Doing more with less - Future by Semcon # 1 2014

EN TIDNING OM KONSTEN ATT UTVECKLA FRAMTIDEN # 3 2013

future by semcon

#1 2014

“Bees are extremely important for nature”

ANN-BRITT CARLSSON

AFTER WORKname Ann-Britt Carlsson.at work Product owner for system information at Volvo Car Customer Service.after work I’m a beekeeper.challenge right now Ensuring the bees have survived the winter so that it’s possible to increase the number of hives. T

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About me“I’m 56 and I live on a farm outside Stenungsund in Sweden. In 2005 I bought my first hive, and today I have 37 of them. I’ve worked at Semcon since 2002.” About my job“As a product owner at Volvo Car Customer Service I manage system information and produce manuals for the factory system. I’m responsible for them being pro-duced in time, that they contain the right information and that they are translated into the correct languag-es. The best thing about my job is that it is varied and stimulating.” About beekeeping“Pollinating insects are essential for nature and vege-tation. They contribute to biodiversity, which is im-portant for the creation of a stable ecosystem and for food production. Bees are the most important pollinating insect for most fruits and berries. If you reduce food availability for pollinating insects by investing in large monocultures, you’re taking a fatal risk. If, instead, around the world, people paid greater attention to pollinating insects, crop yields would increase. For me, beekeeping is a way to contribute to a better environment.” What I’ve learned from beekeeping“As a beekeeper you have to be outside in nature and see it changing. You also have to be constantly one step ahead of the bees and manage them in the best way so they don’t swarm or become debilitated by disease. The ability to take a complete break and think outside the box is useful when you’re back at work. It’s good for creativity.”

ABOUT: BEEKEEPINGBeekeeping follows an annual cycle, which begins in the spring when the bees wake up after winter. The bees build up a sur-plus of honey, which can be har-vested for the first time during the summer. Depending on the type of plants in bloom around the hive when harvesting, the honey has different characters. As winter approaches, the bee colony is provided with a sugar solution to compensate for the honey taken.

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THE USERS’ BEST FRIEND

THEME: WORK WONDERS WITH EXISTING TECHNOLOGY

QOROS – HOW TO BUILD A CAR BRAND FROM SCRATCH

FIVE WEEKS’ WORK AT THE PRESS OF A BUTTON

INTERACTION DESIGN: BEST WHEN YOU DON’T NOTICE IT

A MAGAZINE ABOUT THE ART OF CREATING THE FUTURE # 1 2014

2 FUTURE BY SEMCON 1.2014

CONTENTS #1.2014ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE OF FUTURE BY SEMCON

26 Why we need robots with emotionsThe Israeli scientist Guy Hoffman has developed a robot that can react to your emotions – and which could be the middle ground between being on your own and being with someone.

FUTURE BY SEMCON 1.2014 3

16 EXTENDING A POWER STATION’S LIFEThe hydropower plant at Landafors was almost 40 years old. Fortum thought it was time to extend its life and maximize production – and asked Semcon engineers for help.

30 THE GARAGE SOLUTION OF THE FUTUREWhen Semcon was commissioned to develop a system for service information for Qoros Auto, it could start from scratch. A luxurious challenge at a time when many manufacturers are locked into outdated systems.

Website: www.semcon.com Letters: Future by Semcon, Semcon AB, 417 80 Göteborg, Sweden. Change of address: [email protected] Publisher: Anders Atterling. Tel: +46 (0)70-447 28 19, email: [email protected] Semcon project manager: Madeleine Andersson. Tel: +46 (0)76-569 83 31, e-mail: [email protected] Editorial production: Spoon, spoon.se. Editor: Björn Jansson. Designer: Mathias Lövström. Repro: Spoon. Printing: Trydells Tryckeri, Laholm. ISSN: 1650-9072. Translation: Cannon Språkkonsult AB

EDITORIAL

Ready, set, optimize

40 CLEANING A FIRE-HOSEAllgotech had a prototype of an entirely new solution for the cleaning of fire hoses. Semcon led the development and the new machine does the work in a third of the time and at a lower cost.

