Information system for managing design guidelines for manufacturing

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Information system for managing design

guidelines for manufacturing

A case study at Volvo Car Group

Informationssystem för att hantera designriktlinjer för tillverkning

en fallstudie på Volvo Car Group Hafez Shurrab

Faculty: Health, Science & Technology

Subject: Industrial Engineering and Management Points: 30 ECTS

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Information System for Managing Design Guidelines for Manufacturing A Case Study at Volvo Car Group

HAFEZ SHURRAB

Faculty of Health, Science & Technology Karlstad University

SE- 651 88 Karlstad Sweden

Telephone +46-54-700 10 00 In Cooperation with

Department of Manufacturing Engineering Volvo Car Group

SE- 418 78 Göteborg Sweden

Telephone +46-31-595 878

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Prologue

This master thesis represents the final step of my study at Karlstad University (KAU) within Industrial Engineering and Management. The thesis covers 30 university points and has been conducted during the spring of 2015 at Volvo Car Group (VCG) in Torslanda, Gothenburg.

I would like to thank everyone in the Manufacturing Engineering (ME) department at VCG for showing a significant amount of interest and unhesitant support for my thesis development. Special thanks should be given to Erik Hollander, Sten Gedda, Anna Davidsson and Ann Heirman who were heavily engaged in the project and ensured smooth progress through enabling extremely comfortable, friendly and supportive research atmosphere and opening doors to reach out the key contributors without any delay. Special thanks are never complete if not also given to Anders Samuelsson, who played the role of project team member and enabled creative research environment in all stages.

I would also like to thank my tutors, Mr. Samuel Petros Sebhatu and Mr. Leo Devin, for their relentless efforts and guidance during the semester, which played significant role in following the standards.

There are many people to mention for thanks including Jasmin Dzinic for his support for the systems used in the ME department, Katarina Borcic for her introduction to SharePoint, Per Denovan for his introduction to Business Management System (BMS), and Pär Klingstam for his workshop in Volvo Product Development System (VPDS). Certainly, there are many other people to warmly thank from teams that work for A-Shop, B-Shop, C-Shop, Quality Engineering, and Strategic Development functions at the ME department of VCG.

Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for endless support and encouragement during my study. Without their constant motivation and love, these years would not have been enjoyable to succeed.

Hafez Shurrab 2015-05-25

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Abstract

Automotive industry is currently characterized by very fierce competition in which an automaker has no choice but to run at the highest speed to survive.

Challenges are too many, but design as a function is in the center due to its tight connection to time to market and competitive advantage capabilities such as production flexibility, speed, cost and quality. Design requirements, standards and guidelines represent an essential part of these product- and process-oriented design capabilities.

Design guidelines for manufacturing (DGM) have very limited discussion in literature concerning associated terminology and characteristics. As a result, it is not obvious that the available information systems are designed to support the management workflows of DGM related to a rather technically complex context similar to automotive industry. As such, this thesis is dedicated to first build a solid ground represented by a clear definition for DGM and detailed criteria for how these guidelines live up to the proper level of design support. Then, what information systems have to offer in terms of functionalities and characteristics to enable effective management and continuous improvement of supportive DGM is investigated.

Organizational enablers required to assure high quality of DGM using information systems are identified. The study is conducted at Volvo Car Manufacturing Engineering department. The results show that DGM systems should enable effective knowledge management process by enabling knowledge creation, knowledge transfer and storage, and knowledge use and application.

That is basically represented by key functionalities, characteristics and organizational enablers in which users are enabled to communicate each other as they create, assure the quality of, share, change, tag, filter, cluster and structure individual and multiple DGM. The main driver for how DGM user-interface functionalities should be oriented is related to how the layout patterns and options are perceived as common by the majority of target users.

Key Words: DGM, Information Systems, Design Engineer, Knowledge Management & Automotive.

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Sammanfattning

Bilindustrin kännetecknas för närvarande av mycket hård konkurrens där en biltillverkare har inte något annat val än att köra på den högsta hastigheten för att överleva på marknaden. Utmaningarna är många, men design som en funktion ligger i centrum på grund av sin täta koppling till tiden som behovs att nå marknaden samt konkurrensfördelar som produktionsflexibilitet, -snabbhet, -kostnad och -kvalitet. Designkrav, -standarder och -riktlinjer utgör en väsentlig del av de tidigare nämnda produkt-, process- och metodorienterade designmöjligheterna.

Designriktlinjer för tillverkning (DGM) har mycket begränsad diskussion i litteratur gällande terminologi och tillhörande egenskaper. Som ett resultat är det inte uppenbart att de tillgängliga informationssystemen är konstruerade så att de stöder förvaltningsarbetsflöden av DGM som är relaterade till ett tämligen komplext tekniskt sammanhang som liknar bilindustrin. Som sådan är denna uppsats dedikerad till att först och främst bygga en solid grund som representeras av en tydlig definition av DGM designriktlinjer och detaljerade kriterier för hur dessa riktlinjer lever upp till en lämplig nivå av designsupport.

Sedan undersöks vad informationssystem har att erbjuda i form av funktioner och egenskaper för att möjliggöra en effektiv förvaltning och kontinuerlig förbättring av stödjande riktlinjer tillverkningsorienterade designriktlinjer.

Slutligen identifieras vilka organisatoriska förutsättningar som krävs för att säkerställa hög kvalitet på DGM designriktlinjer som används genom informationssystem. Studien genomförs på den tillverkningstekniska avdelningen på Volvo Personvagnar. Resultaten visar att ett DGM system skall möjliggöra en effektiv process av kunskapshantering genom att aktivera kunskapsproduktion, kunskapsöverföring & -lagring och kunskapsanvändning

& -tillämpning. Det representeras i grunden av viktiga funktioner, egenskaper och organisatoriska förutsättningar där användarna har möjlighet att kommunicera med varandra när de skapar, kvalitetssäkrar, delar, ändrar, taggar, filtrerar, klustrar och strukturerar individuella och flera DGM. Den främsta drivkraften för hur DGM användargränssnitt bör inriktas är relaterad till hur layoutmönster och -aspekter uppfattas jämfört med system redan kända i de flesta målgrupper.

