörer som jordbruk, industrier och kommunala bräddavlopp bör införas innan regleringar för fritidsbåtsägare, att toalettavfallet sprids ut i en så stor volym vatten och att båtliv ska innebära frihet.

Förbudet kan bidra till hållbar utveckling ur såväl det sociala, ekonomiska och ekologiska perspektivet trots att utsläpp av näringsämnen från fritidsbåtar utgör en mindre andel av de totala utsläppskvantiteterna. Flera av Östersjöns ekosystemtjänster hotas av övergödning, exempelvis livsmedelsproduktion, biologisk mångfald och estetiska värden. Författarna till denna rapport anser därmed att alla ekonomiskt rimliga åtgärder kan motiveras ur ett ekosystemtjänstperspektiv för att inte riskera kommande generationers möjlighet att uppfylla sina behov. Förbudet bidrar ytterligare till den sociala dimensionen av hållbarhet genom att det medför en ökad medvetenhet kring problematiken relaterad till Östersjöns miljötillstånd. Författarna rekommenderar i första hand att det byggs flera landtoaletter och sugtömningsanordningar. Placeringen av dessa bör ses över av en aktör med ett övergripande ansvar. Spridning av information kring var det finns utplacerade mottagningsanordningar rekommenderas, exempelvis via en applikation i mobiltelefonen och utmärkning på sjökort. Därutöver bör information om vilka regler som gäller för fritidsbåtsägare och hamnansvariga spridas, samt tydliga användarinstruktioner på mottagningsanordningarna vara mer frekvent förekommande.

A long-haulage truck cab from Scania is an environment that involves various activities and combines a working place with compact living which sets different requirements on the lighting environment depending on the activity. Truck drivers have different requirements in means of visual ergonomics and preference on the lighting design. A conclusion in this thesis is that different user in various activities sets different requirements on lighting design in a truck cab. 

Lighting planning in a truck cab with new lighting technologies such as LED (Light Emitting Diode) and OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) stands for a paradigm shift in lighting planning and lighting design. The new technologies enables more integration in the interior, more diverse lighting which means more effort is needed to succeed in good visual ergonomics, light distribution, aesthetic expression and branding. 

Studies have shown that by blue enriched light can be used as a tool to affect the humans’ sleep-awake rhythm. With the new paradigm shift with LED and OLED comes an opportunity to change the colour temperature of the lighting and use blue-enriched light as a tool to possibly create a better working environment for shift working truck drivers using warmer light at night and colder light in the morning. 

In this thesis two main studies has been conducted, the first was regarding product and user knowledge and the second was a lighting study. From these studies we have concluded three analyses and suggested a lighting planning guide for Scania that takes into account future lighting planning with new technology for a better working environment for long-haulage truck drivers.

This paper analyses the damping in pressure compensated closed centre mobile working hydraulic systems. Both rotational and linear loads are covered and the analysis applies to any type of pump controller. Only the outlet orifice in the directional valve will provide damping to a pressure compensated system. Design rules are proposed for how the system should be dimensioned in order to obtain a high damping. The volumes on each side of the load have a high impact on the damping. In case of a small volume on the inlet side, the damping becomes low. However, the most important thing is to design the outlet orifice area properly. There exists an optimal orifice dimension for maximized damping; both smaller and larger orifice areas give lower damping independently of the volumes. This paper presents a method to dimension the outlet orifice area and the load volumes in order to obtain a desired system damping. Experimental results, which confirm the theoretical expectations, are also presented. The conclusions are that it is possible to obtain a high damping contribution from the outlet orifice if the system is dimensioned correctly. However, the energy efficiency needs to be considered while improving the damping

Safety, performance and driving comforts are given high importance while developing modern day cars. All-Wheel Drive vehicles are exactly designed to fulfill such requirements. In modern times, human concern towards depleting fossil fuels and cognizance of ecological issues have led to new innovations in the field of Automotive engineering. One such outcome of the above process is the birth of electrical hybrid vehicles. The product under investigation is a combination of all wheel drive and hybrid system. A superior fuel economy can be achieved using hybrid system and optimized vehicle dynamic forces are accomplished by torque vectoring action which in turn provides All-Wheel Drive capabilities.

Heat generation is inevitable whenever there is a conversion of energy from one form into another. In this master thesis investigation, a thermal simulation model for the product is built using 1D simulation tool AMESim and validation is done against the vehicle driving test data. AMESim tool was chosen for its proven track record related to vehicle thermal management. The vehicle CAN data are handled in MATLAB. In a nutshell, Simulation model accounts for heat generation sources, oil flow paths, power loss modeling and heat transfer phenomena.

The final simulation model should be able to predict the transient temperature evolution in the rear drive when the speed and torque of motor is supplied as input. This simulation model can efficiently predict temperature patterns at various locations such as casing, motor inner parts as well as coolant at different places. Various driving cases were tried as input including harsh (high torque, low speed) ones. Simulation models like this helps Engineers in trying out new cooling strategies. Flow path optimization, flow rate, convection area, coolant pump controlling etc are the few variables worth mentioning in this regard.