36 MEET THE SEMCON EXPERTSIn Semcon Brains, Jan Hinrich Müller tells us about vehicle design, Sara Nilsson explains how technology should help its users and the designer Mattias Ackeby talks about how new challenges allow him to keep updated and alert.

Almost daily we are deluged by news of technological developments – products that will change how we live and work, or represent a revolu-

tion in one way or another.Work that is often neglected is that based on

existing products. Because while developing a new electric engine, for example, is exciting, there are at least as large gains to be made by optimizing the combustion engine.

In this edition of Future, we learn more about how to improve what already works. We learn how a Semcon engineer helped Andritz with a process efficiency assignment, doing five weeks of work in just a few seconds. We also find out how it is possible to rebuild a hydropower plant from 1976 to attain high performance by today’s standards. Additionally, the entrepreneurs of Allgotech tell us how they, with Semcon’s help,

developed a revolutionary machine for cleaning fire hoses.

We have also spoken to Guy Hoffman about how he is developing robots which show emo-tion – and find out how these robots can help mankind.

In addition, we have portraits of our Semcon Brains – our own experts who together with their colleagues repre-sent the best showcase for what we can do and what we stand for. 1

MARKUS GRANLUNDCEO, SEMCON


PEOPLE #1.2014PEOPLE IN THIS ISSUE OF FUTURE BY SEMCON

It can involve using less material, time or energy. Here’s what some of the people involved in this issue of Future by Semcon think about optimization and maximization.

kevin phelps, after sales director, qoros autoWhich products in today’s cars do you think have the most potential to develop into something even more effective in the future?“Customer experience! If we can make information about the car and its performance more useful, it gives us a chance to use the car more efficiently. It requires the development of systems encompassing everything from the customer and the vehicle to the seller and the manufacturer, but the end result will lead to a better experience, in spite of less effort.”

guy hoffman, vice president, idc media

innovation labHow could we get more use out

of a single robot?“Travis, my speaker dock robot, is run

by a smartphone you connect to it. When you plug in your smartphone it becomes your robot. The smartphone

is the robot’s brain, which means it can be constantly upgraded, and it

already knows much about you. This will definitely be one of the ways to make robots much more powerful

without having to develop new software for every version of the

robot that comes out.”

helen ekelöf, diagnostic engineer, semconHow can service schedules reduce a machine’s down time? “By breaking down design drawings in functional groups, the service technician gets an overview of the entire function, and therefore can solve the problem in a shorter time.”

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robert bronegård, project supervisor, fortum

Which parts of maintenance affect a hydropower station the most?

“We have a local computerized monito-ring system where we can see everything

functioning. If we can learn why things happen then we can choose to focus on it in our service programme. We can find

these things before they cause problems.”

peter gartmark, production development manager, semconWhat unexpected waste of time can you find on a traditional production line?“A lack of tools at a station where several people are working. If there’s only one tool which a number of people need, of course that means that one of them has to wait until the other is finished.”

olaf büttner, purchasing and quality manager, andritz in växjö.Product development without tech-nological advances, is it possible?“Yes, we refine our products and their functionality every year. The work is carried out in project form and we place great emphasis on safety and environmental aspects, to make it easier for the operating per-sonnel. An example is with an older drier. We’ve developed an automatic ejection system, which the operator previously had to do manually.”

sara nilsson, interaction designer, semconHow do you update a functional interface without confusing the user?“First you have to understand the user’s mental image of the system. You have to keep that logic: you can’t, for example, change the pedal configuration in a car. If there’s a clear visual identity, you don’t deviate too much from that, either. If the pictu-re is clear for you, you can improve a lot while persuading the user at the same time.”