Nyckelord: Tillverkningsorienterade Designriktlinjer, Informationssystems, Designingenjör, Kunskapshantering & Fordonsindustrin.

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Table of Figures

FIGURE 2.1: RESEARCH EXECUTION STRATEGY AND PROJECT MILESTONES 18

FIGURE 2.2: CASE-STUDY ANALYSIS STRATEGY 22

FIGURE 2.3: ROOT-CAUSE ANALYSIS METHOD OF DGM SAMPLES 23

FIGURE 3.1: STRUCTURE OF KM ITEMS IN LITERATURE 27

FIGURE 3.2: KM PROCESS 31

FIGURE 3.3: CONVERGENCE MODEL ON ICT AND PSYCHOSOCIAL LIFE 32

FIGURE 4.1: DGM AT VOLVO CARS 42

FIGURE 4.2: MILESTONES AND GATEWAYS IN VPDS 43

List of Tables

TABLE 4.1: MAIN QUESTIONS TO FORM AN INDIVIDUAL ITEM OF DGM 41 TABLE 4.2: AVERAGE SCORES OF DGM SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITIES 46 TABLE 5.1: SUPPORTIVE DGM CRITERIA & RECOMMENDED CHARACTERISTICS 54 TABLE 5.2: ORGANIZATIONAL ENABLERS FOR MANAGING DGM SYSTEMS 63

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Abbreviations

BoP BMS DGM FMEA FSR IS KM LR LL PII PA PC PS PSF PSI TTM VCG VCME VPDS WIP

: Bill of Process

:Business Management System

: Design Guidelines for Manufacturing : Failure Mode Effect Analysis

: Final Status Report : Information System : Knowledge Management : Launch Readiness

: Lessons Learned

: Process and inspection instruction : Program Approval

: Program Confirmed : Program Start

: Program Strategy Finalized : Program Strategy Intent : Time To Market

: Volvo Car Group

: Volvo Cars Manufacturing Engineering :Volvo Product Development System :Wanted Industrial Position

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Glossary of Terms

1. Automotive Design: responsibilities in the development of the appearance and – to significant extent – the ergonomics of automobiles.

2. Cross-Functional Team: a people group with various functional expertise dedicated toward a common goal.

3. Data: raw symbols exist in any form and have no meaning of itself or significance beyond its existence.

4. Design For Manufacturability: art of designing a product so that it is easy to manufacture.

5. Design Guidelines for Manufacturing (from the study results): lists of optional manufacturing design instructions supported by detailed background documents and derived from manufacturing and production principles; process, product and method experts; benchmarks; and lessons learned from the millstones of physical product development projects.

DGM are aimed at helping designers by acting as a general standard starting mindset from which wise contextual opinions and decisions concerning product, process and method design actions are stimulated with a view to approaching the desired state and avoiding the potential risks

6. Employee Turnover: the number or percentage of workers who leave an organization and are replaced by new employees.

7. Guidelines (from the study results): optional instructions derived from principles, rules of thumb, best practices and lessons learned to help forming an opinion and support decision making concerning a course of action and associated potential risks.

8. Information Dissemination: formal and informal sharing of information within certain boundaries.

9. Information System Characteristic: a feature or quality belonging typically to a software application dedicated to information management and serving to identify it.

10. Information System Functionality: any aspect of what a software application dedicated to information management can do for a user.

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11. Information: any form of informational content gives meanings to data and connect it between each other and between other different forms.

12. Knowledge Acquisition: extract, structure, and organize knowledge from one source.

13. Knowledge Assimilation: the ability to incorporate and take in knowledge as one’s own (absorb); to bring knowledge into conformity with collective customs, norms, attitudes, and culture; and to convert knowledge into suitable format.

14. Knowledge Creation: dynamic process in which knowledge is – through the various levels of learning – derived from information, which is in turn derived from data collected from different sources.

15. Knowledge Engineering: all social, scientific and technical aspects included in constructing, maintaining and utilizing knowledge-based systems.

16. Knowledge Management: is the process in which organizational knowledge is captured, developed, shared, and effectively used. It refers to that by making the best use of knowledge, organizational objectives could be achieved using a multi-disciplined approach.

17. Knowledge Transfer: going beyond the traditional communication means such as e-mails, memorandums and meetings; seeking organizing, creating, capturing or distributing knowledge; and ensuring that future users are able to reach out this knowledge.

18. Knowledge: gathering and applying data and information and answer how questions.

19. Manufacturing Engineering: research, design and development of manufacturing systems, machines, processes, tools and equipment.

20. Manufacturing Requirement: statement identifies the necessary design, functional, or operational characteristic or constraint related to both processes and products.

21. New Product Development: the complete process/project of bringing a new product to market.

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23. Process: unique combination of people, materials, tools, and methods involved in producing a measurable output.

24. Requirement: a course of action to be done because of a rule or law. If something is required for a particular purpose, it is then a prerequisite to that particular context.

25. Shared Interpretation: organizational practices such as obtaining agreement on the way any new information affects organizations, and creating understanding for employees concerning the issues related to the departments they work at.

26. Social Sustainability in Design Function: the ability of the social system of a company to indefinitely provide a defined level of social wellbeing – represented by the quality of life – to whom design is a work style.

27. Standard Guides: rules, orientation, advice or recommendations relating to international standardization and conformity assessment.

28. System Usability: the degree of system functionality use to which a system user can leverage.

29. Technology Absorption: acquisition, development and utilization of technological capability by a company from an external source.

30. Technology Readiness: organizations’ ability and maturity level to absorb critical technology elements during the acquisition process.

31. Time to Market: the length of time a product takes to be realized from the conception phase until it is available for sale.

