Filtrerad Effektivitet

Licentiate thesis, 2008

Abstract There are at least three different aspects influencing the understanding and the ability for a development organization to develop the products demanded in the product strategy of a company. Firstly the strategy has to be communicated enabling the organization to understand the request. Secondly the organization must have the capacity and the capability to carry through the task. Thirdly the organization has to approve and accept the assignment. The last part often seems to be trivial but is essential and far from obvious. Earlier studies have shown that in the work to develop the products described in the product strategy there are elements that influences how well this work is done. Those elements are some kind of filters that can prevent the organization more or less to do the requested task. This thesis has tried to track if those filters have been active within Volvo Cars Corporation, in what way they have affected the product development and if it has been possible to change the influence from the different filters. All filters described within academic literature have also been found within Volvo Cars Corporation. Also how the filters affect the knowledge absorption was found. Two filters earlier not so well depicted in earlier literature were also found (norms and amount of free slack). All filters are put into context and how they influence the knowledge absorption within an organization is described. Also, the thesis analyses how each filter can be influenced by the management of the corporation been described. By understanding how the filters influence the ability to develop the products thar are described by the product strategy the corporation gets new tools to influence its efficiency. The research indicates that a company can do major changes in its product line up without implementing major changes in the organization. Earlier research has indicated that this is hard or almost impossible. Keywords: Performance filter, Organization, Capability, Efficiency, Knowledge absorption, Slack