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Innovations are moving the boundaries regarding what new technology can do. But

the winners of the future could be those who simply improve on what they already have. The challenge is to do more – but with less.

TEXT MARCUS OLSSON

C lick! Psssch...! The cap is re-moved from the glass bottle. Small bubbles rush out of the small opening and the contents are emptied. This is happening in countless plac-es across the world at exactly this moment.

A soft drink is opened and someone drinks it. For example, 1.8 billion Coca-Cola drinks

are sold every day. This is more than 20 000 soft drinks per second. The company has an-nual sales of 35 billion euros. But it could have made more. With less. Just like many other companies in any other industry. The key to success may lie in refining existing technol-ogy. At a time when many are focusing on entirely new technology, the winners of the future could be those who focus on efficiency.

“Our research shows that ‘more out of less’ is one of the solutions to many of the challenges of the future,” says Professor Steve Evans at Cambridge University in the UK.

He is director of the EPSRC Centre for Inno-

vative Manufacturing in Industri-al Sustainability.

“How do you do more with less? This is what we scientists call efficiency or eco-efficiency, which implies that we shouldn’t change our products or factory technologies radically.”

The solution is not always looking at the competition and industry leaders or finding the next big technological break-through.

“We need to ask ourselves the question: how much can we achieve with what we already have?”

ASTRA ZENECA is the world’s seventh largest pharmaceutical company in terms of revenue. The company’s plant in Södertälje last year accounted for production to an export value of 4.4 billion euros. This represents more than 3% of all Swedish exports.

Just like all its competitors Astra Zeneca

is working on optimizing pro-duction.

“We have not looked at any new technology, but we have been working to refine what we already have,” says Peter Alvars-son, who is Head of Operational Excellence & Lean.” Primarily, we haven’t changed any equip-ment and haven’t automated things, but we have improved the way we use our machines.”

The company had previous-ly had a low utilization rate of its production machines, many

stoppages in production and loss of time because of this. Since 2003, the company has used the Lean methodology in its manufac-turing process.

“By reviewing our approach, we have re-duced our losses in terms of both material flow and machine utilization, for example, through more standardized work and reduc-tion in set-up time with product changes. We

“Our research shows that ‘more out of less’ is one of the solutions to many of the challenges of the future. How do you do more with less?”

Steve Evans, Cambridge University, UK

FOCUS:DOING MORE WITH LESS

Steve Evans at Cambridge University in the UK.Photo: Matti Immonen.


have reduced setup times by 75–90%. What took ten hours previously takes an hour and a half today. One example is the change in the packaging of the Turbuhaler inhaler, which took four hours before, and now we’re down to just one hour.”

Peter Alvarsson makes a comparison with the world of sport.

“It’s about being more synchronized and coordinated. It’s similar to when the mechan-ics in the pits change the tyres on a Formula 1 car. Everyone knows what they’re doing, they have their own roles, they are a team and don’t run around aimlessly. We started reviewing roles to find out how to do differ-ent things on the smartest possible way. It’s about the interaction between man, material and machine.”

AstraZeneca’s facility in Södertälje is one of the largest pharmaceutical factories in the world. 3 000 people work here, in roles includ-ing production, packaging and quality control.

The company has 3 400 different prod-ucts in the areas of active ingredients, liquid

formulations, tablets, capsules and inhalers. Between 2006 and 2011 costs decreased by approximately 40%. Meanwhile, production of Turbuhaler, which is one of its most im-portant products, increased from 60 000 to 230 000 units per employee annually.

ALONGSIDE multi-million investments in emerging technologies and new products, the company has made annual investments of between 50 and 70 million euros in its own factories.

“The main innovation lies in the drugs themselves, not directly in their production. What we have done in recent years is to be-come more of an industry. In the past, people used to say somewhat unkindly that ‘pharma-ceutical manufacturing was only an upscaled laboratory,” says Alvarsson.

Inspiration has come from industries other than the pharmaceutical.