32. Understanding: a form of knowledge where why questions are appreciated to interpret trends, patterns and run interpolative and probabilistic processes.

33. User experience: the practice of considering users’ emotions, behaviors, and attitudes about using a particular system, product or service.

34. Wikis: the space in which users are able to edit and write content in a website.

35. Wisdom: a form of knowledge used to evaluate understanding under extrapolative, non-probabilistic, and non-deterministic process.

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1. Introduction

This master thesis is dedicated to study information system (IS) for managing design guide for manufacturing (DGM). To enable better understanding concerning the thesis boundaries, a background section is dedicated. A problem statement section is then presented to highlight the associated issues of interest. The contribution to the solution is generally framed in the purpose section, and specifically formulated in terms of what to be discussed and delivered in the sections of research questions and delimitation, respectively.

1.1. Background

In light of the fierce competition automotive industry is witnessing nowadays, product and production development are thriving more than ever in order to reduce time to market (TTM) and enhance the capability of mass customization that is getting more and more a manufacturing strategy trend for satisfying constantly growing customer demand. In addition, cars are becoming more and more intelligent vehicles than ever with sophisticated embedded systems, meaning that shortening TTM is getting even more challenging (Katzenbach, 2015). Manufacturing capability and configuration cost in turn are regarded as obstacles in front of product development since they represent the realization interface, while product development is more engaged with artifact design (Kossiakoff, 2011).

The early phases of car product development usually start with aligning new technologies and features – that are relevant to the company vision – with the concept of future cars (Katzenbach, 2015). Then, high-level cross functional meetings are conducted in order to realistically discuss the possibility of developing future cars. Manufacturing engineering departments are then significantly responsible for dictating what should be considered while designing products for manufacturing, which is done through a requirement management process (Bellgran & Säfsten, 2010).

Manufacturing engineers usually deal with parallel informational workflows that have certain rules and roles including standards, requirements and guidelines.

The management of these workflows is enabled through information systems (ISs) with particular supporting functions that vary from system to system and depend on the way the piece of information is intended to be used (Bellgran &

Säfsten, 2010; Maurer & Winner, 2013; Katzenbach, 2015).

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1.2. Problem statement

According to Dalkir (2013), ISs represent how both people and computers are connected together to process and interpret information within organizations.

Such a combination implies that either people or computers should be adapted to fulfill the business goals. In this regard, Bradley (2010) discussed how many IT applications were developed to integrate new technology instead of keeping the focus on the actual users. For her, that just turned the physical stress in workplaces into mental stress since these applications require significant time and effort to learn, effectively use, maintain, and continuously improve them.

According to Dalkir (2013), organizations produce tones of information daily, but they only apply a small fraction due to the fact that the organizational knowledge is stored as scattered documents, lessons learned, memos … etc. As such, Bradley (2010) believes that ISs should be always adapted to the needs of the end users where only supportive information is accepted. This means that organizations need to further develop their different ISs so that the daily work of their different users becomes really supported and, thus, easier to implement.

In manufacturing context, Berlin et al. (2013) emphasized that enabling social sustainability in manufacturing workplaces is greatly connected to ergonomics and human factors. They claim that the employee turnover increases proportionally with physically and/or mentally demanding jobs, which are expected to encounter sever labour shortage in the near future. Here, El Maraghy et al. (2012) claim that manufacturing engineering/design as a function lives up to a high level of mental complexity. Besides, they argue that losing experienced manufacturing engineers always comes with significant organizational knowledge losses, which represents another challenge. El Maraghy et al. (2012) believe that not considering small details while designing a process in the early phases of product and production development is more likely to be very costly later on. Therefore, manufacturing engineers develop requirements, standards, KPIs, and guidelines for the manufacturing engineering job to assure the right level of quality.

Specifically, design guidelines for manufacturing (DGM) are mainly used in automotive organizations in order to best consider the small contextual details that may lead to reworks and/or influence the process/product quality (Eriksson & Carlred, 2012). The amount of these details dramatically grows as the product complexity increases (El Maraghy et al., 2012). In automotive industry, products’ components are increasing in all directions including mechanical, electric, electronic, and internet-related directions (Katzenbach,

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2015). Additionally, new manufacturing technologies, associated standards and regulations are getting introduced more quickly than ever. Not least, the complexity is exacerbated by the fact that manufacturing markets are getting more globally competitive and turbulent (El Maraghy et al., 2012). This means that manufacturing process designers need to consider a lot of DGM while tooling and reengineering. That points at the necessity to develop an IS for DGM that better supports manufacturing engineers and make their work easier.

In this regard, a suitable IS means studying content complexity and considering its unique aspects (Arz, 2007), which means DGM should be first studied in terms of what they are and how they could be sufficiently supportive. Then, the manufacturing context of DGM should be investigated to identify its unique characteristics, which may also introduce functionalities and characteristics to be supported by the future IS of DGM.

Finally, since ISs need significant organizational support from a knowledge management perspective, as Dalkir (2013) claims, it is important to investigate what organizational enablers may facilitate institutionalizing the future DGM system to be developed.

1.3. Purpose

The main purpose of this thesis is to develop IS enablers and aspects for managing DGM. In order to approach that, a single case is studied, which is Volvo Car Manufacturing Engineering (VCME).

1.4. Research questions

 RQ1:

a) What are design guidelines for manufacturing?

b) and what are their supportive criteria?

 RQ2: What aspects do enable the application of design guidelines for manufacturing through ISs in terms of:

a) system functionalities for the DGM end users?

b) and organizational support for knowledge management?

1.5. Delimitations

In this thesis, the gap in literature– e.g. DGM definition – is supported by either the case-study approach or expert opinions as assumptions. The results of the study are system functionalities that enable manufacturing engineers to apply relevant DGM more easily and quickly. The results also include enablers for

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highlighted issues are aimed at improving the use of DGM so that they can contribute to quicker achievement of daily tasks related manufacturing engineering. Therefore, studying DGM is limited to the definition of guidelines in general that is extended to develop a definition for DGM and criteria of supportive DGM based on the case-study approach and expert opinions.

