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Hi everyone. My name is Aske Hyldebrandt, and I would like to welcome you to this blog about my new education, P.Ba. in Product Development and Integrative Technology started the fall of 2021.

- I am 23 years of age (24 in a few days).

- Finished my AP Degree as a Production Technologist in the summer of 2021.

-  I mainly spend my spare time on computer gaming, driving, and fixing my motorcycle or renovating my allotment hut near the harbor.

-  I spend a lot of time with my friends going out for a beer or just doing activities.

-  I was born and raised in Odense and have attended all my school time here as well.

-  I work part time as a Survivability Engineer Trainee in a R&D department, for a company called Tencate Advanced Armour where I do various tasks but focusing on Quality Assurance at this moment.

In 2017 I studied for BEng. Industrial Design but had to stop due to a bad concussion which I’ve spend most of 2017 till 2018 recovering from. Now I’m back and on the right track to fulfill my dreams which is working within the army industry creating lifesaving solutions for our allies. To get better at this job, I will have to further develop my competencies around materials and engineering skills which I hope to develop over these next 1,5 year.

My reasoning for starting this top-up education is to improve my skills within product development to get at deeper understanding of customer needs and how those needs can be met in development.  My former education gave a good insight of the whole Supply Chain and focused on product development but also logistics, optimization, procurement, economics, and quality assurance. I therefore hope to gain a deeper understanding and learn new tools to help me develop my skills within product development. I would like to develop my competencies around mechanical engineering and material understanding for future career goals as those are topics, I find most interesting.

The project I am most proud of, must be my final project, where I worked with a company called Tencate Advanced Armour. I was a part of a 10-year long project which had to ready for production before my internship ended. The product I worked on was a ballistic housing also called Optronic system, for camera optics which is installed on military land vehicles. The products function is to stop ballistic threats such as projectiles. They had a problem approving the solution because the product didn’t perform the same every time. Therefore, I was chosen to help them reverse engineer their solution and find potential failures in their production line and try to optimize the processes, materials, and the handling of them.  After the product was approved by the test institutes, we had a go from our client, and we had to start the production within a month. I therefore worked a lot on standardizing all the knowledge I gained from reverse engineering the product and create production plans as well as quality assurance plans.

The project ended well and I was very happy with the result.

As of now I primarily work on the same project testing, documenting, and calculating the quality of the product. My most used tool at work is a 3D-meausuring arm which I use to see if we comply with customers tolerances and our internal productions capabilities which I calculate using Statistical Process Control diagrams (SPC).

References: I can unfortunately not show the real product as it is considered as classified military secret.

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Sustainability focuses on long term effects instead of short term gains. Sustainability as a concept is both centered around enviromental and economical values as well as social.

Reference: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sustainability.asp

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What Is Sustainability?

In the broadest sense, sustainability refers to the ability to maintain or support a process continuously over time. In business and policy contexts, sustainability seeks to prevent the depletion of natural or physical resources, so that they will remain available for the long term.

How Sustainability Works

Accordingly, sustainable policies emphasize the future effect of any given policy or business practice on humans, ecosystems, and the wider economy. The concept often corresponds to the belief that without major changes to the way the planet is run, it will suffer irreparable damage.

As concerns about anthropogenic climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution have become more widespread, the world has shifted to embrace sustainable practices and policies, primarily through the implementation of sustainable business practices and increased investments in green technology.

3 Pillars of Sustainability

The idea of sustainability is often broken down into three pillars: economic, environmental, and social-also known informally as profits, planet, and people.

In that breakdown, the concept of "economic sustainability" focuses on conserving the natural resources that provide physical inputs for economic production, including both renewable and exhaustible inputs.

The concept of "environmental sustainability" adds greater emphasis on the life support systems, such as the atmosphere or soil, that must be maintained for economic production or human life to even occur. In contrast, social sustainability focuses on the human effects of economic systems, and the category includes attempts to eradicate poverty and hunger, as well as to combat inequality.

In 1983, the United Nations created the World Commission on Environment and Development to study the connection between ecological health, economic development, and social equity. The commission, then run by former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, published a report in 1987 that has become the standard in defining sustainable development.

That report describes sustainable development, or the blueprint for attaining sustainability, as "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

Corporate Sustainability

In business contexts, sustainability refers to more than just environmentalism. Harvard Business School lists two ways to measure sustainable business practices: the effect a business has on the environment, and the effect a business has on society, with the goal of sustainable practice being to have a positive impact on at least one of those areas.

This view of responsibility encourages businesses to balance long-term benefits with immediate returns, and the goal of pursuing inclusive and environmentally sound objectives. This covers a broad array of possible practices. Cutting emissions, lowering energy usage, sourcing products from fair-trade organizations, and ensuring their physical waste is disposed of properly and with a smaller carbon footprint would qualify as moves toward sustainability.

Companies have also set sustainability goals such as a commitment to zero-waste packaging by a certain year, or to reduce overall emissions by a certain percentage.

Many corporations have made such sustainability promises in recent years. For example, Walmart Stores, Inc. ( WMT) has pledged to reach zero emissions by 2040. Morgan Stanley has pledged net-zero "financed emissions" by 2050. Google has pledged to operate carbon-free by 2030.

The push for sustainability is evident in areas such as energy generation as well, where the focus has been on finding new deposits to outpace the drawdown on existing reserves. Some electricity companies, for example, now publicly state goals for energy generation from sustainable sources such as wind, hydropower, and solar.

Because these policies tend to generate public goodwill, some companies have been accused of " greenwashing," the practice of providing a false impression that makes a business seem more environmentally friendly than it is.

Cost Cutting

Moreover, many companies have been criticized for cost-cutting measures that make it harder to evaluate their sustainability. For example, many companies might move some parts of their business to less-regulated markets, such as by offshoring production to obtain cheaper labor. This can make it harder to assess the costs of production on workers and the environment.

Sustainability practices "significantly affect" the offshoring activities of multinational corporations, according to an examination of data from 1,080 multinational corporations.

Challenges Surrounding Business Sustainability

The switch to sustainability can be difficult. The Santa Fe Institute outlines three major impediments for firms seeking to improve their environmental impacts: First, it is hard to actually understand the impact of any individual firm. Second, it is difficult to rank the environmental impact of some activities, and finally, it is difficult to predict how economic agents respond to changing incentives.

Sustainable investing surveys over the past couple of years have suggested that half (or in some cases, more than half) of investors say that sustainability is "fundamental" to investing strategy.

Not everyone concerned with investments shares the enthusiasm. In July 2021, for instance, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Hester Peirce argued that not only would environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure mandates violate the agency's authority, but it may also "undermine financial and economic stability."

According to Peirce, the "inherently political" sustainability metrics were "unabashedly" created to direct capital toward certain businesses. In response to public comments and regulatory pressure to look into such mandates, Peirce said that it would be a violation of the SEC's "historically agnostic approach" to regulations.

Eiji Hirano, a former chairman of the board of visitors for Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund, has said that there's a bubble in ESG investing and that the fund needs to rethink its ESG investments, according to interviews with Bloomberg News.

Benefits of Business Sustainability

In addition to the social benefits of improving the environment and elevating human needs, there are also financial benefits for companies that successfully implement sustainability strategies. Using resources sustainability can improve the long-term viability of a business concern, just as cutting waste and pollution can also help a company save money.

