MASTER'S THESIS Tool Belt for Pro Users Development of an Ergonomic and Robust Tool Belt for Professional Forestry Workers Linnea Wykman 2015 Master of Science in Engineering Technology Ergonomic Design and Production Luleå University of Technology Department of Business Administration, Technology and Social Sciences. Acknowledgement I would like to start off by thanking the Director of Primary & Concept Development, Johan Hallendorff at Husqvarna Group for giving me this project for my master thesis. I could not have gotten a better project, it was interesting, I got to work with something of real value for the company and I was privileged to collaborate with great people like the brand manager for the Husqvarna brand Rajinder Mehra. I want to thank the engineers at the department of Primary & Concept Development for making me feel welcomed and included as if I was one in the team. You were all intelligent hardworking and genuine people and I enjoyed talking to each and every one of you. To Eric Lennings my supervisor at the company and the department I would like to say that I was very lucky to get to have you as my supervisor. You were encouraging, always giving me tips and even when you had a lot on your plate and I asked you for a little bit of help you always met me with a big smile. For everyone that took part in my benchmarking and usability testing’s I must say that I was surprised of how dedicated you all were. The testing’s took longer than I had expected because you all took your time to really give me the most accurate result in the tests that you could possible give me. So thank you all for that, you were all very helpful with what was a very important part of my project. I also want to thank Alexander Persson Product Management and Specialist at Accessories for Husqvarna Group for being there and helping me in this project, with material that I needed to make my prototypes and when I had questions. To Åsa Wikberg-Nilsson my supervisor at Luleå University of Technology. I can’t thank you enough for all of your effort. Guidance in my thesis and your amazing support in everything. I felt that you went over and beyond the task of just supervising. I met a lot of people in this project and I felt that I got treated extremely well and that everyone was very helpful. I don’t have room in this section to thank you all but I wish to express my gratitude to everyone that helped me. Luleå 28th of June, 2015 Linnea Wykman Abstract This report covers the entire development process for a new ergonomic and robust tool belt for Husqvarna Group. The objective of this project was to develop a new tool belt concept and produce five belts to be tested in the field by the target group of the belt: the professional forestry workers. The work consisted of identifying what makes the belt ergonomic for the application and a materials selection process. To produce a belt that visually advocates the Husqvarna brand a collaboration with the Husqvarna brand manager was essential. The information that the development of the belt been based upon was by studying the environment and how the product is used by professional forestry workers. This has been carried out through interviews, literature studies, observations and importantly that the responsible of this project has experienced the environment and also performed the forestry work that the belt is used for. The actual shape of the belt has partly been developed through a series of usability tests, where a group of civilians and users of forestry belts got to try out and evaluate competitors' belts, where both forestry and carpenter's belts been included. Similarly this group also evaluated prototypes based solely on the shape of these belts, all made out of the same material. Finally professional forestry worker got to evaluated prototypes of six different concepts. The most ergonomic shape was developed partly based on the collected information, the shape of the two belts that got the best results in usability testing’s and on human anatomy and physiology. Interviews and meetings with manufacturers and suppliers was conducted to obtain knowledge about materials such as textiles, foams, plastics, and webbings. The most suitable material for the belt were selected accordingly to the requirement list. KEYWORDS: Product development, Ergonomics, Tool belt, Forestry work. Sammanfattning Den här rapporten behandlar hela utvecklingsprocessen för framtagning av ett nytt ergonomiskt och robust verktygsbälte för Husqvarna Group. Målet med arbetet var att utveckla ett nytt koncept och producera fem stycken bälten, för att testas i fält av målgruppen för arbetet: professionella skogsarbetare. Arbetet har bestått utav att identifiera vad som gör ett bälte ergonomiskt för tillämpningen och materialval. För att ta fram ett bälte som visuellt uttrycker Husqvarnas varumärke har ett samarbete med Husqvarnas brand manager varit väsentligt. Informationen som utvecklingen av bältet baserats på har varit att undersöka miljön och hur produkten används av professionella skogsarbetare. Detta har utförts via intervjuer, litteraturstudier, observationer och att ansvarig av detta projekt fått uppleva miljön och själv utföra de moment i skogsarbetet som bältet är avsett för. Själva formen på bältet har delvis tagits fram genom en rad användartester, där en grupp bestående av civila och användare av huggarbälte fått prova och utvärdera konkurrenters bälten, där både huggarbälten och snickarbälten ingått. På samma sätt har denna grupp fått utvärdera prototyper, alla i samma material, som baserats på enbart formen av dessa bälten. Slutligen har professionella skogsarbetare utvärderat sex olika koncept. Den mest ergonomiska formen på bältet togs fram baserad delvis på tidigare informationsinsamling och på formen av de två bälten som fått bäst resultat i användartester samt människans anatomi och fysiologi. Tillvägagångsättet för att ta reda på vilka material såsom textilier, skum, plaster, och remmar, som är lämpliga för bältet har bestått av intervjuer och möten med tillverkare och leverantörer. Detta för att ta del av deras kunskaper för att sedan avgöra vilka material som enligt kravspecifikation är mest lämpliga att använda i bältet. NYCKELORD: Produktutveckling, Ergonomi, Verktygsbälte, Skogsarbete. Content 1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 1 1.1 BACKGROUND ....................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 STAKEHOLDERS ..................................................................................................................................................... 3 1.3 PURPUSE AND GOAL .......................................................................................................................................... 4 1.4 PROJECT SCOPE .................................................................................................................................................... 4 2 Context........................................................................................................... 5 2.1 THE CLIENT COMPANY ...................................................................................................................................... 5 2.2 THE PRO USER ....................................................................................................................................................... 6 2.3 THE ENVIROMENT ................................................................................................................................................ 6 2.4 HAZARDS OF FORESTRY WORK ..................................................................................................................... 7 3 Theoretical Framework ................................................................................. 9 3.1 ERGONOMICS ........................................................................................................................................................ 9 3.2 ERGONOMICS IN PRODUCT DESIGN ......................................................................................................... 10 4 Method and Implementation ...................................................................... 12 4.1 PROCESS ................................................................................................................................................................. 12 4.2 PLANNING ............................................................................................................................................................. 12 4.2.1 The brief..................................................................................................................................................... 13 4.2.2 Gantt chart ................................................................................................................................................ 14 4.3 COLLECTING INFORMATION .......................................................................................................................... 16 4.3.1 Experiencing prototyping .................................................................................................................... 16 4.3.2 Interviews .................................................................................................................................................. 17 4.3.3 Husqvarna’s current belts ..................................................................................................................