Strömsholmen är en världsledande tillverkare av gasfjädrar och gashydrauliska system. De tillverkar gasfjädrar under tre olika varumärken; Kaller, Hyson och Fibro. Strömsholmen erbjuder kunder att köpa serviceutrustning så att gasfjädrarna kan repareras eller underhållas. En del av serviceutrustningen är en serviceväska med serviceverktyg. I detta examensarbete har serviceväskan och verktygen i väskan utvecklats vidare och designats om för att vara mer användarvänliga, bättre representera varumärkena samt reducera kostnaden. Fokus har legat på väskan samt ett verktyg som demonterar låsringar i gasfjädrar.

Examensarbetet inleddes med en omfattande nulägesundersökning för att ta reda på hur en service går till, vem som utför service, varför behovet av service uppstår och hur kontexten för service av gasfjädrar ser ut. Det genomfördes observationer, intervjuer och användbarhetstest. Materialet som samlades in analyserades och baserat på analysen sammanställdes en kravspecifikation. Konceptutvecklingsfasen genomfördes med olika metoder för att generera idéer och göra ett konceptval för hur servicesystemet i den nya väskan skulle se ut. Detaljdesignfasen fokuserade på att specificera utseendet och funktionen för främst låsringsverktyget och väskan. Även de övriga verktygen fick förbättringsförslag av varierande detaljnivå.

Resultatet utvärderades utifrån kraven. De flesta kraven uppfylldes.

Biogas is a renewable energy source that is produced by anaerobic digestion of organic mate-rial. In Sweden, biogas predominately comes from sewage water sludge and landfills or from organic waste of households and industries. Small scale digestion plants at farms are espe-cially expected to contribute to increased biogas production in the future. Biogas can be ob-tained directly in it’s raw form and used as fuel in a combustion chamber. However, gas en-gines require biogas purification from hydrogen sulphide and drying from water to avoid cor-rosion. In order to increase the calorific value, carbon dioxide is separated and the Swedish Standard Type A requires the methane content to be 97 % for vehicle gas.

In the gas treatment process from biogas to vehicle gas, the upgrading step when carbon diox-ide is separated represents the highest cost since conventional upgrading techniques require high investments. This makes the upgrading costs for smaller biogas plants relatively high. In this master thesis, six upgrading methods have been evaluated and four of them are expected to be commercialized within two years. The following upgrading methods are of interest for Sweden:

- In situ methane enrichment; air desorbs carbon dioxide from the sludge in a

desorption column. The method is intended for digestion of sewage water sludge and the total upgrading cost is approximately 0,13 kr/kWh by a raw biogas flow 62,5 Nm3/h.

- Small scale water scrubber; carbon dioxide is absorbed in water under enhanced pressure. The upgrading process is very similar to the conventional water scrub-bing technique and the total upgrading cost is approximately 0,42 kr/kWh by a raw biogas flow of 12 Nm3/h.

- Cryogenic upgrading; the biogas is chilled to under -85 °C under a pressure of at least 5,2 barg and carbon dioxide can be separated in the liquid phase. The total upgrading cost is approximately 0,12 kr/kWh by a raw biogas flow of 150 Nm3/h. The total upgrading cost can be reduced if the recovered liquid carbon dioxide can be sold.

- Membrane technique; biogas is upgraded with polymeric membranes that are per-meable for carbon dioxide but not for methane molecules. The method is expected to be adaptable for both smaller and bigger biogas plants and the total upgrading cost is approximately 0,14 kr/kWh by a raw biogas flow of 180 Nm3/h.

All above mentioned upgrading techniques have methane losses less than two percent and all methods except for the in situ methane enrichment are expected to upgrade biogas to vehicle gas according to the Swedish Standard. In situ methane is expected to upgrade biogas up to 95 % methane content.

By combustion of unpurified landfill gas in a gas engine, corrosive combustion products and white deposits are formed. Purification of landfill gas can decrease maintenance costs for gas engines. Two landfill gas purification methods have been evaluated and with the first method, contaminants are trapped in ice crystals when the gas is chilled to -25 °C. The second method purifies landfill gas with condensed carbon dioxide.

An important result of the master thesis is that the in situ methane enrichment has a chance to become an interesting alternative for smaller sewage treatment plants but the method requires additional upgrading to reach 97 % methane content. The most important conclusion is that cryogenic upgrading and membrane technique are expected to satisfy the Swedish Standard. The methods have relatively low upgrading costs and the methane losses are less than two percent. This gives them a good chance to establish in Sweden.

Abstract This paper addresses interactions between technological innovation systems (TIS) and wider “context structures”. While TIS studies have always considered various kinds of contextual influences, we suggest that the TIS framework can be further strengthened by a more elaborated conceptualization of TIS context structures and TIS–context interactions. For that purpose, we identify and discuss four especially important types of context structures: technological, sectorial, geographical and political. For each of these, we provide examples of different ways in which context structures can interact with a focal TIS and how our understanding of TIS dynamics is enhanced by considering them explicitly. Lessons for analysts are given and a research agenda is outlined.