For example, using more efficient lighting and plumbing fixtures can help a company save on utility bills, as well as improve its public image. There may also be government tax incentives for companies that adopt certain sustainability practices.

Sustainability can also make a company more attractive to investors. A 2019 HEC Paris Research paper showed that shareholders value the ethical dimensions of a firm so much that they are willing to pay $.70 more to purchase a share in a firm that gives a dollar or more per share to charities. The study also revealed a loss in valuation for firms perceived as exercising a negative social impact.

Based on interviews with senior executives across 43 global investing firms, Harvard Business Review has argued that the perception among some business leaders that environmental, social, and governance issues are not mainstream in the investment community is outdated.

The "sea change" in investor attitudes described by Harvard Business Review draws on the increased commitments of investors. The Principles for Responsible Investment, a United Nations-supported effort to bring these issues into investing, had 63 investment companies with $6.5 trillion in assets under management that committed when it launched in 2006. In 2018, it had 1,715 companies with $81.7 trillion in assets.

Creating a Sustainable Business Strategy

Many corporations are seeking to integrate sustainability practices into their core business models. Companies can adopt sustainability strategies in the same way that they develop their other strategic plans.

The first step to integrating sustainability practices is to identify a specific weakness shortcoming. For example, a company might determine that it generates too much waste, or that its hiring practices are causing harm to the surrounding communities.

Next, the company should determine its goals, and identify the metrics it will use to measure its achievements. A company might set an ambitious target for reducing its carbon footprint, or set a specific percentage goal for diversity hiring. This will allow the company to determine objectively if its goals have been met.

The final step is to implement the strategy and assess its results. This requires continuous re-evaluation, as a company's goals may change as the company grows.

There are some common pitfalls for companies aiming for sustainability. One of them is the knowledge-action gap: even though many executives set sustainability as one of their core business values, few of them take concrete actions to accomplish sustainability objectives.

Another is known as the compliance-competitiveness gap. While improving sustainability metrics can make a company more competitive in the market, these goals should not be confused with the mandatory compliance requirements that a company must adhere to. While sustainability is desirable, compliance is mandatory.

Real-World Example

An interesting example of a successful sustainability strategy is Unilever, the parent company of Dove soaps, Axe body spray, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, Hellmann's mayonnaise, and many other familiar brands. In 2010, the company implemented the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, a ten-year blueprint for reducing the environmental impact of its brands while providing a more fair workplace.

By the end of Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, the company was able to announce major achievements in improving its environmental footprint as well as the company's bottom line. By working to conserve water and energy, the company was able to save more than 1 billion euros between 2008 and 2018. Moreover, by creating more opportunities for women, Unilever also become the preferred consumer goods employer for graduate students in 50 countries.

What Are the 3 Principles of Sustainability?

What Activities Promote Sustainability?

What Is Economic Sustainability?

What Are the Most Sustainable Companies?

What Products Are Not Sustainable?

The Bottom Line

As consumers become more environmentally conscious, more companies and businesses are finding ways to reduce their impacts upon the planet and their community. Sustainability practices allow companies to highlight their social benefits while continuing to attract customers.

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What is Sustainability? How Sustainabilities Work, Benefits, and Example

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Sustainability focuses on meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

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This week’s blogging task has been to use project management tools as Stage Gate and GANTT to manage our progression through a game called Stardew Valley. Stardew Valley is used in our educational program to use gamification to learn project and business planning. Furthermore, I will investigate the pros and cons in regard to the tools listed above and how I’ve used them in former projects. At the end I will summarize which tool I find most efficient and why.

Before any the team could start planning, we found it necessary to get an understanding of the game and how it worked. It was helpful that two out of four group members knew the game beforehand and could therefore summarize the most important mechanics. As the main goal was presented by our lector Joy, and the different sub achievements that’s needs to be met to reach the main goal. Therefore, the project group started making a database of resources for completing every seasonal achievement. See Figure 1.

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I will first address how our team used Stage Gate to create a quick overview of the milestones which was necessary to achieve the final goal of this game. Stage Gate is divided into different gates, that represent a set of milestones to reach the goal. Each milestones have activities that needs to be done to achieve this milestone and go on to the next gate. The gates can be iterative. The activities within these gates doesn’t specify the detailed task at hand but is represented as a bigger overall task.

In this project, Stage Gate has given the project group a quick overview of the different milestones that needs to set in order to achieve the end goal which is the completion of “Community Center”.

In Figure 2. You can see the project groups Stage Gate for Stardew Valley. The Gates are segmented into different seasons of the year, as the game progresses in different seasonal environments. Within theses seasons, there are specific tasks to be done within next seasonal change. A season in the game lasts 22 days which is approximately 15 minutes in real time. Therefore, the tasks vary as they are limited by resources and skill levels of the players both in game and in real life. Stage Gate gave a quick overview of the different important milestones and subtasks but not how they were going to be met and by whom.

Stage Gate is an easy to read and understand project management tool as it gives the team a quick overview of their milestones and some of the subtasks. Stage Gate is good as a product development tool, because it’s iterative and visualizes go or no-go goals but does not show how the resources within the project group is allocated nor time.  Stage Gate is a good tool for risk management as the project group complete the different stages the management group can decide whether to start all over or stop the project.

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In order to allocate project resources to the milestones (people) a GANTT-diagram was made. See Figure. 3 (Incomplete) due to unknown scheduling.

GANTT gives a detailed overview of the different tasks that are necessary to reach the different milestones that leads to completing the main goal. The different season are segmented into those subtasks that elaborates the different seasons milestones.

GANTT is a good tool to make an overview, because it is visual and helps managing the timing of these tasks and allocating the resources.

The GANTT chart can appear as a complicated project tool as it requires you to change it constantly and can appear confusing sometimes as a lot of information is shown. In former projects we’ve stopped using it, as it is time consuming.

I personally prefer using Stage Gate and DMAIC-model (Six Sigma) for personal projects as there is often not a lot of resources to allocate and I have primarily been doing optimization projects. The DMAIC-model is data-driven quality strategy used to improves processes. (asq.org/quality-resources/dmaic ,12-09-2021).

The combination of these two gives me a perfect overview of my tasks and end goal and when and in which order they need to be met. I used these two project management tools in my final project at Tencate Advanced Armour.

References:

DMAIC Introduction (12/09/2021)
https://asq.org/quality-resources/dmaic

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2nd. Semester Project - Developing a Playground.

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The blogging task for this week is to summarize what I’ve learned so far about Market Research. In this blog I will be covering what external market research is, the six key steps for market research and how I’ve used market research in former project.

Market research is an important step when bringing a new product or an already existing one to a new market.  The best of ideas can have potentially zero value to the customer if their needs aren’t met. Market research is both a static and fluid investigation of customer needs, satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

External analysis is a process by which a business can assess their industry to get a deeper understanding of how external forces can affect the company. External market research helps a business to hopefully grow into new markets, develop products that meets customer needs better and get an advantage of potential market competitors.

I’ve formerly used PESTEL-analysis to identify potential threats of external factors that could have a negative impact on the project or business. I’ve found PESTEL to be useful to get a better understanding of the environment the business operates in.