Finally, general supporting IS functionalities are developed as a ground for future development of DGM systems.

To delimit the scope, a single case study – i.e. VCME – is considered. Besides, only theories with high relevance are considered, while the sampling and analysis of DGM are limitedly derived from external sources, while the most focus is within the boundaries of the Volvo Car Group (VCG). DGM are investigated in terms of how they are developed, maintained, structured and updated, and what improvements in their management system may contribute to their tacit value and productivity. Therefore, the proposed IS functionalities are related to the general user needs in specific context, which is automotive manufacturing.

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2. Methodology

This chapter describes how the study was conducted and which concepts and techniques were used. The first section describes the research execution and data collection strategy. After that, the approaches and concepts used to analyze the data are explained. Last, but not least, controlling the research quality is further explored in accordance with literature recommendations and study conditions.

2.1. Research strategy and Data Collection

According to Creswell (2009), qualitative research is used as a method for different contexts including social science and market research. Since this study is aimed at introducing IS aspects and functionalities from the end-user perspective, qualitative research is adopted. Further, Copi et al. (2007) discussed inductive reasoning as a logical process whereby facts are connected to derive exploratory conclusions that could include either prediction, behavior, or forecasting. That kind of logic fits this thesis scope since it starts from basic facts about guidelines and information system design to develop conclusions related to what would support the right behavior of the IS end users.

Specifically, the answers of all research question are through to be supported by the qualitative research method using the inductive reasoning logic since they also match the characteristics of this type of research methodology. That encompasses what DGM are, DGM supportive criteria, DGM system functionalities, and organizational enablers for effective management and application of DGM. The overall research strategy used to approach the answers of the research questions are shown in Figure 2.1.

Mills et al. (2009) discussed the relevance of case-study methods to social sciences since the subject of interest is explored and examined closely and in deep details to highlight the aspects and characteristics of interest. Exploratory case-study methods are mainly used to explore the situations in which the issue being evaluated has no clear foundations (Yin, 2003). In this thesis, the case- study method is used since the IS aspects and functionalities required to support DGM as well as the definition of DGM have very limited explanation in previous research. However, a small part of the study related to the proposed functionalities of the DGM system includes limited quantitative validating techniques that is aimed at highlighting system functionality weights from experts’ perspective.

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Figure 2.1: Research execution strategy and project milestones.

2.2. Data collection

2.2.1.Theoretical study

Based on the need to conduct a qualitative research through exploratory case- study method (Creswell, 2009), a theoretical study and an empirical study were done as shown in Figure 2.1. The theoretical study was done through exploring theories about DGM definition, which highlighted a gap in literature. Therefore, the study started from basic terminology about the definition and characteristics of guidelines. Independently, the principles of the knowledge management (KM) process were explored together with IS fundamentals in any possible manufacturing engineering context. Many keywords were used with different combinations and quotation placements including:

Guidelines Design Automotive

Manufacturing Production Product

Development Process Method

Information system Knowledge management Standards Change management Design engineer Designer Characteristics System Design Criteria Functionalities Informatics Integration

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The databases used to search via comprise Google Scholar, Karlstad University Library Catalog, and Chalmers Library Catalog. The results from this study are highlighted in the next chapter.

2.2.2.Empirical study

Creswell (2009) discussed different techniques to gather primary and secondary data. For the secondary data, he mentioned the data stored in systems, which was collected for different purposes. He added, primary data-collection techniques that fit the exploratory qualitative research could be the researcher’s observations, personal interviews, focus groups, and surveys. In this study, all the examples previously mentioned were used to fulfill different needs and purposes. Figure 2.1 illustrates a rather complex path of empirical study. It starts with gathering different types of guidelines and their descriptions from the Business Management System (BMS) portal at VCG – as a source of secondary data – in order to conduct the case-study analysis that is aimed at producing terminology and purpose of the guideline concept. After that, a comparison was conducted with literature in order to capture the contrast and thus use it in the following activities, including interviews and technical analysis (or focus-group) sessions whose results were used to design a DGM survey.

The main objective of the interviews and focus-group sessions is to capture valid perspectives on what DGM do represent for the three manufacturing shops and upper strategic levels at VCME in terms of importance, problems, and desired state. The results from interviews added significant value to the focus-group sessions. During these sessions, samples of DGM were reviewed and evaluated thoughtfully with their direct users and authors. The sessions included all manufacturing shops at VCME and were repeated if necessary. As a result, the main issues concerning DGM were pointed out, and a survey was dedicated based on that.

The DGM survey represented a structured form of questions aimed at capturing further support to key points concerning not only DGM, but also the current IS used, see Appendix A. The main objective of the survey was to ensure the opinions’ visibility of 19 key users of DGM and the contrast between personal perceptions and the information extracted from the BMS portal.

The results from the survey as well as the input from BMS and literature were analyzed using the case-study approach to produce a general definition of guidelines and DGM. The analysis was extended to identify the main criteria for

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supportive DGM since the available data were sufficient to trigger this step.

Therefore, the first research question was already answered at this point of progress.

Once the theories of KM process and IS were updated as needed, the stage of IS specifications (or functionalities and characteristics) was ready to start. At this point, simultaneous activities were conducted to extract as many aspects possible concerning generic specifications. That included analysis literature and DGM criteria, interviews with IS experts, and simultaneous experimentation on a real IS (i.e. SharePoint). The analysis was based on an integration test to each suggested functionality and characteristics listed in Appendix B. The difficulty to integrate a specification was mainly based on integration cost, which is turn based on the possibility to provide a functionality without any need for special customization (i.e. coding). Therefore, problem solving techniques with ISs were used to check that in a lab environment. Moreover, SharePoint experts were communicated to validate the level of integration cost. As a result, functionalities that can deliver the basic needs for a DGM system were selected and validated with key DGM users through scoring interviews. Primarily, nine key users – i.e. design and strategy engineers – were considered from all manufacturing shops for interviews whereby each functionality is rated using a scale with maximum value of 5 for the highest importance.