Jaguar and Land Rover are two British premium automobile brands that were acquired by Indian car maker Tata Motors from Ford in the year 2008 for $2.3 billion. Literatures, in the past, have discussed several mergers and acquisition cases from the automobile industry. Although, being one of the largest & successful acquisitions in the industry, this acquisition has not received scholarly attention. What make the acquisition more interesting is the fact that Tata being an Indian low-cost car manufacturer attains success in handling a premiere brands like Jaguar Land Rover, while Ford in spite of its huge experience and size in the industry, failed to live up to the expectation.

Since the acquisition has taken place, sales and profits of Jaguar Land Rover have seen a tremendous growth. In 2014, financial experts estimated that the valuation of Jaguar Land Rover increased from $2.3 billion to $14 billion in just 5 years. This paper aims to identify the various factors behind Tata-Jaguar Land Rover’s success story by comparing the post-acquisition strategies adopted by the two owners, Ford and Tata and thus, create the opportunity for the following research question:

RQ1. What are the reasons behind Jaguar Land Rover’s success under Tata’s leadership?

As Tata is a low cost car manufacturer and Jaguar Land Rover is a premium car maker, literature suggest some major challenges for maintaining the brand image of luxury products after change of such ownerships. In Tata-Jaguar Land Rover case, maintaining the ‘Country of origin, manufacturing and design’ status was found to be a serious challenge for Jaguar Land Rover. This research aims to identify the branding hurdles for Jaguar Land Rover after the change of ownership from Ford to Tata with the help of the following research question:

RQ2. How has Jaguar Land Rover managed the brand image of “Premium British Brands’’ after the acquisition despite the new owner being a low cost car maker from India?

This paper uses qualitative study primarily based on ten interviews with top management portfolio holders from Ford, Jaguar Land Rover and Tata as well as industry experts to study the differences in post-acquisition strategies adopted by the two owners. The preliminary findings show that market expansion and increased R&D investments are the major drivers behind the success of the Tata’s acquisition. The study reveals that Ford used organizational integration strategies, which limited the quality of decision making of Jaguar Land Rover management team. On the other hand, Tata has implemented “Separation strategy” and empowered decentralized decision making to Jaguar Land Rover’s managers. That has allowed Jaguar Land Rover to reinvest their profits in technology development and promotion of their brand image. In addition to increased investments and separation strategy, both Jaguar Land Rover and Tata have adopted effective pre and post acquisition communication strategies to develop trust among the internal and external stakeholders, which helped Jaguar Land Rover to sustain its brand image of being a “Premium British Car Maker”.

One of the largest energy losses in an excavator is the compensation loss. In a hydraulic load sensing system where one pump supplies multiple actuators, these compensation losses are inevitable. To minimize the compensation losses the use of a multi chamber cylinder can be used, which can control the load pressure by activate its chambers in different combinations and in turn minimize the compensation losses. 

For this proposed architecture, the control of the multi chamber cylinder systems is not trivial. The possible states of the system, due to the number of combinations, makes conventional control, like a rule based strategy, unfeasible. Therefore, is the reinforcement learning a promising approach to find an optimal control. 

A hydraulic system was modeled and validated against a physical one, as a base for the reinforcement learning to learn in simulation environment. A satisfactory model was achieved, accurately modeled the static behavior of the system but lacks some dynamics. 

A Deep Q-Network agent was used which successfully managed to select optimal combinations for given loads when implemented in the physical test rig, even though the simulation model was not perfect.

Virtual Reality (VR) is a tool with great potential and is under constant development for use in new fields. The project Fabriksvisualisering (Factory Visualization), has within the digital factory field, developed a tool for companies to build their factories in Unreal Engine (UE) and VR. The tool gives companies the opportunity to test their factory layouts, before implementing in the real world, to avoid costly mistakes. The following report examines possibilities for users to simulate and visualize their factory workflows as a part of the project Fabriksvisualisering. To achieve this, different solutions for visualizing the flow of products, staff and vehicles have been explored. User tests were carried out to test how an effect from UE can be used to visualize a flow of products in VR. The result gives users the opportunity to experience the interactions with factory workflows and visualize how they flow in VR. 

The project resulted in two options that visualizes product flow and four options that visualizes workflow. Out of these six solutions, three were chosen and implemented to the project Fabriksvisualisering. These solutions are based on the construction of splines and include both alternatives for product flows and one alternative for workflows. The selection was based on functionality, user-friendliness and how realistic the outcome is. The result gives users the opportunity to experience the interactions with factory workflows and visualize how they flow in VR. 

The conclusion is that there are several ways to visualize four out of seven factory workflows. The flows that are possible to visualize are material handling of raw materials, semi-finished and finished products, as well as the transportation and movements of workforce. This can be visualized with the help of AI, a robot system within UE, the construction of splines and Niagara systems connected to splines.

Executive Summary

This final thesis has examined the effects of an increased centralization and better coord­in­ation of the distribution logistics at ABB in Västerås. The company is today strongly decent­ralized and there is a minimum of collaboration between the 20 business units. This is why the questions were raised; how could the business units coordinate outbound logistic activities and what effects would that provide. The obj­ect­ive of this final thesis is to provide basic data for a future decision-making which desc­r­ibe these effects.