Steps for Markert Research

1.       Define the problem – What decision is to be made and what information do you need to make that.

2.       Define the level of accuracy of the results – Define the quantity of data that needs to be collected for the data to be useful or precise enough to use.

3.       Collect the data - What methods are you going to use to extract the information you need. Do you need to gain information about peoples opinion about a design you could both use quantative and qualitative methods.  If you want a quick overview if people like your design, a quick survey with a yes/no option would be efficient.

4.       Analyze and interpret – Interpret the collected data and see how it affects your problem. Is the collected data valid or do you still need more information?

5.       Reach a conclusion – Apply the collected data to your problem.

6.       Implement – Change or implement the new knowledge to your product or service to satisfy customer needs better.

Market Research Tools

All types of market research focuses on studying customer behavior or preference. This can be done through various methods such as surveys, focus groups or customer site visits.

Focus Group

“A focus group is defined as a small group of carefully selected participants, who are exposed to a product and contribute to open discussions” –  (Study.com, External Market Research:Definition and Sources) . This type of research is qualitative due to the participants sharing their opinions of the product. Picking the participants can be tricky so it’s vital to choose the right participants depending on what you want to find out, because they affect the results of your research.

Internet: https://study.com/academy/lesson/external-market-research-definition-sources.html

Customer Site Visits

Customer site visits can both be digital or physical. This tool can be used to analyze network page activity to understand what trends your customer searches for and investigate the willingness of a customer to follow through with an order. It could also be visiting a kindergarten and see how the kids play with your product.

According to Perseus Group, two different customers can look at the same thing and see it from different perspectives.

Perseus Group, “Perseus Site Visits Guide, P.3-4” Internet: https://csiperseus.com/explore/customer-site-visits/

Social media research.

Involves studying a broad amount of people with different demographics, economics and beliefs.  This method has the potential to be a great source of information if it’s applied correctly.

Survey

Survey is probably one of the most used methods of gathering information due to it being one of the easiest and least resourceful methods. Surveys are easy to share to get a lot of data.

Etnographic research

This qualitative method is done by observing the customers behavior in a specific environment. This method is very time consuming and resourceful but could give very important insight into how the customer acts when using the product or service which else could be missed.

Playground Project

In the 2nd Semester of my former education as Production technologist we had to design a new playground. We had to do primary research to find out how kids played at the playground and how they wanted it to look like and what features they wanted. I did both physical interviews and observed how kids played. By interviewing them I got know which favorites games they liked to play, and what kind of features they liked the most and what the feature needed to be better. By observing them, I could see how many kids were playing on it at a time, which was useful to scale how big it was going to be, and what load it needed to withhold.

References:

Perseus Group, “Perseus Site Visits Guide, P.3-4” , Internet: https://csiperseus.com/explore/customer-site-visits/

Study.com, External Market Research:Definition and Sources

Internet: https://csiperseus.com/explore/customer-site-visits/

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We received a new case study this week regarding the development of a mini robot to inspect the blades and housing for cracks, dents, or abnormalities in turbine engines. The main objective of this project is to reduce inspection costs and replace the standard inspection method at the time, borescope inspection. The borescope inspection is done by hand by a service technician and takes a few hours to finish. The current cost of an inspection technician is €800 and €3.000 a day for it not to be running.

In class, we were presented to the company and spokesperson for the project from MTU. Juan (MTU,Engineer) gave a short lecture about the construction of turbine engines, how they work and how they inspect them.

We were then able to ask different questions regarding the product specifications of the robot. The robot had to have high resolution imaging (4K) for a more precise measuring of crack sizes, dents, or warps. The robot is expected to be fully automated and could both do the inspection itself and analyze the imaging data using AI. The engineering of the robot must comply by legislatives in both FAA and EASA directives.

After getting the product specifications from Juan (MTU, Engineer) we then sat down in our project group and started using the “Five Steps of Concept Generation Method” from the textbook (Ulrich, K. T. & Eppinger, S. D. (2016). Product Design and Development (Sixth Editi.) McGraw-Hill Education).

1.       Clarify the problem

2.       Search Externally

3.       Search Internally

4.       Explore systematically

5.       Reflect on the solutions and the process.

First, we started clarifying the main problem itself, which was to drive down costs by automating the inspection process and reduce costs by eliminating expenses towards service technicians and reduce inspection time thereby downtime for the engine. After the talk with Juan (MTU, Engineer) we had a good understanding of the different problems of inspecting the engine itself, so we could divide the new different problems into subcategories.

-          Imaging

-          Movement

-          Size

-          Power Source

-          Image analyzing

-          Communication

-          Time

After the different problems were clarified the project group started searching externally and internally for robots in the inspection industry that does similar tasks but with larger objects. We brainstormed ideas for the movement of the robot in the narrow space in the engine and looked up different methods for spotting cracks in metallic surfaces. After the research, every group was given 5 minutes to ask questions to Juan (MTU, Engineer) about what size limitations we could expect. We were told that the robot was to inspect the blades with a gap of 20-30 mm. in between each blade. We found out that customer preferred wireless communication and power source (Battery). The 4K Camera the customer wanted is unfortunately not a technology that is available at that size right now, so we investigated different ways to spot the cracks in the engine. After a talk with a machine vision engineer from CIM A/S (Mikkel Klitte) he stated a few problems with using regular imaging in such a confined space with metallic surfaces and the shape of the blades would be a problem with the AI image analyzation as it would rely on the shadows reflected from the light.

We therefore started investigating a different method and came upon a robot from Harvard that uses infrared radiometers to analyze metallic surfaces for cracks. By using infrared thermal vision, the cracks would be very easy to spot after a short cycle due to the cracks being colder than rest of the surface. (Juan Yang et al., Infrared Thermal Imaging-Based Crack Detection Using Deep Learning, 2019, Website: IEEE Xplore, 2021).

We then started looking into different technologies which could solve our problems and started evaluating them if they met the customer needs and had more pros than cons. We then started brainstorming for different ideas for the robot in the different subcategories. We could then systematically solve the different problems using our new research to develop a concept of a working robot. The biggest problem we encountered was the size of the optics that needed to be installed on the robot, as there is a scaling problem with the different types of imaging technologies.

The group still needs to make a 3D model of the robot and investigate the economics of it.

It is very important in a product development process that you keep in contact with customer and the different stakeholders that impact the outcome of the product. The communications between the developer and the customer are important because the customer doesn’t always know what they want, so you must do your research and explore different opportunities for solving their problem. If the idea gets approved and it is to be developed, a continuous communication between the customer and us is to be established to improve the robot via feedback.

References:

Ulrich, K. T. & Eppinger, S. D. (2016). Product Design and Development (Sixth Editi.) McGraw-Hill Education.

Juan Yang et al., Infrared Thermal Imaging-Based Crack Detection Using Deep Learning (2019), Website: IEEE Xplore, 2021.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8928570

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Hydra - Automated boroscopib probe inspection robot.