“Other industries that have been competitive for a long time worked smarter and with more employee involvement in their efforts to im-

prove. They created a new corporate culture that we wanted to follow. The pharmaceutical indus-try was previously immature and not as exposed to competition. We started this process because we wanted to do things differently and better, not due any outside pressure. Today there is greater competition, and so it has obviously been an advantage to do this at an early stage.”

THE TRUCK MANUFACTURER SCANIA, also located in Södertälje, has become an important partner.

“They are undoubtedly good at working with lean methodology. Through good contacts, collaborations and a number of new managers who previously worked at Scania, we work with lean methodology in an even more structured way now,” Alvarsson says, continuing:

“We ourselves have described how we want to work as ‘more for less’. We want to grow and get more out of our facilities by making use of what we already have and eliminating losses and wastage. It’s not about rebuilding, and using new technologies, but more about ways of working and leadership.”

AstraZeneca has been working with the Lean methodology in its manu-facturing process since 2003. This has reduced the amount of production downtime and increased utilization. Photo: Colourbox.


Magnus Persson works in production development at Semcon in Göteborg. He has

extensive experience of improvement work within the industry and uses a va-riety of methods and tools to eliminate

losses and standardize approaches. But it is equally important to create learning organization to spread good examples.

“One of the major loss areas within the industry is material supply,” says Magnus Persson. “There are businesses

with products consisting of thousands of items which are not delivered pre-sorted into production and where employees spend a lot of time looking for materials - quite unnecessarily.”

Daily management, which can

Magnus Persson on how less waiting increases profits Trouble-free production without bottlenecks is the goal of most businesses. But sometimes they are all affected by problems which require urgent action. Constant work to eliminate bottle necks and find areas of loss before these problems become acute increases both control and reliability.TEXT FLORENCE OPPENHEIM PHOTO LARS ARDARVE

THE EXPERT

Magnus PerssonTitle: Senior Engineer, Production ManagementOffice: Semcon Sweden

achieve things such as solving problems before they reach production is another area with great improvement potential, as well as balancing the production flow.

“Achieving a well-balanced production with no need to wait or being forced to put up buffers is a key ingredient of an efficient production flow.”

The core issue for customers is usually wanting to improve their general profita-bility, or wanting to improve lead-times because there is not time to deliver according to the contract with the end customers. Developing a new product or production environment, or analyzing the entire process from market to end customer, are other areas.

“I’ve worked on a lot of projects involv-ing both new products and new capabil-ity, but also on rationalization of various kinds, such as the standardization of components to minimize the number of items used in production.”

A new assignment always begins with a current situation analysis using proven industrial methodology. Persson defines, measures and documents all the activities, layouts, and equipment involved in order to obtain a measurable model and understand the value of the different parts.

“My work is very much about iden-tifying value-adding and non-value adding activities in the production work and its processes. It could, for example, mean that you review how workstations, equipment and premises are used.”

The analysis is then put into a meas-urable model, which forms the basis of a needs analysis and a vision of what the client wants to achieve.

“Using the user’s vision and the cur-rent situation analysis I can define and propose solutions that the customer should consider. I’m often also part of the work at the planning phase and in real projects where the improvements that the customer decides on are implement-ed,” says Magnus Persson. 1


Other pharmaceutical companies are thinking in the same way as Astra Zeneca, according to Mark Milstein, a professor at Cornell University in the U.S. He is also an external advisor in one of the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson’s expert groups.

“I’m reviewing one of their programs, called Earth Words. It’s to do with improving their products, technologies and business model. They have thousands of products, and we go through them constantly in order to find ways of improving, and simplifying procedures. It has become an internal competition within the company and has created a positive and com-petitive atmosphere. Employees themselves get to assess processes and the actual products from a variety of perspectives to see where there are development opportunities. The group that I am part of gets to see the propos-als when they are at their final stage and that’s where we come in with our input and feedback.”