The report has mapped out the factors that are important to ABB in an evaluation of their logistic activities and how the outbound logistics work today. The four factors are cost efficiency, delivery service, environmental impact and logistics capability. It was noticed that the degree of collaboration was very low and the business units send their goods in three main directions: Gothenburg, Arlanda and Europe (except for deliveries within the Nordic countries). Today it is only the goods towards Arlanda which are joint­ly transported. In the other directions there are only a few business units who collaborate.

Beside the primal task to negotiate general transport­ation agreements, the central logistic function (GFSM) at ABB has only a supporting roll in the work concerning logistics. The reason is not just that the business units have the real mandate over the logistics but also that the logistic focus in general is low. Furthermore is it hard for the freight managers (FM) at each business unit to change and improve the logistics, because they have other tasks to manage but also since their logistics skills in many cases are poor. The demands on the freight man­agers are also not expressed clearly enough and therefore they don’t know what is expected of them in their rolls as freight managers.

Three development directions were identified and expressed as scenarios, see table 1. Scenario 1 represents an increased focus on the logistics and more distinct rolls for the GFSM and the FMs. Scenario 2 addresses an increased coordination of the physical flow of goods (exemplified as a consolidation of all truck transportations toward Gothenburg) where the freight managers are in charge of this coordination. Scen­ario 3 is a combi­nation of the first and second scenario and represents a centralization of the outbound logistics (exemplified as train with containers to Gothenburg).

The conclusion was that:

-   Scenario 1 entails an increased transparency, communication and central management with positive effects on costs, delivery service and on the environment in the long run. The scenario becomes a prerequisite for the execution of the two others. Therefore is it the first step for ABB if they wish to increase their coordination of physical goods or centralize their logistics operations.

-   Scenario 2 envolves cost savings by a good 50 % because the collecting of the goods takes place at each business unit (unchanged amount of handling). These changes are something to attain since it, in addition to the cost savings, can imply an improved delivery service and doesn’t increase the emissions of CO₂ compared with today!

-   Scenario 3 results in a cost impairment since the cost reductions are too small for the distance Västerås-Gothenburg and are eliminated by the increased costs for handling of goods, warehousing and internal transportation. Nevertheless is train transportation within Sw­eden preferable out of an environmental perspective. All aspects considered, this scen­ario must consolidate more flows of goods and secure already existing knowledge before it becomes interesting to realize.

This master thesis presents a theoretical analysis of the interface between the Research&Development units and manufacturing. Streamlining this interface becomes more and more crucial for the smooth and high volume production. A literature research and a theoretical analysis of the crucial elements of inter-departmental communication between design and manufacturing build the basis for an improved communication model. The model acts as a guideline for the implementation of change processes. It emphasises the importance of both structural and individual elements of interventions. Both elements are important and necessary for the success, but their moment of result separates them. Hybrid methods counterbalance these differences. A first questionnaire issues the actual level of communication at the involved companies; a second questionnaire ascertains the attitude of the employees towards the proposed interventions. The model as a framework can be applied in general to all organisations, since the interventions that are necessary to be implemented are resulting from the analysis of the specific environments.

The purchasing strategies in the construction industry have been considered by many writers in construction management as short-term and arms-length. However, a different picture is portrayed in the manufacturing industry, where the purchasing strategies are mostly long-term to secure supply for production. Industrialized building is at the crossroad between construction and manufacturing, which raises the question of what purchasing strategies are applied. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the Kraljic model (1983) can be applied in an industrialized housing factory. The purchasing strategies were studied through interviews with the CEO of a timber housing manufacturer in northern Sweden. Industrialized housing manufacturers can take advantage of standardized construction systems and secure production flows that eliminate waste and improve quality. Evidence proves that long-term relationships similar to those in the manufacturing industry also exist in the construction industry regarding factory production. The analysis of these strategies suggests that the total product offer, including logistic services, plays an important role in choosing supplier.

This paper investigates sourcing decisions for new ventures. Sourcing decisions are especially problematic for start-ups because they lack resources, knowledge and legitimacy to evaluate and interact with suppliers. We develop and apply a framework that connects global sourcing, relationship development and attractiveness. Further, we investigate how new ventures develop their first supply chains by conducting an exploratory mul-tiple case study of six Norwegian start-ups. Based on our findings, we develop three propositions regarding how start-ups mediate their lack of attractiveness through pre-sales and by choosing shorter supply chains and smaller suppliers. The implications for practice include emphasizing the importance of developing a business relation-ship with the supplier in parallel with making sourcing decisions. This study is a novel contribution to an underexplored topic, and we conclude by proposing a research agenda for future explorations of start-ups and supply chain development.

As the development of vehicles moves towards shorter development time, new ways of verifying the vehicle performance is needed in order to begin the verification process at an earlier stage. A great extent of this development regards active safety, which is a collection name for systems that help both avoid accidents and minimize the effects of a collision, e.g brake assist and steering control systems. Development of these active safety functions requires extensive testing and verification in order to guarantee the performance of the functions in different situations. One way of testing these functions is to include them in a Hardware in the Loop simulation, where the involved hardware from the real vehicle are included in the simulation loop.