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Week 39. Concept Selection and Financials

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Week 39. Concept Selection and Financials

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This week’s focus has been on selecting the final concept for our product. The selection method was rather simple for our group, as we didn’t create any matrix systems to assess the different concept solutions. The project group discussed a lot of pros and cons while developing different concepts and arguing about which different technologies had more potential than others. Normally I would’ve used HOQ (House of Quality) to assess how the different concepts or technologies would satisfy the customer needs and then evaluate them through the Six Sigma tool PPAP (Production Part Approval Process); P-FMEA and D-FMEA which would highlight the most important factors of the limitations of the chosen concept would be, regarding the customers’ requirements. I’ve formerly used these tools at my place of work, to assess different solutions.

We focused a lot on using existing technology that would make MTU able to develop this robot mechanically parts fairly quickly. One of the biggest problems was choosing how to design this robot, as we were told to fit it a space by 20x20 mm.
That showed a lot of problems of designing a working robot that would last long, as it would require a power source, most likely to be a battery pack to both power the movement and camera system. After a lot of research, we found out that Harvard University had designed a micro-robot (HAMR-E) to inspect machines but had to have a wired power source, which could be a problem due to current battery pack sizes. Research that the project group conducted also showed limitations to camera size and optics that would work in such a narrow space.

We therefore consulted with a Machine Vision and Software engineer from CIM.AS, Mikkel Klitte to discuss potential technologies that would fulfill customers’ requirements. After the research we found out that the sizing of the robot, would be the biggest problem.

The group then changed how we would approach the problem of inspecting the engine different. The customer didn’t specifically want a mini robot but wanted an automated robot that could inspect the turbine engine blades and housing.

We therefore chose a concept consisting of existing technologies that could be built at this given moment and time. The robot would move like a vine-robot (Ref: https://www.vinerobots.org/) using a MiR100 robot to feed it in and out of the engine. The arm is fully maneuverable by contracting or elongating one of the four wires which is attached inside the arm itself. It can therefore move in different directions while being fed into the machine. At the end a 1/3” camera detector and a boroscopic probe (PCBPNO13-WG, Opto engineering) with a 65-degree FOV and built in LED is attached. The robot is scalable, meaning that more arms can be attached to the robot cart to inspect more blades at a time, reducing the time of inspection.

After choosing the components combining them into a working concept, we found costs for the hardware. The total cost of the robot was researched to be €25.856 for a robot base with a singular arm.

The current cost of inspection is €800 for an inspection technician plus €3.000 a day to keep the plane grounded. To calculate if our robot would save money for MTU, we would have to define and calculate the assumed time consumption for an engine inspection. The group made an Excel-sheet to calculate how much time it would take to do an inspection, depending on several parameters. Numbers of turbine blades per row and number of rows. As the speed of the cart and realignment time already has been defined, we could calculate and tweak. We took an assumption that every row of blades had 110 blades per section and that there was 16 in total. That would give us an inspection time of 6,5 hours to scan all 1.760 blades in the engine.

We could remove the cost of a borescope technician and hire a robot operator which it estimated to cost about €46/hr. Just in salary costs, our robot can save MTU €671,12 per inspection, which would make the investment in 2 robots profitable after 62 inspections.

To assess the projects financial estimations, the cash flow is defined, and the Internal Rate of Return is calculated.

Initial investment: -5.000.000 DKK.

Year 1. -350.000 DKK

Year 2. -600.000 DKK

Year 3. 1.500.000 DKK

Year 4. 2.000.000 DKK

Year 5. 3.000.000 DKK

Year 6. 4.500.000 DKK

IRR= 14%

After the calculation, it is clearly to see that the project has potential and is worth the investment.

Bibliography:

The Harvards Gazelle, Robots with sticky feet can go where humas can’t (HAMR-E), 2019. Website: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/12/robots-with-sticky-feet-can-go-where-humans-cant-fit/  (2021).

Vine-robot (2021), Retrieved from:  https://www.vinerobots.org/

Boroscopib Probe; PCBPNO13-WG, Opto engineering (2021). Retrieved from:

https://www.opto-e.com/products/boroscopic-probe-PCBPN013-WG

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Introduction

In week 40 we were introduced to 2nd mini project where the project group had the task of creating a Value Proposition Canvas or VPC for short.

The VPC were to be created around a product presented by a specific company for each group. My group consisted of Joakim, Igor, Miksa and me. We were presented to the company Optilogic ApS, a company based in Tommerup founded in 2018. Optilogic specializes in automation solutions and have more than 20 years of experience within this field. Optilogic offered several products for the automation industry; a very precise weighing scale (checkweigher) that can be implemented in different applications in the production line.

Optilogic also provides a service called Data-magnet which is a data-monitoring system that can monitor almost every variable there is in a production line. The time spent by the machine, the weight of the objects, and if there is downtime or recalibration. It contains a lot of critical and important information for optimizing the production.

Their last product, which the project group worked with was an electrical vehicle (EV) charger where a software was to be created to predict electricity prices, so the customer could charge their vehicle for at the optimal time to save money. Optilogic’s EV-charger is different from other companies’ chargers, as they do not charge a monthly subscription, so the user only pays for the actual electricity consumption.

Applying methodology to our research

The project group were to create a VPC using methodology to gain insight of the customers pains and reliefs. The VPC helps the company gain an insight into the customers patterns and values. (Osterwalder, A., 2014, Value Proposition Design, p-8.)

The project group focused on private household owners with electrical vehicles.

Methodology is a systematic way to plan your research, which helps the researchers to strategize and guide themselves through the knowledge collecting. (Holm, 2013, Philosophy of Science, P-15).

After visiting Optilogic we decide to both use an inductive and deductive approach. The inductive approach would help create a hypothesis through secondary research. After researching what different EV-owners were experiencing with owning an EV-vehicle we were able to do a momentarily VPC based on our secondary research and our own knowledge.  Using this information, we began to fill the customer profile part of the VPC; stating what pains, gains and jobs the customer experiences. The value map was then filled out with pain relievers, job creators and products and services which was based on what Optilogic stated.

After the initial research a hypothesis was created for Optilogic: “EV-chargers can be more attractive to the private household owner if it’s rentable for other persons to use and can save the user money by charging at the right time”. This hypothesis was then put into a test card, where the hypothesis was stated and how the project group would verify the hypothesis to be true. The hypothesis would be measured to be correct if the respondents showed a positive approach towards both ideas.

To find out if our first version of the VPC was true, we had to do some primary research and gather data from the customer. We decided to set on using interviews with an inductive approach with open ending questions to get a more qualitative insight of our customers life with their EV. The advantage of conducting interviews using qualitative methods is that you can get to know the person better and understand their opinions and use follow-up questions.

The questions for the interview were then formed and the group then decided to conduct 3 interviews during spring vacation in week 42. The following data gathered from these interviews will be interpretated into the learning cards and examined to see if our hypothesis and leading VPC aligns with customers values and if new values are discovered or dismissed.

Bibliography:

Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., Bernarda, G., Smith, A. – Value Proposition Design (2014).

Holm, A. B., - Philosophy of Science – an Introduction for Future Knowledge Workers (2013), Samfundslitteratur.