This work is carried out at a detailed level. “I can’t comment too much due to cor-

porate confidentiality. But one example is

one of their medicines where it could be said that it was completely ‘broken down’ and all content reviewed. Afterwards, they were able to reduce material costs by nearly 60% since much of the content had proved superfluous. Half of the product was removed whilst its quality and medical effects increased. Fur-thermore, they could reduce the price and at the same time increase their own profit.”

Mark Milstein works closely with sev-eral other large companies and has done so for over 20 years. Often he uses students at Cornell on various projects to study the com-panies internally. This may involve different sustainability issues, socio-economic chal-lenges, environmental issues, exploring new market opportunities and anything which creates more revenue for them.

His theory is that the largest potential for development is usually staring the manufac-turers in the face.

“It often involves streamlining design and production. That’s how you get more out of less. Once you have made progress and reached the improvement target, the next step is that you are suddenly able to meet new require-ments that were previously impossible because the cost was too high or because the supply chain was too long, slow or complicated.”

THE COCA-COLA COMPANY does a lot, but can do even more with what it already has.

In Coke’s case, for example, it can in-

“Suddenly you are able to meet new requirements that were previously impossible because the cost was too high or because the supply chain was too long, slow or complicated.”Mark Milstein, professor at Cornell University, USA


Mark Milstein, professor at Cornell University, USA. Photo: Cornell University Photography.


crease profit margins by reviewing the de-sign of the packaging. The brewery Adnams in the UK has already succeeded in this. Their drinks are nowadays packaged in light-weight bottles which weigh 37% less than the industry standard.

Coca-Cola, for its part, is the world’s larg-est beverage company and wields enormous power and the potential to change not only its own manufacturing process, but also the environmental impact on the entire globe.

Steve Evans is a professor at Cambridge University and co-author of the research reports “Next Manufacturing Revolution” and “Industrial Sustainability Report”. The reports examine, among many other things, the challenges and opportunities in product development and the proper use of resources.

“Companies and industries with the vol-ume of the Cola-Cola Company and with a similar global reach have something that smaller companies don’t. Potentially, they can completely transform the infrastruc-ture of the system they are a part of. They have such huge financial resources that they

have the opportunity to experiment with business models far away from their core business.”

BETWEEN 2003 AND 2013, the Coca-Cola Com-pany’s revenues increased from 15 billion to 35 billion euros.

In some areas there are already processes in place which benefit Coca-Cola’s production, according to Evans. Such as the processing of empty bottles and cans in certain countries. There, consumers are rewarded by getting money back when they recycle their used

products and manufacturers have the oppor-tunity to buy back the recycled raw material for their production.

“Those on the right side of the equation can become dominant forces in their indus-try. Take my own glasses – the ones I have on right now – as an example. The tech-nology behind the production of the glasses is hugely advanced, but when I’ve finished with them they are recycled and at best they are used in asphalt, or a drinking glass. In other words, something very expensive and valuable has turned into a tiny piece

“It often involves streamlining design and production. That’s how you get more out of less.”

Mark Milstein, professor at Cornell University, USA

The development of the Coca-Cola bottle, 1899-2007. Large volumes mean that the package affects the environment around the entire globe. Photo: Coca-Cola.



Work measurement is a power-ful production tool. By care-fully going in and mapping

out all activities in production you can quantify time used on value-adding and

non-value adding activities, but also in different disruptions in production. The results are used to prioritize which dis-ruptions or wastes of time are the most important things to fix. Semcon offers

expertise not only in work measurement, but also in training and is also a supplier of time and motion study equipment.