In parallel, theories about organizational learning from KM were used as input to validating interviews. As a result, organizational enablers at VCME for DGM system management were identified. At this point, sufficient information to answer the second research question was already secured.

2.3. Data analysis

The purpose of having an analysis strategy is to bring greater understanding to some major steps in the data analysis process. The data was simultaneously and qualitatively analyzed side-by-side, which influenced the subsequent data collection as Miles et al. (2013) claim. This aspect is important for this study because the literature study represents an additional data source while the interview and focus-group guides are being constructed. Additionally, the results of interviews and focus-group sessions might reveal topics of high interest to the survey or other following data collection activities.

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2.3.1.Case study

According to Mills et al. (2009), using the case-study approach supports the continuous analysis of data throughout the research. Further, the interaction and reflection between data collection, theory, and analysis could represent a characteristic of the case-study approach that stays alive during the research execution. That applies to the definition of guidelines and DGM, the criteria of supportive DGM, and the functionalities of DGM system, which is why the case-study approach is selected as the data analysis strategy for these parts.

Mills et al. (2009) discussed that in case studies, none-empirical data is considered in order to develop a theory or a direction. Therefore, the case-study approach fits this specific study since it allows the iterative process of considering all the primary data collection, the literature study findings and the results from the ongoing analysis that is done simultaneously. This means that the resulted definitions and criteria of DGM represent a combination of both the internal knowledge of VCME and the external knowledge of literature, with the possibility to develop these definitions continuously as soon as new knowledge is added.

Figure 2.2 shows an example of how the case-study strategy was used. It starts with the initial data screening phase that comprises the formulation of sub- research questions, theoretical sampling, and data collection. After that, the coding phase is initiated to map the results of different interviews and theoretical research related to DGM and other associated characteristics. Then, the mapped items are categorized and clustered, and comparisons are made among results within and across clusters. The arrows between the coding and data screening phases represent the continuous influence and iterative feeding of information. The output of coding represents the definitions and criteria sealed by all clusters. The terms of definitions are continuously fed into the comparison phase in which the synonyms and purposes are compared and sorted into a network of relationships, which is in turn transmitted as a feedback to the coding phase.

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Figure 2.2: Case-study analysis strategy

The comparison consists of developing the definitions and criteria by comparing the terms (synonyms and purposes) of these definitions and characteristics and with expert opinions and survey results and by constantly questioning and changing the relationships between the definitions’ terms and characteristics accordingly. As a result, a general definition of guidelines is developed and a group of characteristics are extracted. The network is completed when relevant data from the research is thought to be relatively supporting.

The same process approach was used to extract DGM system functionalities and characteristics from KM and IS theories and criteria for supportive DGM, which represented the theoretical sampling. The integration experimentation of system specifications as well as the results from IS specialists represent the data collection part of the strategy.

2.3.2.Root-cause analysis

Apart from the case-study approach, root-cause analysis was used in focus- group sessions to technically analyze samples of DGM and, thus, capture the special complexity of car manufacturing context and manufacturing engineers’

needs. According to Lee (2012), root-cause analysis is a problem-solving method dedicated to identify the root causes of a problematic situation.

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Similarly, manufacturing engineers are not making best use of DGM at VCME, as discussed in interviews. Therefore, representative (i.e. from all manufacturing shops) samples from DGM lists were analyzed in cooperation with corresponding key users. The reason for collaboration is that low-level DGM require specific background to understand and highlight the technical needs to be fulfilled. For instance, one interviewee mentioned that it is difficult to understand DGM from other manufacturing shops. Here, the focus-group sessions were conducted to investigate all possible why questions until the root causes are clearly identified. It was also interesting to detect good characteristics of each guideline for the following research stages. The generic form of analysis is shown in Figure 2.3.

Figure 2.3: Root-cause analysis method of DGM samples

2.4. Research ethics and quality

This study was under the supervision of Sten Gedda (senior annual program manager at VCME) with and in parallel a relevant study done by Anders Samuelsson, a master student from Chalmers University of Technology.

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According to Morse et al. (2008), reliability, replication and validity represent the most common criteria for research quality. They call a research to be reliable when the factors and measures used do not produce changes in results within short intervals of time. As such, in this thesis, the risk of having undermined reliability stems from the fact that the data is qualitative and interviews vary based on the backgrounds and understanding of interviewees. Therefore, inconsistencies in answering the same questions are possible. Moreover, interviewees may change their opinions over the study period, which means the different answers may be obtained from the same interviewee during the research. As a countermeasure, the interview questions were made clear and supported with illustrating figures to reduce the risk of misinterpretations and misperceptions.

Morse et al. (2008) highlight the importance of replication in business research in order to make it possible for other researchers to initiate the study again and thus question or confirm the results. This means that the different research steps should be kept in a high detail level. Since data should be continuously and qualitatively processed (i.e. analyzed and interpreted) in this thesis, it is difficult to include all detailed notes and the related reasoning and mapping throughout the study, due to the limited number of words allowed.

According to Morse et al. (2008), since the integrity of study conclusions is measured by research validity. They discuss internal and external validity.

External validity is related to how the research outcomes are generalized into different contexts. Even though this study is delimited to VCME, it does not necessarily mean the findings cannot fit other settings.

As for internal validity, the theory developed – i.e. definitions and criteria in this case – itself is checked against its alignment to the performed observations. For this study, the researcher dedicates a significant amount of time to thoroughly understand and discuss the observed situation with stakeholders, which is the main way concerning how the alignment is secured. Another dedicated approach to support the alignment is to combine theories from recent, homogeneous and reliable sources of knowledge.

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3. Literature review

In this chapter, the findings of the theoretical study are discussed.