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Figure 1. 1st VPC (Left) and 2nd VPC (Right)

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According to my beliefs, Value Proposition Canvas or VPC for short is a tool for a company to understand what needs your customer has, and how the service or product you provide help them. This can be used to evaluate, discover, or optimize what focus points you’ll need to consider when you’re making the business model or design propositions. VPC is a tool of a bigger analytic tool called Business Model Canvas or BMC for short. VPC is a way of mapping customer patterns and will hopefully give the company relevant information of where to focus it resources. VPC can be used in different ways, depending on what value you want from it. A consultant company could for an example use it for mapping what problems or positive outcomes a company have doing interdisciplinary collaboration. By exploring the different departments pains, gains and understanding their jobs, a better workflow can be made. VPC can therefore be used by optimizing flow internally in the processes or in optimizing or spend the resources better to make a better product for the end user or customer. According to our book (PDMA, Body of Knowledge, 2020 p-15), a value proposition “defines how an organization distinguishes itself from the competition”. This important knowledge is keen to making better products that provides new solutions to the customer that adds more value.

I have used VPC in my AP-degree in the 3rd semester, where we had to develop a test machine for linear actuators for a company. Using the VPC, we were able to see what value our test machine added to the end user, but also what value our product created to the production line.

In the 2nd mini project, our team used VPC to gain insight of which pains, gains and jobs the customer had when owning an electrical vehicle (EV). At first, we created VPC using our own knowledge and the knowledge from the company we conduced the VPC for. The project group used secondary desk research to gain an insight into their everyday. How they used their car, what problems they faced and why they owned it in the first place (added value).  Afterwards we conducted 3 interviews, to discover new value propositions and to confirm or deny existing ones. Figure 1. Is an illustration on how our first VPC changed after conducting the interviews.

When conducting a VPC it is important to focus the research on the important stakeholders which can be focused into interest groups that affect the product or services in different ways, it can both be internally and externally. Depending on what department of a company you work in, different stakeholders or interest groups adds more value to your work. Knowing who to focus on in the different situations, the stakeholder analysis tool is helpful. I’ve worked with this tool a lot of times, and it helps the project group to focus its resources (time and money) most optimally to get the best outcome for the specific stakeholder. Referencing to the 3rd semester project again, an important stakeholder was the upper management which had interest in having us develop the product to be fast, accurate and cheap.  The customer, which was the production line people who were using it. They were interested in having a product that was easy to use and could relief them of some of the manual hard work and had safety precautions. Both stakeholders had different customer jobs, pains and gains which was considered when designing the product and the business model. This tool is very useful for segmenting customers and people who influent the product and depict their values.

After discovering new values or confirming already existing ones, a company can use that information to know if they must design their product in a new way or optimize it. If a new serious pain is discovered, it advised that you change the product.

By having all values of the customer, it is easier to design the new product in a way that satisfies all gains and reliefs the customers pains. The company should then start to create prototypes. These prototypes could then be presented to the same customer segment to test and see if their pains have been relieved.

When prototyping and testing it is important to do that in an early stage.

Using prototyping as a tool to solve problems is very useful. It can give instant feedback back to the designer when a change is made. There are different kinds of prototyping methods that can be used in different scenarios. There is different methods of prototyping and testing depending on which method you use and in what scenario you’re prototyping for. There are different models depending on if you’re trying to optimize a physical product or a process.

I would summarize the 10 steps of prototyping by the book Value Proposition Design p.78-79 by Osterwalder, A., that the most important thing when prototyping is to do a lot and that it is important to fail, as that is where you gain more knowledge of your product. It is cheaper to fail in early stages of your concept generation stages than later.

The 10 prototyping principles:

1.       Make it visual and tangible.

2.       Embrace a beginner’s mind.

3.       Don’t favor your first ideas – Create alternatives.

4.       Feel comfortable in a “liquid state”.

5.       Start with low fidelity and iterate and refine.

6.       Expose your work early – Seek criticism.

7.       Learn faster by falling early, often, and cheaply.

8.       Use creativity techniques.

9.       Create “Shrek” models.

10.   Track learning, insights, and progress.

The VPC we made for our 2nd mini project gave the project group a new insight into what problems the currents EV-charger had for the customer and what implementations were to be made, to make it more interesting for this customer segment. Our customers stated that they wouldn’t let people use their charger due to them potentially blocking the driveway or using it instead of them. The respondents from the interview stated that they would be fine if they had the option to tell others, that they could use it in a specific timeframe when they were away. As Optilogic was trying to create a product without an app it was contradicting to their opinions and values.

Bibliography:

Anderson, M., A., Jurgens-Kowal, T. Product Development and Management – Body of knowledge, 2nd edit (2020).

Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., Bernarda, G., Smith, A. – Value Proposition Design (2014).

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This week’s blog post is about the kick-off for mini-project 3. This mini-project covers two phases; the research and the analytical phase where we must conduct both secondary and primary research and the second phase covering concept generation and prototyping.

The first thing we did was to identify potential focus segments where a product was needed or redesigned. A lot of different problems were identified but a tendency started to form in our discussion. It was safety and applications which were designed to break or move. From that we set on a specific topic; Design made for calculated failure. From that, we started brainstorming about different problems in different industries and in the everyday life.

Every group member formed one idea each which then was presented to the rest of the group. A selection matrix was made and was used to choose which two ideas the group wanted to work with.

The selection matrix’s parameters were weighted on a scale of 1-5, and the parameters which were to be weighed was the level of innovation, how likely we were able to do a physical model, how exciting it was to work with, and how much it would improve the safety of the end customers.

From the selection matrix two ideas scored better; Idea 1, a glass breaking mechanism for emergency exits in case of fire, and Idea 3; a moving joint that supports metal beams constructions in case of thermal expansion and subtraction.

Idea 1

The expanding and subtracting joints are widely used in metal construction design. These kinds of joints are used in climates where there is both a lot of heat and cold. This product is especially used in with steel and aluminum structural beams. It is mostly used in large skyscrapers in hot climates and in production facilities and machines.

Idea 2

The integrated glass breaking system idea is focusing on creating an alternative emergency escape route in case of fire in a building or room. It is specifically made for non-openable windows or as an extra safety measurement in case of the window gets stuck.

After choosing the two different topics and ideas, we started planning on how to our primary data gathering to both prove or disapprove if our suspected problems were real. Idea 2 had the potential to be both a B2B and B2C product so questions for a survey were made, as it would be easier to collect data from a lot of respondents.

Idea 1 is very knowledge specific and therefore it would be hard to gather enough answers through a survey and it wouldn’t add any value to our research asking non-knowledgeable people about this. Therefore, we set on conducting interviews with companies that design these for themselves.

The project group expected that using these methods for gathering data, would be sufficient for creating an external analysis around both ideas.

Survey

By conducting this survey, the group had a few goals. The first one is to see if people pay attention to the evacuation signs and possibilities in the room, they’re staying in. If they feel safe in the environment they’re staying in, and how they locate safety exits. There were both close-ended questions and more open-ended and qualitative questions. The survey consisted of 11 questions.

The gathered data from the survey is going to be used to fill out a SWOT analysis regarding this specific idea.

Interview

As the joints for metal beams that is exposed to expansion and subtraction is a very knowledge specific topic, we created interviews for two different companies:

·         Gartneriet Rosborg

·         DHS – Danish Horti Supply

The information gathered from the interviews is used to fill out a SWOT analysis regarding this specific idea.

