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Managing Product Innovation in the Automotive Industry

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ISSN: 1402-1544 ISBN 978-91-7439-XXX-X Se i listan och fyll i siffror där kryssen är DOCTORAL T H E SIS Åsa Kastensson Managing Product Innovation in the Automotive Industry Automotive in the Åsa Kastensson Managing Innovation Product Department of Business Administration, Technology and Social Sciences Division of Business Administration and Industrial Engineering ISSN 1402-1544 Managing Product Innovation ISBN 978-91-7439-919-6 (print) ISBN 978-91-7439-920-2 (pdf) in the Automotive Industry Luleå University of Technology 2014 In light of the environmental challenge Åsa Kastensson In light of the environmental challenge Managing Product Innovation in the Automotive Industry In light of the environmental challenge Åsa Kastensson Industrial Environmental Management Luleå University of Technology Åsa Kastensson, Managing Product Innovation in the Automotive Industry © 2014 Åsa Kastensson Industrial Environmental Management Division of Business Administration and Industrial Engineering Department of Business Administration, Technology and Social Sciences Luleå University of Technology SE-971 87 Luleå SWEDEN Printed by UniversitetstryckerietLuleå University of Technology,, Luleå 2014 Graphic Production 2014 ISSNISSN: 1402-1544 ISBNISBN: 978-91-7439-919-6 (print) ISBN 978-91-7439-920-2 (pdf) Luleå 2014 Luleå 2014 www.ltu.se Åsa Kastensson, Managing Product Innovation in the Automotive Industry Preface This doctoral thesis was performed at Industrial Environmental Management. During the years with this research project a large number of people have supported both the research and with friendship. Thank you all. Professor Johan Sandström, my supervisor. Your support has been invaluable and you have contributed to my journey from a practitioner to an academic. Thank you for believing in me and my project from the beginning, providing conditions to an environmental approach. You have provided scientificity with an open mind and great knowledge. Dr. Anders Claesson, my co-supervisor. You have accompanied me through the whole research process, first as industrial supervisor at Saab Automobile and later as co-supervisor. Thank you for all support and creative discussions. You have during all years challenged my thoughts and opened my eyes for different phenomenon in the industry. You have become a good friend and I am looking forward to continue the collaboration after this project. Roger Gustafsson, my executive at Saab and initiator of this research project. Thanks for all years working with you. It has been knowledgeable and fun and I miss it. My former colleagues at Saab, thank you for contributing in the interviews and attending the workshops. Especially thanks to Bertil Gustafsson who has contributed with knowledge about the automotive industry and the history of Saab. Also to Anders Holmkvist who provided a lot of energy and support in enabling a continuation of the project after Saab’s bankruptcy. The participants from Volvo Personvagnar, thank you for letting me in to perform the workshop with you. Also a great thank to all participating in the SåNätt project, especially to Bengt, Axel and Fredrik. Professor Anders Nilsson and Dr. David Rönnberg-Sjödin, thank you for reading and contributing valuable comments on an early draft of the thesis. It has improved the clearness. My colleagues at Quality Technology and Environmental Management, thanks for your collegiality and nice “fika” breaks. Special thanks to Helena and Diana (Informatics) for your friendship and encouragement during the process and Fredrik, contributing comments on my manuscript. I also want to thank my former colleagues at Product Innovation, especially Johan och Johan, ”my Åsa Kastensson, Managing Product Innovation in the Automotive Industry neighbours”, always supportive and ready for fun providing a relaxed and gentle atmosphere. My fellow PhD students at the research school for women, Luleå University of Technology, Evelina, Ida-Linn, Anneli, Eva, Päivi, Lucille, Mojgan, Rosa, Elisabeth and Åsa. Funding from Vinnova, FFI (Fordonsstrategisk Forskning och Innovation) is greatly acknowledged. Finally I want to thank my beloved family and dear friends. The thesis is dedicated to my husband Pål and children Klara and Axel. Pål, you have supported me and taken a large responsibility during this process, always encouraging with a positive mind. Klara and Axel, my dears, I enjoy the relaxing time with you, it is so valuable and it gave me the strength to overcome all hurdles on the journey. Luleå, May 05, 2014 Åsa Kastensson Åsa Kastensson, Managing Product Innovation in the Automotive Industry Abstract A company’s ability to introduce new products is a key success factor for sustaining a competitive advantage. Increasing