Quality Improvement through Project Selection at Husqvarna Group

Abstract

Background
Whenever
quality
has
been
impaired,
and
a
problem
has
been
detected
within
a
product,
the
producer
needs
to
take
action.
However,
in
today’s
scarce
economic
climate
resources
has
to
be
spent
where
the
benefits
are
the
highest
–
thus
initiating
a
prioritization
problem.
When
not
all
issues
can
be
handled
at
once,
it
is
important
to
focus
on
those
that
provide
the
most
in
return.
By
selecting
these
cases
on
the
right
basis,
a
company
can
align
their
actions
with
their
overall
purpose
and
thus
fulfil
their
goals
and
visions.
Purpose
The
purpose
of
this
master
thesis
was
to
develop
a
framework
where
relevant
factors
are
considered
and
used
to
provide
a
ranking
of
quality
improvement
projects.
Thus,
this
master
thesis
elicited
relevant
factors
to
be
concerned,
and
developed
a
framework
based
upon
these
factors.
Method
Throughout
this
thesis,
the
systems
approach
has
been
used,
with
an
abductive
approach
towards
an
iterating
process
based
upon
theoretical
knowledge
and
observations.
This
led
to
the
development
of
a
prototype,
which
was
used
to
communicate
and
to
develop
the
framework.
This
iterative
process
was
primarily
fuelled
by
interviews,
observations
and
workshops,
with
exhaustive
literature
studies
as
the
starting
ignition.
Conclusions
The
following
factors
have
been
identified
as
relevant
when
prioritizing
projects:
Gross
margin
of
the
product
concerned,
market
size
in
monetary
terms,
market
share
of
the
concerned
product
on
its
market,
relative
price,
growth/decline
forecast,
problem
severity,
percentage
affected
of
goods
sold,
future
market
importance,
future
product
importance,
problem
alignment
with
core
values,
urgency,
expected
savings
and
payback.
However,
there
are
alterations
that
need
to
be
done
depending
on
which
organisation
is
to
use
them.
Since
it
might
be
difficult
to
obtain
the
data
related
to
the
factors,
and
this
could
prove
time
consuming
as
well,
a
simplification
is
often
eventually
the
case.
A
framework
has
been
developed
to
use
these
factors
in
a
simple
way,
and
to
facilitate
the
selection
of
projects
for
which
the
organization
has
the
most
to
gain.

• author: Henriksson, Björn and Torstensson, Magnus
• supervisor: Bertil Nilsson
• organization: Production Management
• course: MIO920
• year: 2013
• type: M1 - University Diploma
• subject: Technology and Engineering
• keywords: Product Improvement, Prioritization, Analytic Hierarchy Process, Quality Improvement, Decision Making
• other publication id: 13/5464
• language: English
• id: 4024505
• date added to LUP: 2013-09-13 15:36:01
• date last changed: 2013-09-13 15:36:01