3.1. Guidelines

According to Longman (2009, p. 779), guidelines are either “rules or instructions about the best way to do something” or “something that helps you form an opinion or make a decision”. Merriam Webster (2015) agrees to an extent stating a guideline is “a rule or instruction that shows or tells how something should be done”. The difference between both dictionaries is that Merriam Webster (2015) reflects a direct indication that following a guideline means following how something should be done, while Longman (2009) only refers to the relation between guidelines and best practices without necessarily being directly connected to a particular implication. Other dictionaries revolve around similar – but not exact – meanings. According Oxford Dictionaries (2015), a guideline is “a general rule, principle, or piece of advice”, while for Dictionary (2015), a guideline is “any guide or indication of a future course of action”. The definition provided by Oxford Dictionaries (2015) included various concepts that have a possibility to represent a guideline, which might be misleading since equalizing rules, principles and pieces of advice makes it difficult to decide if all or only particular rules – for instance – could be allowed to be guidelines in the same time.

Dictionary (2015) in turn refers to a guideline as a sign that once observed, the associated implication is expected, meaning that if a desired state is to be declared, supporting guidelines could be formulated whereby the desired state is attained through following them. The first clear contradiction in definitions could be detected in Business Dictionary (2015), which refers to a guideline as a “recommended practice that allows some discretion or leeway in its interpretation, implementation, or use”. According to this definition, only general rules could be seen as guidelines since specific rules may restrict the freedom of interpretation, implementation or use of guidelines (Sharma & Singh, 2005). Nonetheless, the definition provided by Business Dictionary (2015) refers to an important aspect that is rarely discussed in literature, but common in practice, which is the optionality of guidelines. That is particularly emphasized by Bowden (1989, p.

67-68):

“A guideline, in pamphlet form, can be a simple instructional book on "how best to do." It will need to be general in approach eschewing specifics and is

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probably best written by a member with some considerable experience of organizing such events.”

Bowden (1989, p. 68) adds:

“What should be included in a guideline or standard will depend on the use to which it is intended that it will be put.”

As for the context of design for manufacturing, guidelines for Syan and Menon (1994, p. 106) are “directives act to both stimulate creativity and show the way to good design for manufacture”. They further elaborate that DGM result in products that are inherently easier to manufacture if they – i.e. guidelines – are correctly understood and followed. Therefore, Syan and Menon (1994) believe that DGM could be regarded as “optimal suggestions” for a particular context, which are supposed to lead to cost saving, good quality and easy to manufacture design.

Nevertheless, the constraints of different production and product development requirements could limit the choice of solutions, where the role of guidelines comes to facilitate the best compromise (Syan and Menon, 1994).

According to Monden (1993), the widely known guidelines dedicated to lean such as 5S guidelines are divided into the main guidelines on a high abstraction level at which sub-guidelines are connected with each main guideline although they – i.e. sub-guidelines – are intertwined in text, covering various relevant aspects. Mondon (1993) also refers to a unique usage of the guidelines as standard guides by the Japanese automotive industry in which specific instructions are formulated to support the daily routines of operators through a so called standard operations sheet, which no longer makes the guidelines as optional as specified by many other sources. According to Mittal (2009), standard guides represent one type of standards resulted from a standardization process. For Iec.ch (2015) standard guides are:

“Guides give rules, orientation, advice or recommendations relating to international standardization and conformity assessment.”

Both Syan and Menon (1994) as well as Bowden (1989) seem to touch the essence of the guidelines definition. By combining both definitions, guidelines could be said to be general instructions that stimulate creativity through showing what it needs do things right based on given scenarios.

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3.2. Knowledge management

3.2.1.Dimensions and sub-dimensions of knowledge management

KM has been modeled and worked on by many different researchers. However, the most common KM models lack one or more dimensions, and by combining them, many gaps could be bridged and supported. García-Fernández (2015) conducted a literature review on KM models, processes, and dimensions. As a result, a number of KM dimensions and sub-dimensions are identified, as shown in Figure 3.1. According to García-Fernández (2015), all widely used literature on KM emphasizes three main items, including knowledge creation, knowledge transfer and storage, and knowledge application and use.

Figure 3.1: Adapted from García-Fernández (2015) - The structure of KM items in literature

Knowledge creation

García-Fernández (2015) believes that in order for knowledge to be created, the acquisition and dissemination of information should occur, which without settling shared interpretation may be misapplied, misperceived, wasted, or even regarded as incomplete.

According to Dalkir (2013), to acquire knowledge means to extract, structure, and organize knowledge from one source, which is commonly used to be human experts. Acquired knowledge is mainly used in software such as an expert system. In general, acquiring knowledge and information may refer to different levels of detail. Ackoff (1989) suggested five categories represent almost the

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most common types of informational content including data, information, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.

Ackoff (1989) perceives data as raw symbols exist in any form and have no meaning of itself. Information is in turn any form of informational content that highlight data inferences by making connections. This kind of connection may answer questions start with what, who, where, and when. In order to answer how questions, Ackoff (1989) believes that both data and information should be gathered and applied. The result in this case would be knowledge.

Practically, acquiring information is performed within organizations as a form of information collection from both employees and customers (García- Fernández, 2015). Additionally, organizations may acquire information by conducting market research or by retrieving and transforming data from their databases to enable specific tasks (Dalkir, 2013).

As for information dissemination, García-Fernández (2015) believes that organizations should allow frequent formal and informal information sharing within them. Furthermore, informative reports should be periodically produced and made available for organizations’ employees, and the existing ISs should facilitate easy and friendly sharing of information (Dalkir, 2013).

García-Fernández (2015) uses “shared interpretation” term to express about organizational practices such as obtaining agreement on the way any new information would affect the organization. Another practice is to create understanding for employees concerning the issues related to the departments they work at. Besides, organizations should be capable of detecting and removing obsolete information and discovering new alternatives. Finally, organizational functions should be performed according to particular industrial protocol and order as a contribution to shared interpretation.