This master thesis investigates the possibility to test lateral active safety functions in a hardware in the loop simulation environment consisting of multiple subsystems working on different frequencies. The subsystems are all dependent of the output from other subsystems, forming an algebraic loop between them. Simulation using multiple hardware and subsystems working on different frequencies introduces latency in the simulation. The effect of the latency is investigated and proposed solutions are presented. In order to enable testing of lateral active safety functions, a steering model which enables the servo motor to steer the vehicle is integrated in the simulation environment and validated.

Municipalities play an important role in the development of sustainable societies, particularly by way of public procurement. Within this area, municipal governments can significantly impact the environment by placing environment-conscious demands on the products and services purchased. At the same time, municipalities are largely responsible when it comes to decreasing the fastest growing source of CO₂ emissions in urban areas: road transport. Yet, while much has been done to curb the environmental impact of passenger transport, freight transport seems to have been nearly forgotten. Some Swedish municipalities have set a good example by coordinating the distribution of goods to their facilities and by separating the purchases of goods from those of distribution services. Although municipalities claim that cooperation and knowledge dissemination are central to developing sustainability management, it remains unclear how such should be applied to coordinated urban freight distribution. This paper thus aims to describe and analyse activities in Swedish municipalities' developmental processes of promoting the coordinated freight distribution of goods, in order to identify which activities of knowledge dissemination and collaboration should be prioritised. Empirical data were gathered from interviews, the Internet, and brochures for initiatives taken by Swedish municipalities. Results indicate that the initiatives demonstrate several similarities and differences, as well as provide examples of how knowledge can be integrated into municipal organisation. Above all, results indicate a need for increased collaboration among actors to make freight transport in Swedish cities more efficient, as well as that increased knowledge transfer can help municipalities to overcome several of their weaknesses.

Summary

This report is about how Chile can find its way towards a sustainable power production. The two major Chilean electric systems are modeled and optimized by a special optimization program for energy systems called MODEST. The model is then altered so that new sustainable energy sources can be put into the system. If these new energy sources are more economically beneficial they will enter the system. The time period that is modeled is the years 2006 to 2010 and the demand for electricity is rising between these years. 7 different scenarios where the terms for fossil fuels and renewable energies are changed in different ways is tested to see what can be done to introduce more sustainable energy into the system. The different changes include tax on carbon dioxide emissions, subsidies for new sustainable energy sources and limits in carbon dioxide emissions. The results show that:

• Taxes are an ineffective way to get more sustainable energy but can work to reduce emissions. The tax could be used to fund subsidies for cleaner energies.

• Subsidies can work to bring in more sustainable energy and if there is a possibility to use the clean development mechanisms available within the Kyoto protocol. Then it does not have to be subsidies but investments from companies in countries that have signed the Kyoto protocol.

• Waste to energy is the most cost effective new energy source, although it is questionable however this is really a renewable energy source. The author thinks that although it might not be renewable it is certainly sustainable within a foreseeable future.

• A natural gas shortage will have serious effects on the system and should be avoided at least until there are enough alternative fuels available. It is therefore important to continue encourage the development of sustainable power sources.

• Carbon dioxide limits could be used in Chile. If they are at reasonable levels they do not need to cost that much and could really help the sustainable energy sources to become more interesting for investors.

Air intakes are complex components that are critical for the propulsion of the aircraft. The design has to consider requirements from several different departments, often contradictory. Additionally, the air intakes need to cooperate with other critical components. This makes testing of the models crucial, hence time-demanding. Design automation is a growing field which aims at minimizing repetitive work during product concept development. To follow the increasing digitalization, further investigations of design automation applied on air intakes are significant. 

The application Imagine and Shape in 3D Experience CATIA handles subdivided surfaces. These surfaces are both flexible and provide a high order of continuity, which is often desired. While design automation in CATIA is well investigated, design automation in Imagine and Shape is not. 

Knowledge based engineering techniques are often used to implement design automation. The methodology MOKA is frequently used when developing knowledge based engineering applications. This master thesis has followed MOKA in combination with Scrum. 

The master thesis has resulted in a method to allow automation in Imagine and Shape by linking mesh nodes on subdivided surfaces to reference points that are parameterized. Further, a method for generating air intake configurations as well as the integration with a fuselage has been developed. The method includes wireframe models in Generative Shape Design, subdivided surfaces in Imagine and Shape, scripts in EKL as well as UserForm and scripts in VBA. Additionally, the order of continuity for an integration between air intakes and fuselage has been analyzed using tools in 3D Experience CATIA. 

A conclusion drawn is that the method for generating air intakes cannot be completely automated. Instantiation and dimension of components can be automated, but manual work is required when using tools in Imagine and Shape during the integration between the components and the fuselage.Two methods for linking mesh nodes to reference points have been identified, one manual and one semi-automatic. The automatic method saves time and mouse clicks by utilizing VBA scripts. Further, the achieved order of continuity of an integration between subdivided surfaces depends on the individual components.

When implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, the system has to be adapted to the organisation. But just as important, the business processes of the organisation have to be reengineered in order to take full advantage of the ERP system. Noblessa Sverige AB, which is a sales company to the German kitchen producer Nobilia, has been growing remarkably since the start 2001 and has begun discussing an ERP system purchase. The order process of today has reached the limit of its capacity and something has to be done in order to meet the increasing sales volume.