environmental concerns are an even stronger incentive to innovate. Environmental regulations will exert immense pressure on manufacturing industries, which will increase in the future, enabling a more sustainable world for coming generations. Facing the automotive industry, an aggravating circumstance is, however, that the industry is deeply affected by the paradigm grounded in mass production, a dominant design and incremental development. A common view in the innovation literature is that large, established firms usually experience difficulty fostering radical innovations. Taking on the environmental challenge, it is argued that companies lack the methods, tools and processes to scan markets and to find opportunities beyond their existing businesses. Further challenges fostering radical innovations are the conflicting demands to explore new opportunities in parallel with daily business. The aim of this thesis is to explore the prerequisites embracing innovations in terms of what hinders and enables the development and implementation of new technologies in future products. The research question is answered through qualitative studies at Saab Automobile, Volvo Cars and the lightweight project SåNätt. I also draw upon my experience working in the automotive industry for many years. The empirical studies revealed different approaches to develop radical innovations. While one of the companies focused on radical development of new concepts aiming to build a supplier structure for collaboration, the other company’s focus was on incremental development of technical solutions to be implemented in a shorter time horizon. However both companies were stuck in the paradigm where the first focused on more explorative projects and through significant interest in technology and a more informal way of working, they managed to bypass several parts in the paradigm. The other company was managing the projects through a formal process governed by strategic plans and a strong implementation focus and was more deeply committed to its infrastructure for body manufacturing thus hindering more radical changes. The thesis shows that some inertias in the paradigm can indeed be challenged, but it also shows that in order to succeed in an environmentally driven transition, the paradigm dominating the automotive industry has to be questioned. Keywords Innovation, product development, environmental, automotive industry, CO2, lightweight concepts Åsa Kastensson, Managing Product Innovation in the Automotive Industry Åsa Kastensson, Managing Product Innovation in the Automotive Industry Thesis This thesis comprises the following appended papers: Paper A: Kastensson, Å., Larsson, A., Ericson, Å. (2010) Embracing risk to pursue product innovation. Proceedings of the 17th International Product Development Management Conference, June 14-15, Murcia, Spain. Paper B: Ericson, Å., Kastensson, Å. (2011) Exploit and Explore: Two ways of categorizing innovation projects. Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Engineering Design, August 15-18, Copenhagen, Denmark. Full paper, peer- reviewed. Paper C: Kastensson, A., & Johansson, C. (2011) Decision making in gates: based on formal basis or gut feeling? International Journal of Technology Intelligence and Planning, 7(2), 140-152. Paper D: Kastensson, Å. (2014) Developing lightweight concepts in the automotive industry: taking on the environmental challenge in the case of SåNätt. Journal of Cleaner Production 66, 337-346. Paper E: Kastensson, Å., Claesson, A., Gustafsson, B. (2014) Innovation in a dominant Paradigm. Submitted to: International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management. Åsa Kastensson, Managing Product Innovation in the Automotive Industry Åsa Kastensson, Managing Product Innovation in the Automotive Industry Contents 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 1.1 RESEARCH MOTIVATION .............................................................................................................................. 5 2 THE RESEARCH PROCESS ....................................................................................... 7 2.1 SETTING THE SCENE (PHASE 1) ................................................................................................................... 10 2.1.1 Purpose ......................................................................................................................................................................... 13 2.1.2 Theory ........................................................................................................................................................................... 13 2.1.3 Method .........................................................................................................................................................................
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