Knowledge transfer and storage

According to Argote (2000), to transfer knowledge means to go beyond the traditional communication means such as e-mails, memorandums, and meetings; to seek organizing, creating, capturing or distributing knowledge; and to ensure that future users are able to reach out this knowledge. The complexity of knowledge transfer stems from the fact that knowledge exists in tasks, tools, and sub-networks, and that much of this knowledge is tacit and difficult to be articulated (Nonaka, 1995).

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Holsapple (2003) believes knowledge may be created, gathered or transformed, but without having it assimilated, actions required to be taken based on that knowledge will not be supported. Consequently, transferred knowledge will have limited organizational use, reuse and impact. Holsapple (2003) defines knowledge assimilation as the ability to incorporate and take in knowledge as one’s own (absorb); to bring knowledge into conformity with collective customs, norms, attitudes, and culture; and to convert knowledge into suitable format. To facilitate knowledge assimilation, organizations should pay attention to how knowledge is stored, massaged, structured, integrated, filtered and navigated through (Holsapple, 2003).

Accordingly, it is important to organize how knowledge is stored out in organizations. According to Holsapple (2003), documents, cases, rules, diagrams, FAQ files and Bayes’ Nets diagrams are different conceptual models to store knowledge. In practice, organizations follow a particular procedure to document and store knowledge scattered around then from experts and practitioners so that staff turnover has as little loss impact as possible on the overall organizational collective knowledge or skills (Dalkir, 2013). However, employees are in average conservative toward knowledge sharing since it represents their source of power. In this case, organizations establish mechanisms to ensure that the best practices are shared by enabling accessibility to databases, documents and other forms of knowledge (García-Fernánde, 2015).

Application and use of knowledge

To facilitate collective application and use of knowledge, García-Fernánde (2015) believes organizations shall promote teamwork and inter-functional working styles to propose innovative solutions by means of dialogue (Dalkir, 2013). Moreover, organizations motivate collective actions of groups and teams by seriously considering their recommendations. In general, organizations shall ensure all employees are – in a way of another – informed about new methods, tools, and any other updates (García-Fernánde, 2015).

García-Fernánde (2015) believes that employee empowerment in this context means organizations should enable the employee’s control and responsibility for their work and autonomy in decision making. Additionally, organizations should also stimulate employees’ willingness to make suggestions (Kotter, 2009).

Another important tactic is ensure that many people as possible are included in

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García-Fernánde (2015) sees the necessity to root commitment to this KM dogma. As such, many initiatives and practices are important to highlight including:

 establishing external networks and alliances with other organizations to promote knowledge,

 conducting agreements with universities and technological research centers (Dalkir, 2013),

 planning how to capture customers’ suggestions since they represent future products and services (García-Fernánde, 2015),

 Institutionalizing capable databases and KM infrastructure to maintain up-to-date information,

 and guiding employees and conducting trainings to ensure their skill development and thus better achievement organizations’ goals and objectives.

That means the organization vision should be effectively communicated stating a strategic intention, purpose or guidance (Kotter, 2009). In general, handbooks, quality norms, standards, requirements, and other types of documents should be able to describe organizational processes with all details that matter (García- Fernánde, 2015), which is clear evidence that the DGM system represent not only informative material, but also knowledge application channels.

3.2.2.Process of KM

García-Fernánde (2015) developed a model that represents the KM process using the dimensions discussed in the sections above. Figure 3.2 shows how the creation of knowledge is done. It starts with the thoughts and ideas residing in the intuition of individuals, which are turned into acquired information. Then, the information is interpreted to more individuals in order to disseminate their contents. After that, people behave collectively with actions and reactions, while adjustments are applied to the information content until it is accepted and, therefore, integrated. Finally, knowledge is considered created in an organization if the findings from the previous steps are documented, interpreted in the organizational level, and institutionalized to be included in the foundation of the organization (García-Fernánde, 2015).

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Figure 3.2: KM process - source (García-Fernánde, 2015, p 116)

In Figure 3.2, García-Fernánde (2015) explains how employee empowerment contributes to knowledge storage, transfer, use and application. The knowledge is stored in individual memories, and collective memories. Then, knowledge transfer between both types of memories is triggered through socialization among individuals, which is more likely to happen both effectively and efficiently if employees are empowered. Individuals react with teams by receiving feed-forward from their side and transmitting feed-back to the opposite direction. As a result, individual memories are externalized and exposed to teams. Similarly, teams play the role of individuals described earlier and the result is a combination of team memories within the organizational boundary, which is primarily supported by promoting teamwork extensively. In a higher level, organizations collaborate together to externalize and combine their memories. Consequently, inter-organizational interaction results in internalizing external knowledge from other corporate memories (García- Fernánde, 2015).

3.3. Challenges in information-related work

Bradley (2010) developed a convergence model that depicts the effects of knowledge and information on humans, as shown in Figure 3.3. Particularly, she claims that in the industrialized world that is characterized by an accelerated

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tempo, there is a high expectancy and dependency on computers and networks as well-functioning ways to drive our life, while humans are expected to adapt to any potential pressure from such informational revolution. Bradley (2010) highlighted some examples of the stress phenomena in the internet world as to be information overload, contact overload, lack of organizational filters, and demands for availability. She added, if people are over stimulated or under stimulated to deal with the daily information challenges, the society may encounter risks in all levels including individual (risk of stress), group (the risk of a fragmented labour force) and societal levels (the risk of exclusion and marginalization from the mainstream of society). Therefore, developing IS system functionalities that put the end users in the center of focus is expected to reduce such risks, and therefore, contribute to the overall social sustainability of these kind of environments.