The purpose of this master’s thesis is to analyse and reengineer the order process as a preparation for an ERP system implementation. The outcome of this thesis is a suggestion of a process model of the order process, which also can be used as a foundation for a requirements specification for the ERP system purchase. In order to take advantage of the benefits of the existing order process, the reengineering starts with mapping the current process.

Noblessa Sverige AB is a company that is growing and changing from one day to another. Changes have arisen during the writing of this thesis which has made the work even more interesting and challenging. The most important change is the opening of a central warehouse in Norrköping, which has been taken in consideration when we designed the new process model.

After mapping and achieving an understanding of the current order process, we found a few things that could be improved. Above all, there exist many manual tasks that can be automated with the ERP system. Furthermore, there are tasks that should be moved from one department or function to another because it is more suitable to perform them there. We also found that Noblessa Sverige AB should improve the integration and cooperation with its suppliers, especially Nobilia. Nobilia is the main owner and main supplier of Noblessa Sverige AB, the conditions for cooperation are therefore very good.

The aim of this thesis was to determine the stability criteria of an inline axialpiston pump with an eccentric control system. The hydrostatic/hydrodynamic bearings of the swash plate was inspected with model building and simulation as method. The general approach has been to regard the swash plate as stiff, leading to the hydrostatic friction between the swash plate and the pump house to be considered more or less constant. Recent research treat the swash plate as bendable which could lead to the swash plate bearings’ friction being replaced from mixed friction to a full contact interaction between the swash plate and the pump house, with an increased friction as result. This increase in friction is theorized to increase the stability ofthe pump by limiting the movement of the swash plate in comparison to the fully lubricated bearing. 

Electric vehicles seem to offer a great potential for sustainable transport development. The Swedish pioneer project GreenCharge Southeast is designed as a cooperative action research approach that aims to explore a roadmap for a fossil-free transport system by 2030 with a focus on electric vehicles. In the first paper of this tandem publication, the authors propose a new generic process model embedding the Framework of Strategic Sustainable Development. The purpose of applying it in an action-research mode as described in this paper was twofold: (i) to develop a vision for sustainable regional transport and a coarse roadmap towards that vision, and, while doing so, (ii) get additional empirical experiences to inform the development of the new generic process model. Experts from many sectors and organizations involved in the GreenCharge project provided vital information and reviewed all planning perspectives presented in Paper 1 in two sequential multi-stakeholder seminars. The results include a sustainable vision for electric vehicle systems in southeast Sweden within a sustainable regional transport system within a sustainable global society, as well as an initial development plan towards such a vision for the transport sector. The vision is framed by the universal sustainability principles, and the development plan is informed by the strategic guidelines, of the above-mentioned framework. Among other things, the vision and plan imply a shift to renewable energy and a more optimized use of areas and thus a new type of spatial planning. For example, the vision and plan implies a lower built-in demand for transport, more integrated traffic modes, and more multi-functional use of areas for energy and transport infrastructures, for example. Some inherent benefits of electric vehicles are highlighted in the vision and plan, including near-zero local emissions and flexibility as regards primary energy sources. The vision and plan also imply improved governance for more effective cross-sector collaboration to ensure coordinated development within the transport sector and between the transportation sector and other relevant sectors. Meanwhile, the new generic process model was refined and is ready to be applied and further tested in the GreenCharge project and in other projects within the transport sector as well as other sectors. The study confirmed that the new generic process model suggested in support of sustainable transport system and community development is helpful for giving diverse stakeholders, with various specialties and perspectives, a way of working that is goal-oriented and builds on effective, iterative learning loops and co-creation.

Flextronics Industrialization Group (FIG) is an international company specialised in Industrialisation services for the mobile phone industry. Industrialisation services include everything that is done to prepare a product for high-volume manufacturing. This mainly involves developing production processes, production equipment, test processes and test equipment. The high-volume manufacturing is located in low-cost countries.

This study has been performed at FIG in Linköping, where the work is carried out as projects. In 2004, a new project model called the Product Development Process (PDP) was introduced at Flextronics worldwide. As the name implies, the PDP was originally created to support product development projects, which is why it has been hard to completely utilize the PDP at FIG. The PDP has so far been considered more trouble than support. This has lead to that project managers at FIG are working differently.

The purpose of this master thesis was to develop an application of the PDP suitable for the Industrialisation projects performed at FIG. During our work internal PDP documentation was studied and interviews with project managers and sub-project managers were performed. Review meetings were held frequently during the entire study and our solutions were revised several times.

Our work has above all resulted in new processes applicable for Industrialisation projects. To make these Industrialisation processes easy to follow we have produced a guideline. This guideline provides a framework for Industrialisation projects at FIG and explains the interconnection between the PDP and our new Industrialisation PDP application. It also includes detailed descriptions of the Industrialisation processes, checklists, decision structure, project organisation and project roles and responsibilities. Due to confidentiality reasons, our solutions could not be included in their entirety in this report.

We believe that the Industrialisation PDP application will improve the work at FIG. It will be easier to follow a working method that is adapted to the specific business. Using the same working methods will support the project work, improve the way of working and make it more efficient.

