This article presents the establishment of a large research, education and development program in the area of innovation engineering, the Product Innovation Engineering Program, PIEp. The program is intended as a network of researchers, educators and students in innovation with the purpose of creating a systematic shift toward innovation and entrepreneurship in institutes of higher education and research. The initial PIEp consortium consists of: Faculty of Engineering at Lund University, Umeå Institute of Design at Umeå University, International Business School and School of Engineering at Jönköping University, Center for Technology and Health, Sweden and is coordinated by the School of Industrial Technology and Management at the Royal Institute of Technology. PIEp is organized in five activity fields, ranging from research in innovation to product- and business development through education in innovation. The organization is based on a model where the five fields generate knowledge and feed back knowledge and experiences to the other fields. The program is initially funded by the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems, VINNOVA, Innovationsbron AB (a Swedish organization that supports business development through incubators and seed capital), the collaborating universities and a number of private sponsors. The program was launched in late 2006 and is intended to run for ten years. The first research projects and educational activities have started, and the PIEp program is now inviting more national and international partners.
In this paper a conceptual performance evaluation framework is proposed and discussed. The aim of the framework is to present a tool to stakeholders, involved in dynamic complex product development activities, that assists in developing a mutual understanding of performance relevancy. It is argued that a system perspective and the possibility to tailor performance criteria and measures according to contextual circumstances are needed for performance evaluation to improve work in product development. Companies need to consider what metrics that are relevant or applicable to measure or evaluate the product development process in their own business and context. From a performance evaluation perspective, a categorization of activities in product development is made into: Planning, Implementation, and Sales and Delivery. It is argued that the three activity categories have different objectives and need to be evaluated and managed accordingly if the overall development process is to be considered successful. Moreover, each activity category can be modeled using a generic activity model to derive relevant performance criteria, needed for identifying relevant performance indicators. It is argued that this will have implications on how performance, that is, efficiency and effectiveness, in product development is evaluated at a managerial and designer level, since the performance evaluation framework is based on the performed activities. Three different perspectives - integrated, information and learning - are used as basis for the discussion in this paper in order to accomplish an enhanced understanding of the value of the performance evaluation.
This paper discuss the planning and organising of research conducted by Industrial PhD students, i.e. PhD students conducting research studies aiming for a PhD while employed in industrial companies. Industrial PhD projects within engineering design research in Sweden can be considered a phenomenon, i.e. existing but sparsely documented. This paper provides empirical illustrations by presenting three Industrial PhD projects conducted in three companies with product developing operations in Sweden. The specific research design of Industrial PhD projects provides benefits such as an effective bridging between academia and industry. Additionally, this type of research projects face challenges, such as having two-folded aims of the project: both academic and industrial goals. Based on experiences from these projects, implications for planning and organising of future Industrial PhD projects are discussed. Finally, we suggest that Industrial PhD projects are effective means, if used properly, for assimilation of research findings to industry, and for academia to understand the industrial practice.
Interdisciplinary settings have been highlighted for creative user-close development of products and services. Similarly, user involvement in the actual design process has been presented as a way to make attractive products that will earn market shares. But will an interdisciplinary setting in itself generate the beneficial spin-offs we expect? Will including the end-user on the development team ensure better products that are more successful on the market? A study has been set up to create a work model for Clinical Innovation Teams (CIT) at the Sister Kenny Research Center in Minneapolis, MN, to facilitate the research and development process, and provide guidance to work in a creative and innovative way around rehabilitation technology development. The CITs consist of clinicians, such as nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists, physicians, engineers and engineering students, and in some cases patients. The CITs combine the interdisciplinary setting and end-user involvement with a custom work-model. The work-model emphasizes the strengths of the teams and provides tools to overcome the obstacles and challenges that these kind of teams face. The technological depth and clinical experience is combined with a structured project work-model. The teams work interdisciplinary by pairing research with actual patient needs to develop rehabilitation technology and medical devices to address those needs. The first tool in the work model is an Innovation Handbook for development projects at the Sister Kenny Research Center, especially written for this specific setting. The second tool is a report with recommendations to the management on how to create a work environment where innovation can occur and where creative ideas are welcome, as well as how to engage clinicians into research. The report also addresses aspects of workplace design, recommendations on how to deal with uncertainties that come when moving between clinical care and research and ideas of how to ensure quality of care and maintain productivity when clinicians engage in research activities. The third tool in the work model is a schematic illustration of how the important elements of innovation management is paired with the design process, and how a project will benefit from good management and where it will suffer from insufficient support. This project has been supported by the City of Minneapolis, the Sister Kenny Research Center and the Product Innovation Engineering Program of Sweden (PIEp). Corresponding author: L. Oddsson; e-mail: lars.oddsson@allina.com
Methods, or more correctly a lack of methods, for measuring information systems (IS) introductions are discussed in this paper. Industry practice when it comes to IS investment evaluation methods is reported on based on findings from nine in-depth interviews with IS/IT experts from automotive companies, IS suppliers and IS consultancy firms. It is suggested that identified and existing methods can be divided into three groups, namely: subjective estimations, economic measurements, and convenient measurements. It is concluded that no complete or reliable method for measuring the success of IS introductions are recognized within studied companies or reviewed literature. It is argued that IS introductions, being a costly investment to most companies, should be evaluated in order to obtain improved company and IS user value and to better justify the investment.
The aim of the study is to contribute to the knowledge on how to develop students' skills and capabilities required when addressing complex societal challenges in practice. In this paper we are investigating the design and implementation of a teacher training module focusing on improving teacher's ability to facilitate students' teams learning and collaboration skills. The feedback and learning from the design and implementation of the module at universities in Botswana, Kenya and Sweden is presented and discussed in this paper.
Global collaboration and mutual learning in design are put forth as means to address the UN SDGs. This paper draws upon experiences in the Design Society's AFRICA-DESIGN initiative to build a network of design academics and practitioners based in Africa with a focus on design for sustainable development. We identify education and social sustainability as particular opportunities and challenges, highlighting the critical element of mutual learning in the collaboration process.