External Analysis Tools

At first, we decided to do SWOT analyses on both ideas using our secondary desk research and primary data to fill out these tools. SWOT analysis is an acronym for four words used in the model. S – Strength, W – Weaknesses, O – Opportunities, T – Threats. By doing a SWOT analysis we gain an insight into the product or organization and market surrounding these. The SWOT analysis can be used to both analyze internal and external factors, that have an impact on the specific product or business.

The strengths of these two ideas show what the company does well and how we differentiate from our competitors. The weaknesses show what our organization or product needs to improve upon, to be competitive in the same market as our competitors. The opportunities show what advantages the company could exploit to gain a competitive advantage. Threats show what factors that could cause trouble or have an impact on the business or project for example legislative or trends.

The negative factors gained from doing this analysis can show our fictive company, where to focus our resources to gain an advantage over our competitors. By using this tool, we gained a unique insight into our products and showed the project group, where we had to focus in the next phase of the project.

In the Lushoto District in Tanzania, the Department of Sustainable Agriculture and Biodiversity Conservation (SABC) along other institutions conducted research towards the sustainability of the newly established dairy innovation platform (IP). By collecting data from questionnaires, focus groups, and key informant interviews, they found out that the market was missing actors, insufficient funding, and limited access to inputs, which resulted in milk prices rising for the customers. By using this model, the institutions got to know how they could improve or solve different problems in the value chain and agricultural productivity.

The two SWOT analyses can be found in posts beneath this post.

The last external analysis tool used in this project is the PESTLE-analysis. “PESTLE-analysis is a structured tool based on analyzing macro-environmental factors that have an impact on your organization or business model” (Anderson, 2017).

The decision of using PESTLE is due to our products being heavily influenced by the countries they’re situated in. There’s a lot of different external factors that could have a huge impact on the outcome of the products; Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legislative, and Environmental. The group hopes that by using this tool, we will gain more knowledge about the market and the external factors surrounding it.

Conclusion

For the first week of the mini-project, we’ve used different external analyses tools for gaining as much insight into the different markets as possible. By using both SWOT and PESTLE analyses we’ve gained knowledge about the landscape surrounding our products and understand customer needs better. This will hopefully help us in making a better product, focusing on our customers, and strengthening our value propositions. At last, it will aid us in where we need to focus our resources and what new prompts to seek after.

Bibliography:

Anderson, A. M. (2017). Product Development and Management, Body of Knowledge. PDMA.

Putaa, H., Chachage, B., & Pasape, L. (2020, June 24). The role of SWOT analysis and stakeholders characterization towards sustainability of dairy innovation platforms in Lushoto District, Tanzania. Zenodo. Retrieved November 4, 2021, from https://zenodo.org/record/3906717.

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Week 44 is the continuation of last week’s post regarding mini-project 3. This week’s blog post will cover how our group chose a topic and two ideas to work with, using concept generation methods and methodical research, and external analysis tools to gain knowledge about the customer and the market.

As mentioned, in the previous blog post the group made secondary data gathering; desk research to see if there was any viable data that could support that a new product was needed for the specific markets. This was a part of the preliminary project. The project group has set on using the following model for product development planning.

1.       Preliminary project.

2.       Idea Phase

3.       Concept Generation Phase

4.       Construction Phase

5.       Production and Implementation

6.       Market launch and evaluation.

In the preliminary phase and idea phase of the project, the group came up with a lot of different problems and ideas that could solve them. After the session, we set on a topic that was trending throughout our brainstorming session; Construction design for calculated failure, which can be translated into a product that is meant to break, move or break something. After that, we generated a few more ideas regarding this specific topic. We evaluated our ideas using a method called the Selection Matrix, where a small list of parameters was held up against our ideas. They were then weighed on a scale of 1-5, and the votation was based on the group members' own feelings about the ideas. Using the Selection Matrix, the group ended up with two final ideas.

Defining what market segment, the ideas were targeting we conducted primary research to prove our assumptions about the expected customer segment. We finalized the survey consisting of 11 questions to get to know if our assumptions of them being a real problem were true, and what the potential customers' feedback was in correlation to the idea. The survey was done in English to get a broader spectrum of people to answer. We used Google Forms as a platform and social media to distribute the survey. The survey was posted on both Facebook, Discord, and Messenger groups. The group published the survey the 1st of November and expected to collect 100 respondents within the 1-week time limit.  Only 46 responses were collected which means that the output we got from the surveys can’t be considered valid, as a survey requires 100 respondents for tendencies to be valid. This would take a few weeks which is the timeframe for this mini-project doesn’t allow. The output we got from the survey can therefore not be considered as valid but as a guideline.

From the survey we gained new knowledge of the customer segment:

-          Majority of respondents felt safe in their places of stay.

-          Respondents were aware of how many emergency exits there is.

-          That there is no current product for creating an extra escape route during fire in a room.

-          Majority of respondents had non-openable windows in their place of stay.

-          75% of respondents were prone to having a mechanical glass breaking tool.

To gather data from our second idea which is more based on a B2B market, it would be insufficient and almost impossible to gather 100 respondents from a survey. Therefore, we conducted two interviews with two companies called:

-          Gartnereiet Rossborg

-          Danish Horti Supply (DHS)

From the gathered data we were able to do a SWOT analysis on both ideas. Look at last week's blogpost to see both SWOT’s.

We decided to do a PESLTE-analysis to investigate macro-environmental factors that could have an impact on the product or business. “PESTLE-analysis is a structured tool based on analyzing macro-environmental factors that have an impact on your organization or business model” (Anderson, 2017).

My experience with doing PESTLE is that when you’re doing a project, you often forget a lot of aspects that are very important to your business. This model questions and forces you to think about more externally. In this PESTLE we’ve focused on the Danish market. From the PESTLE analysis we’ve learned the following:

Political

·         Political and global influence does not interfere with the business.

·         Danish business is trusted globally.

Economical

·         Construction companies and institutions are by law forced to have emergency escape routes.

·         The more people the more escape routes (BR18).

·         Safety standards are very high.

·         Economy of northern EU countries are above global standards.

Social

·         People feel and like to feel safe.

·         Prone to try new technologies.

Technological

·         Different window types demand a modular product.

·         Similar existing technology but is not widely spread on the market.

Legal

·         A lot of regulations on safety standards in buildings.

·         Few regulations around this type of product.

Environmental

·         Not harmful to the environment.

·         Can be made sustainable.

While doing the PESTLE analysis we conducted a short interview with a student from Architectural and Building Management education. He gave us new insight into the safety measurements that are considered in Danish construction companies. The standards are so high, that a product like this could be excessive. He advised us to investigate eastern European’s countries, where standards are generally lower. Focusing more on a B2C than a B2B segment. Therefore, a new PESTLE should be made to investigate another market.

For the upcoming weeks, information about the customers needs to be gathered, the technologies to be investigated and a concept to be more defined.

Bibliography
Anderson, A. M. (2017). Product Development and Management, Body of Knowledge. PDMA.

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The product development game played back in week 43, was a game to simulate the process of product development. Everyone was put on a team and were divided into different departments or job positions such as Project Manager, Research and Development, Design, Marketing, and Production. I did unfortunately not participate in this class and can therefore not write about my experiences about the game but only reflect on the importance of the different departments and the different processes a product must undergo from start to finish, using my own job experience, internet sources and our textbooks.