The demand for large-scale real-time simulations of fluid power systems is in-creasing, due to growing demands for added functionality. Real-time simulationscan be used in for example hardware-in-the-loop experiments and embeddedcontrol systems. In order to achieve real-time performance, it is often necessaryto use small or simplified models, reducing the usefulness and accuracy of theresults. This article proposes the use of transmission line modelling (TLM) forexploiting multi-core hardware in real-time and embedded systems. The charac-teristics of the TLM method are analysed to identify difficulties and possibilities.A method for how to parallelise TLM models is then presented. Subsequently, aprogramming interface for implementing the parallel models in the target systemsis introduced. Practical experiments show that the approach works and that themethod is applicable. So far, however, it has required great effort on the part ofthe engineer, both when it comes to programming, compiling and importing themodel into the target environments, although some attempts to automate the pro-cedure have been successful, reducing the level of complexity.

Aircraft structural layout concept design at Saab Aeronautics utilize thickness optimizationto evaluate astructural layout concept. The thickness values can be used to compare conceptsto each other,and the bestonecan be further developed. Today, most ofthe creation and evaluation of structural layout concepts is manual work. Therefore, there is an ongoing investigation on how to implement design automation to reduce this manual and repetitive work.

The investigationaims to achieve rapid exploration of the design space to find a good base for a new aircraft development. This includes investigating how the synchronization between a structural layout model (SLM) and a global finite element model (GFEM) can be improved.

This thesis contributes to the investigation by exploring the possibilities to implement design automation in the creation of the SLM regarding the fuselage structure. Further, exploring the implementation of design automation in the creation of the GFEM to enable automatic evaluation of concepts. The thesis also explores how the synchronization between the models can be improved.

To structure the thesis work, the software development methodologies of MOKA and RAD weremodified and combined. The execution of the thesis was carried out in the software of 3DEXPERIENCE, particularly using the applications CATIAand SIMULIA.

This thesis work resulted in a methodfor developing and evaluating aircraft structure concept designs with design automation. The new method includes two models with corresponding scripts. The first model developed is a tool for a conceptualdesignerthat enables the creation of aircraft fuselage SLM from user defined inputs. The second model is generated by script which results in a GFEM with a direct connection to the SLM.

To conclude, the developed method enables a faster iteration work of fuselage structural concept designs compared to the current method. The detail level is lower but more consistent and uniform. The GFEM was not able to fulfil its purpose in the developed method due to time limits and software limitations. However, the synchronization between the SLM and GFEM was implemented successfully and contained all critical elements.

Limited literature provides concrete, theory-based methods for quantifying the effects of sharing capital. This paper describes the potential contribution of portfolio theory to quantify the effects and optimize the employment of capital (human, tangible, financial, and service employing capital) in a theoretical and quantitative manner in the context of sustainability. Insights illustrate how portfolio principles can yield benefits, including the fulfillment of needs using fewer resources, consistent with sustainability. In particular, “pooling” assets to meet uncertain demands from different users of an asset pool may yield benefit from diversification effects. Suggests future research avenues such as the management of high-value, critical-value, and expiring resources to support sustainability.

With both tougher competition and legislations, companies always strive to improve their products while cutting unnecessary costs. This master’s thesis investigates if the after-treatment systems department at the heavy-duty vehicle company Scania CV AB in Södertälje, Sweden can improve their development process by implementing automated FEM pre-processes for welded sheet metal components. The research is based upon theory from various fields within product development, knowledge-based engineering, FEM and design optimization, contributing to an understating of what effects this project could have on the development process as a whole.

Large parts of the pre-processes used at the department today were identified as repetitive and suitable for automation. Using a simplified CAD model of an after-treatment system as a case study, a methodology for more efficient FEM pre-processes was developed. The methodology includes changes to the workflow between the design engineer and the CAE engineer as well as a software that automatically meshes welded sheet metal products. First of all, the design engineer inserts lines representing the weld positions in the CAD model and exports the model to the CAE engineer. Hereafter, the CAE engineer simply selects necessary settings for the mesh and launches the developed software that automatically meshes the sheet metal components as well as identifies and meshes the welds.

The technique used to mesh the welds in HyperMesh fails for certain weld characteristics, resulting in a robustness of 54 % of the total weld length for the worst case in the case study. These characteristics are welds crossing other welds, welds adjacent to a sharp corner and welds containing a sharp corner. By excluding these problem areas when defining the lines in CATIA, the robustness increases substantially to between 72 % and 88 % of the total weld length in the case study, where the exclusion zones represent 3 % of the total weld length.

Based on the case study, the developed methodology could potentially shorten the iterative development process between the design and CAE engineer with a total of 25 %, while the CAE engineer’s tasks in the development process can be cut with up to 60 %. This allows for more time being focused on value-adding tasks, resulting in higher quality products and an increased profit for the company.

Examensarbetet har genomförts på Väderstad AB som tillverkar jordbruksredskap i övre premiumsegmentet av marknaden. I Väderstads såmaskiner finns idag hydrauliskt styrda fläktar som driver pneumatiska funktioner som till exempel transport av utsäde och gödning. Fläktarna styrs idag från traktorn med manuell reglering av flödet till fläktmotorn och varvtalstabeller.