Figure 3.3: Convergence model on ICT and psychosocial life environment - source Bradley (2010, p 184)

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3.4. Information system design

Osvalder and Ulfvengren (2009) addressed two main dimensions of usefulness related to a system including utility and usability. Utility means that a system is able to perform the required tasks and actions, while usability refers to the degree of system functionality use to which a system user can make best of (Osvalder & Ulfvengren, 2009). According to Dalkir (2013), ISs receive more attention in terms of the technology to be dedicated instead of developing implementation standards that contribute to the usability of a system. Therefore, ISs should be in the first place designed around users and their implicit preferences as human beings in order to enable a higher degree of system usability (Osvalder & Ulfvengren, 2009).

3.4.1.Amount of information

One significant aspect of human users is their limited memory that should be considered while designing an IS (Dalkir, 2013), meaning that the amount of new information to be displayed should be kept on the level of average people’s comprehension. Besides, Osvalder and Ulfvengren (2009) discussed the level of users’ knowledge that determines the level of information amount, which usually ranges from system novices to system experts. The difference is that experts can detect and grasp the new information displayed much quicker than novices, who are most of the time distracted by the surrounding features they might be unfamiliar with. One important point to be reflected on is that the level of knowledge and system experience could be different factors. The later might, for instance, refer to a young system expert that lacks the required level of content knowledge (Osvalder & Ulfvengren, 2009).

3.4.2.Analysis support

Another aspect to consider while designing ISs is the decision making support.

In order to avoid pushing users to shortcuts concerning the large amount of information they need to analyze and keep track of, checklists with possible clear consequences entailing the decisions to be made could be effective in this case since the possible choices are reduced and the simultaneous feed of information diminishes (Osvalder & Ulfvengren, 2009). Data should only be condensed and transferred to trends and meanings automatically if possible so that users are engaged with the analysis at the minimum level. However, users should be able to pick up and screen particular data upon request (Dalkir, 2013).

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3.4.3.Content management

According to Dalkir (2013), the information structure within a system plays a significant role in its usability, meaning that content management and storage should be well fitted to target users and then standardized. User experience (UX) here comes into the play, which is explained by Sharp (2012) as the practice of considering users’ emotions, behaviors, and attitudes about using a particular system, product or service. Dalkir (2013) specifies following standards since users usually work with traditional systems that could be a starting point to align the new content structure with. Nonetheless, Dalkir (2013) warns from not substituting old solutions for modern smarter ones if they are not related to radical changes that need dedicated expensive change initiatives.

The first step in deciding the aspects of the content structure is adapting appropriate taxonomies (tree structures) and classifications below which comes the information to be stored in usable forms. Each particular piece of information packaged under a particular category should be able to be found easily and quickly through metadata including notes, authors, keywords, dates

… etc. (Dalkir, 2013). Here, Dalkir (2013) indirectly emphasizes the need of intelligent information filtering and sorting functionalities that enable simple picking of information.

3.4.4.Wikis

According to Dalkir (2013), the space in which users are able to edit and write content in a website is usually referred to as a wiki. Dalkir (2013) highlights the importance of wikis in terms of acting as a learning organization at the individual level. Due to the fact that tacit knowledge exists in experts’ minds, systems should enable extracting such expertise as what and know-how wiki whereby newcomers are able to thrive and gain the right knowledge in the time it is needed and up to the right individual rate of comprehension and learning. By wikis, the learning and contribution dynamics of individuals are expected to increase by granting the ownership of information to the corresponding experts and allowing intelligent workflow communication to productively pass operations such as information updating and omitting (Dalkir, 2013).

3.4.5.Interface & layout design for humans

According to Osvalder and Ulfvengren (2009) user interface and system design and layout have significant influence on the usability of any system. The main goal of IS design in terms of user interface is to get users connected as much as

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possible to the content. That is particularly challenging since it is related to user experience, and thus mostly intangible aspects such as feelings and emotions (Goodwin, 2009). Since ISs’ contents include main and sub categories, Osvalder and Ulfvengren (2009) claim that users’ connection could be guaranteed by determining the suitable amount and type of information to be displayed for each system layer (i.e. corresponding main or sub category).

Osvalder and Ulfvengren (2009) also highlighted the necessity of having sufficient technical capability to design consistent layers of user interface.

Furthermore, one key practice in user interface design is standardization, whereby, users’ intuitive abilities are identified in terms of consistency and commonality, and then trendy design patterns and features are standardized, while the new design patterns and features are intelligently supported with stepwise but very abstract tutorials. In principle, the functionalities in a system should be sufficiently noticeable for the majority – if not all – of target users.

Otherwise, intelligent embedded functionalities will be limitedly used by curious explorative users (Osvalder & Ulfvengren, 2009). In short, the user-friendly interface design and layout should not allow lengthy descriptions and instructions in order to quickly find what they need when they need it.

3.5. Summary

The guideline concept has contrast in terminology. That is reflected from guidelines being strict rules for some sources or just some sort of helpful guidance for other sources. In general, the guideline concept is elastic, while its intended use defines what to be included as the main elements. However, three main questions are considered including on what to be guided, why it is important, and how it is fulfilled.

In order to enable guidelines as applicable knowledge items, KM section is dedicated. In general, knowledge creation and transfer should be balanced in order to enable knowledge application. Knowledge creation is triggered through information acquisition and dissemination along with shared understanding, which should be adapted for applicability through effective information transfer and storage methods. Additionally, teamwork, employee empowerment, and commitment to learning are key enablers need to be deeply rooted in organizations in order to continuously improve knowledge application. Above all, this balance should be aligned with reasonable human capacity levels to process information. ISs are supposed to make information-related work

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stress risks on individuals, and, thus, positively contribute to the overall social sustainability.

The chapter ends with the main IS aspects. In general, system usability is the most important dimension to be optimized through. First of all, the amount of information to be processed by users should be balanced. Moreover, controlling changes through ISs should support analysis thinking and decision making.

Besides, to promote organizational commonality and user-friendliness, the information content should be adapted to organizational norms as long as they are not practically or scientifically obsolete. User-friendliness is also enhanced through translating user experience in terms of emotions and feelings into visible needs, and then adapting user-interface and layout design accordingly.

Information system for managing design guidelines for manufacturing