VOC – Voice of Customer

As customer needs are the main importance of a product, it is of course a primary focus to meet these customers' expectations and needs, when developing a product. Customer needs can vary in different applications, and which needs you focus on can be a deciding factor for the success of the product and the company itself.  Customer needs can be a fluid line with many different waves of needs and therefore you must choose a target segment to focus on, to solve their needs the best. If customer needs are not met, it is most likely that the customers will spend their money elsewhere.

The term Voice of Customer describes the customer's feedback about their experiences and expectations about your product or services. To gather customer needs you will need to establish customer contact. Customer contacts are most often established through sales/marketing departments. In the game, a selected team member would ask both narrow and broad questions to the customer to get a quick picture of what the customer wanted or expected. This information was then brought forth to the design department which then could look at the specifications and figure out if it was possible. The design departments could then ask the marketing department if the customer wanted something added.

It is then up to the marketing department/member to figure out if the customer wanted or needed these things. To be able to establish which customer expectations are a need-to-have or a nice-to-have they needed to establish a process of how to gather the most validating data. To do so, the simplified five-step method as described in the book (Ulrich & Eppinger, 2016).

1.       Gather raw data from customers.

2.       Interpret the raw data in terms of customer needs.

3.       Organize the needs into a hierarchy of primary, secondary, and tertiary needs.

4.       Establish the relative importance of the needs.

5.       Reflect on the result and the process.

The different channels a company can gather data from could be interviews, surveys, focus groups, and observations, etc.

CTQ- Critical to Quality

Critical to Quality is a tool to rank and make customers' needs into product specifications or performance requirements that can be measured. This is done by using the CTQ-tree as mentioned in the Six Sigma method. In reflection to the game, the customer wanted to have 3 wheels on the car, even though it would give less stability when driven, but the customer perhaps had an idea that the lack of an extra wheel would give less friction therefore it goes for longer distances on the same amount of fuel. It is therefore important that there is established a good communication flow between marketing and the design department, to establish what customer needs can be met within production capabilities.

Manufacturing considerations:

Manufacturing considerations are the different considerations attached to a specific design or performance requirement of a customer's need. In larger companies and PTA department or PTD (Production Technical Department) is needed to better advise and optimize what is physically possible within production capability and capacity. Is it very important that the flow between the design department and PTD along QM (Quality Management) is ongoing as it determines the outcome and the pricing of the products itself.
I have personally experienced a lot of times that customers have had very high tolerances or expectancies of tolerances to a hand-build product, where our production equipment and processes cannot repeatedly fulfill those needs as there is too many variables. It Is therefore important to know your own capabilities and align those the best with customer specifications. Most often customers don’t know what they truly want, and they just set themselves some certain expectations, as to how they think it is. That is where you as an expert in your field of work, can guide and navigate the customer to the right specifications so that the product meets performance requirements.

Team communication

Communication is in both a development process but also a productions process is the singlehandedly most important tool. If you haven’t established a good communication flow between the department's valuable information is lost and will result in a worse product and process for both the company and the customer. Internal communication can be tricky but is most often handled by a Project Manager who acts like the puppeteer who pulls the strings and directs flows of communication between the different departments and to the customer. The flow of communication in a company is an internal supply chain of information. Different parts of the chain have specific communicational flows, some more direct to the customer, and others more directly related to production facilities. Both internal and external communication decides how the product and the process turn out and at what price. You often see overengineered products and a huge waste of time trying to wait for replies, either from customers, business partners, or other departments.

Reflection

As I did not attend the game I can not reflect on the outcome of the process. But I will say that I’ve personally had both good and very bad experiences with internal team communication at my work. A lot of mistakes have been made, which was the result of two departments not seeing eye to eye and beginning to have a small internal confrontation in the development to productions process. The human factor, that we often neglect has a huge impact on the communication flow and how it works. With a Project Manager who was absent, both RD and PTA had problems with establishing who had the final word. That resulted in the production of wrong products for a customer and cost the company a lot of money both in raw materials and production capacity.

Bibliography:

Ulrich, K. T., & Eppinger, S. D. (2016). Ulrich Product Design and Development 6th Edition.

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I was not there for the game in week 46, I will however to the best extend, cover what the game essentially is about, and what different issues a company can experience in different parts of the supply chain. In every part of the supply chain, different value chains are connected to a specific service or product. A value chain is the links that connects the specific actions and actors that has an impact or adds value to the given product or service (Investopedia).

What is Supply Chain Management? Supply chain management represents the flow of good or services included within all processes that transform raw data or material do a finalized product (Investopedia, SCM). The chain in the name, implies that more links are connected together, and if a disruption in a supply chain occurs, it slows down the whole process and can best costly and time consuming. Most often a supply chain is consisting of a manufacturer, distributor, wholesaler, and a retailer. Different flows are established between these links and have value chains within the supply chains themselves. Different links of the supply chain can both be flows of information or flow of goods.

Normally the flow of orders goes from the retailer towards the manufacturer to produce an amount of goods. Whereas the flow of material travels from manufacturer towards retailers. The speed of the informational flow is dependent on the established relationships and processes of these links. If the flow of information is too slow the need of products can damage the other links business. This can be seen in smaller companies that doesn’t not use ERP system for keeping in control of their production speed and material flow. In larger companies a logistical and distribution system is set in place, to take care of these flows. Systems such as KANBAN, if implemented digitally and correctly automatically places a new order on the products that is in low inventory. Larger companies might use Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) to have a safety inventory if a deliverance is delayed.

Choosing what kind of supply chain management, you want to implement into a company or a project, is dependent on a lot of variables. Physical production line compared to suppliers (Logistical) and the distribution channels you choose to transport your goods through. As we’ve seen this year of 2021, the price of shipping a container has doubled 5 times (Statista) due to certain external factors such as pandemics. Many companies have suffered great losses, due to them not having established other logistical opportunities for them to move goods through. As about 90% of the worlds merchandise is shipped by sea (Reuters) it shows that small companies that sell cheap products, that the cost of the earnings of the product does not cover the logistical expenses. It is therefore important to more than one logistical supply chain set up, so you’re not vulnerable.

The huge factors that have an impact on how you choose your supply chain management are often based on, the production facility, the place of customers or target market, suppliers’ physical location, the warehouse and production management of the facility, procurement and the distribution management created to manage and take care of these different channels of information and flow of materials in a company.

The “glue” that holds the supply chain together in a symbiotic environment is the sharing of information across every link of the chain.

I’ve personally experienced what effect a two-day delayed shipment can exert onto a company’s financial figures in a quarter. Missing the shipments at the wrong time, can make your economic gain from that order, move to another quarter, and make your previous quarter look bad for your investors. This resulted in serious meetings with the company director and the larger funding company, threatening to reduce further investments into the company.