Väderstad AB ser den manuella styrningen som ett problem då omgivande faktorer som yttertemperaturen, lufttryck och driftstid kan påverka varvtalet i drift. Målet med detta projekt är att utreda och föreslå systemlösningar som kan övervaka och automatiskt kontrollera en eller flera fläktar från såmaskinens styrsystem. Detta minskar kraven på jordbrukaren och säkerställer optimal drift, vilket bidrar till att effektivisera sådden.

Arbetet har innefattat konceptgenerering, modellering och en parameterstudie. Det har resulterat i en metod för att analysera hydrauliska fläktdrifter.

Ett koncept som klarar av drift från traktorns samtliga mekaniska och hydrauliska uttag skulle bli komplicerat och kräva onödigt många komponenter. Det koncept som valdes ut för modellering och parameterstudie är ett system med ingående strypning, i form av en 2/2-styrventil, tillsammans med en kulventil för redundans och omkoppling till manuell styrning. Detta koncept drivs ifrån traktorns PTLS-system. För att kunna garantera en stabil återkoppling med det valda konceptet visade parameterstudien att det krävs en ventil med responstid på 111 ms eller snabbare.

Doctoral programs in science and engineering are important sources of innovative ideas and techniques that might lead to new products and technological innovation. Certainly most PhD students are not experienced researchers and are in the process of learning how to do research. Nevertheless, a number of empiric studies also show that a high number of technological innovation ideas are produced in the early careers of researchers. The combination of the eagerness to try new approaches and directions of young doctoral students with the experience and broad knowledge of their supervisors is likely to result in an important pool of innovation potential.

The DoCEIS doctoral conference on Computing, Electrical and Industrial Engineering aims at creating a space for sharing and discussing ideas and results from doctoral research in these inter-related areas of engineering. Innovative ideas and hypotheses can be better enhanced when presented and discussed in an encouraging and open environment. DoCEIS aims to provide such an environment, releasing PhD students from the pressure of presenting their propositions in more formal contexts.

The first edition of DoCEIS, which was sponsored by SOCOLNET, IFIP and IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, attracted a considerable number of paper submissions from a large number of PhD students (and their supervisors) from 15 countries. This book comprises the works selected by the International Program Committee for inclusion in the main program and covers a wide spectrum of topics, ranging from collaborative enterprise networks to microelectronics. Thus, novel results and ongoing research in the following areas were presented, illustrated, and discussed:

• Value systems alignment in enterprise networks
• Collaborative networks governance and support
• Information modelling and management- Risk assessment and decision support based on imprecise information
• Evolvable manufacturing systems and cooperative robotics
• Systems modelling and control
• Advances in telecommunications and electronics
• Sensorial perception and signal processing
• Energy systems and novel electrical machinery

As a gluing element, all authors were asked to explicitly indicate the (potential) contribution of their work to technological innovation.

We expect that this book will provide readers with an inspiring set of promising ideas, presented in a multi-disciplinary context, and that by their diversity these results can trigger and motivate new research and development directions.

We would like to thank all the authors for their contributions. We also appreciate the dedication of the DoCEIS Program Committee members who both helped with the selection of articles and contributed with valuable comments to improve their quality.

February 2009

LuÌs M. Camarinha-Matos

Pedro Pereira

Luis Ribeiro

This thesis presents the research and development of a framework for creating design guidelines, aimed towards product-producing companies as a part of a brand extension strategy. The thesis answers two research questions:

RQ1: What strategies could be used to analyze visual form and product design as a part of a brand extension strategy for a product-producing company?

RQ2: How can an existing visual brand identity be utilized during the product development process and redefined for new product categories?

The thesis is divided into a literature review and a case application of the presented theories on a real-world product development process. The literature review includes three central frameworks. Firstly, a theoretical framework including theories regarding brand management, product design and form, design syntactics and product architecture is introduced. The theoretical framework also includes product modularity which is specifically included for the case application. These theories are used to create a form analysis framework, which is the second element of the literature review. The third element of the literature review is a framework for how to create design guidelines, based on explicit and implicit design features. The design guideline framework is built from insights and theories found in literature used throughout the literature review.

The case application focuses on the development of a new concept and design guidelines for a modular Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) for a case company. The case application utilizes the created theoretical frameworks for a real-world product development process. The created concept envisions the visual brand language of the case company, while also serving as the foundation for the design guideline development.

The form analysis framework is used to understand product design and form on already existing products within a product category. A total of six analyses are introduced, all with their own respective focus on different fields of study and area of application. The form analysis framework investigates three areas of application: Internal and external factors as well as the existing product family of a company. Applying the form analysis framework to the case show that these methods are suitable for analyzing the visual form of products.

By examining the internal factors of the case company, such as analyzing existing products and prior design guidelines, a format for key design principles can be created. Based on these design principles and insights from the form analysis, the visual brand identity can be transferred to a new product category and described through redefined design guidelines. Findings show that certain design features, such as color and usage of logotype, are the most suitable for acting as identity carriers. Utilizing these can bring cohesiveness to a product portfolio. It can be concluded that the use of explicit and implicit design features is a viable way to holistically describe and articulate product design.