Bibliography

Tardi, C. (2021, September 21). What is a value chain? Investopedia. Retrieved January 11, 2022, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/valuechain.asp

Fernando, J. (2021, December 30). Supply Chain Management (SCM). Investopedia. Retrieved January 11, 2022, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/scm.asp

Placek, M. (2022, January 3). Global Container Freight index. Statista. Retrieved January 11, 2022, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1250636/global-container-freight-index/

Person, & Sujata Rao, J. S. (2021, December 10). Analysis: Shipping costs - another danger for inflation-watchers to navigate. Reuters. Retrieved January 11, 2022, from https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/shipping-costs-another-danger-inflation-watchers-navigate-2021-12-10/

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As a part of this semester course “Strategy, Business and Project Management” we’ve been supposed to play a game called Stardew Valley. I will be covering how we used the lessons of the project management in order to complete the tasks we’ve set in the earlier stages of the semester, to “complete” the game.

I will quickly summarize what Stardew Valley is and how we’ve been using to teach ourselves using project management tools. Stardew Valley is a lot of things, but not a boring game. Stardew valley is a game of farming, exploring, killing monsters, establishing friendships or relationships with other NPCs in the game. Stardew Valley is a slow paste game, where you have lot of time to wander around spend your time exploring the different sightinhs on the main town, your own farm, the beaches, or the exiting dungeons where you risk your live mining to get ores and try not to get killed. However, we were set up in a group of four members who had the task of completing a special list of tasks in a timely manner of a yearly season in the game. Each seasons having specific tasks and drops that only is obtainable in that specific timeframe. We therefore created a list compiling all the tasks that needed to be done in that specific season. What resources to gather beforehand, so we could get a lead ahead of time, so we were prepared for the tasks. It was a real challenge collecting all the right crops, fruits, ores, rocks and craftables before the end of the year.

It was especially difficult for someone like me, who is not used to playing these types of games, and I had literally no idea what I was doing. I spend most of my time as being a “working force” for the other group members which had some experience playing the game. I took all the boring duties such as collection rocks, watering the crops and cutting down trees. The experience playing this game in class, was difficult due to us not being able to connect to the servers (Thank you UCL IT Service). Therefore, a lot of time was lost in troubleshooting and very little work in the game was done.

We did unfortunately not have a lot of game time due to mentioned problems, so the teambuilding phase of our gaming project was delayed. I do though see the potential of using gamification as a teambuilding platform, as it teaches you to fit in a specific role, just as you would at a workplace. It did however show that trying to implement these theories into the game and showed to be a teambuilding exercise in itself.

Project Planning Tools

The first step for our group was to apply to project management tools; Stage Gate and Gantt Chart. This was done to coordinate and manage our seasonal goals and deliverables and manage our time resources. This is covered in another post.

Belbin Roles:

We did a Belbin Test to see what individual strength and weaknesses we had as persons. These roles reflect you as a person in a team. There is in total, 9 different roles with different qualities (Belbin, SalesKey Profiles) but I will not cover them all, only those who reflects my personality.

I’ve done the Belbin test multiple times and I’ve always gotten the roles of specialist and plant and I did this time also. These are the creative and problem-solving roles of a team. These personalities can be very short-sighted and stubborn and have a tendency of ignoring other people’s opinions and be very focused on specific topics of a project. I can sometimes see myself being in these roles, in school projects but I also have a tendency of shifting roles dependent on the team build.

An in-game leader was chosen based upon the Belbin roles, even though the team leader had no experience with the whatsoever. This showed to be a bit of a problem, as the more experienced team members would more easily advise the rest of the team members on how to play the game more efficiently and manage both time and resources

Due to the lack of time, we did not complete the set of tasks we set out for, in the start of the semester. It was too hard finding time after school, playing as people had a lot of travel time and jobs to take care of. We only completed the tasks for gathering the wood and build the bridge.

Redesign of the experience

If I could change the experience with the game, it would have a lot more time on our hands to play the game in class. Due to that, we did not fully use the tools we were taught but were taught how to potentially use it. These tools have, however, have been used in over mini projects along the semester. So, I don’t feel like I’ve missed out on huge or life changing experience.

Bibliography:

Belbins 9 Teamroller. Belbin, TotalSDI and SalesKey profiles. (n.d.). Retrieved January 11, 2022, from https://potential.dk/belbins-9-teamroller/

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Human and Social science is the study of human behavior and the interaction between a big variety of topics such as cultural, social, or evolutionary theories.

Human sciences primarily covering hermeneutic, phenomenological, and structuralist approaches and social sciences focusing on paradigms specified as the change of patterns or models and social constructivist thinking. Everyone shares the need of explaining the different aspects of the natural world and universe we live in. They do not all share the same vision and explanations though.

Human and Social science is applied to all projects since everything we do is based on human patterns that we in our subconsciousness use all the time without even knowing. Our way of understanding ourselves and our customers better can give us an advantage of how to approach a market or methodological approach to solve a problem.

We’ve used methodology in all the semester projects we’ve done over the course of this semester. Every project has required research. It has been primarily primary research that we’ve conducted. The methodological approach we used at our last project, was a deductive approach, meaning that we’ve formed a theory into trying to confirm it. We’ve used tools from Natural sciences such as quantitative and qualitative data gathering, done through different channels. Quantitative data was gathered through surveys, aimed at our end users, and qualitative data was gathered through interviews with B2B customers. Understanding how our target market group acts and thinks can give us a huge advantage in the development and marketing of the product or service.  We must keep in mind, that we are trying to develop products for humans with different needs. For a product to be valid, it must have some kind of value for the end-user, and that is where the Theory of Science and all the sciences can prove their relevance.

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In this week’s blogpost I will discuss my experience with FabLab. The tools we were introduced to and how to work with them and implement them into our semester project as well outside of study activities.

We first got an introduction from Michael Angelo, talking about product architecture and of the possibilities of design and the facilities of the school. Afterwards we head down to FabLab to get introduced to the machinery, consisting of 3D printers, laser and vinyl cutters.

3D Printing

We were introduced to the 3D printing machines and got to learn how to print on them. To create a 3D printed prototype/product you would have to create a 3D Part in a 3D modelling program, such as Autodesk Fusion 360 or Inventor. These software modelling programs makes it possible to create both complex and simple designs to either be 3D printed or laser cut.  3D printing uses the concept of Additive Manufacturing also called AM for short and is a quick way of prototyping or create complex designs. By using additive manufacturing processes, you can reduce the amount of waste in your production line and in the prototyping process. The 3D software also gives many possibilities in the designing face, where you can build the whole product virtually and stress test it to see if a design change is needed. I have some previous experience using the 3D modelling program Inventor, in both my AP degree and at my high school.

When you’ve finished creating your 3D model you export the files into a file type called STL which you then can enter into a slicer program, which makes you able to create the basis of your 3D print. How it is oriented in slice program, decides how much support is needed and how the quality of the print is going to be. When 3D printing it is important to always calibrate the printer and to watch the first layers, as they determine the outcome of your print.

Laser cutter

The laser cutter in FabLab is a tool for cutting out specific patterns from at flat piece of either wood or polymer. The laser cutter is not used in our project but can be useful for creating bigger and less complex designs. To cut out a pattern on the laser cutter machine, a software is needed and Adobe Illustrator is most often used.

This semester we were able to use the tools provided by FabLab, to 3D sketch and print to test the function of our prototype. In conclusion, 3D printing is a great tool for rapid prototyping to test design functions and redo them, if they don’t work. It is both quick and very cheap, compared to subtractive manufacturing.