“Time and motion studies are an effec-tive method to find opportunities for im-

“Customers have reduced their lead-time by 20% with our help”He is a genius at finding time savings in production processes.“All non-value adding time can be translated into lower costs and shorter lead-times, by better designing the workplace or using more suitable tools, for example,” says Peter Gartmark.TEXT FLORENCE OPPENHEIM PHOTO ANDERS LIPKIN

THE EXPERT

Peter GartmarkTitle: Team Leader within production developmentOffice: Semcon Sweden

provement,” says Peter Gartmark, group manager within product engineering at Semcon in Karlstad. “We measure all the activities in a process, both the time it takes to assemble the different parts but also, for example, fetching tools or asking a colleague for advice.”

An example of non-value-added time is putting a washer on a nut a number of times every day, when the washer could have been attached to the nut from the start. Value-adding time is things which help increase the value of the product.

“We have examples of customers who have reduced their lead-time by 20% with our help.”

After the time measurement, Peter Gartmark separates the various activities and analyzes which have the greatest potential for improvement. This result is then used to make a list of priorities with suggestions on how to, for example, design a better workplace to minimize installation time and thus shorten the lead-time.

Another important part of Gartmark’s work is identifying opportunities to reduce set-up times. Waiting times can consist of fetching materials, changing tools or cleaning machines. This im-provement work looks at both when the machine is in operation - external set-up time - and when it is stationary - internal set-up time.

“We use the tool SMED - Single Min-ute Exchange of Die - which strives to minimize internal set-up time to one minute. A simple measure, for example, is ensuring that the necessary tools are already in place and not waiting until the machine has stopped.”

Some unnecessary time loss is easy to eliminate, others require the redesign of equipment or tools.

“We use the time as a time-saving and therefore as a basis for investment. If it takes an hour to change a tool, in practice one hour when the machine is stationary, and we can cut that time to half an hour with a new tool design, then the half-hour saved can be registered as revenue in a capital budget.” 1


of road. We must find ways to reward the people who created the glasses, perhaps by customers sending back their used specta-cles to the manufacturer. Or maybe I could exchange them for a new pair at the opti-cian’s. One solution could bring enormous competitive advantages.”

The power of large companies also means that they could have a great positive environ-mental impact. Here, Coca-Cola is a long way ahead of many of its competitors, according to Milstein.

“About ten years ago, they began to think in a new and different way. It’s a hard thing to do with existing staff, so what they did was to hire new people in roles that had never existed before. There were anthropolo-gists, biologists, and other “interesting” peo-ple who had nothing to do with Coca-Cola at all, really. They put them in a New York office and told them to ‘find out which trends are the most important. Not now – but in the future.’ And not just regarding people drinking soft drinks.”

“Long before many companies involved in production ran into problems with the water supply in developing countries, Coca-Cola had identified the challenges and prepared for

what they would mean. They had a head start on everyone else in the industry. This meant that they could adjust their production there in an effective way. They began with the idea of reducing treatment risks, which incurred high costs. They ended up by discovering new ways of working.”

IN THE AUTOMOTIVE industry there is a constant battle to stay ahead of the competition – and at the same time attain ever-increasing envi-ronmental standards. Dan Flores at General Motors has spoken about one of the hottest topics. A change is slowly happening under-neath the bonnet of the cars of the future.

“Massive efforts are being made to stream-line the internal combustion engine, as it will be with us for many decades to come. At GM, one of our strategies is to do a lot of work on “downsizing”, including introducing smaller turbo engines. They have the performance of a larger engine but use less fuel,” says Flores.

But while General Motors is talking about the future, its competitor BMW is looking to the present. They are already extremely advanced. The company has invested over 300 million euros in improving its engine manufacture. One aspect is in the use of

lightweight materials. Manfred Poschenrieder is the BMW spokesperson:

“The entire automotive industry has to redesign its strategies because of future emis-sions requirements. Therefore, BMW has tak-en a broad approach and introduced a brand new ‘family’ of engines, with six-, four-and three-cylinder engines based on our Efficient Dynamics technology.”

Steve Evans: “BMW’s i3 engine is really interesting

because it sends out a completely new signal about the high level of innovation that can be achieved within a car. No matter how fuel-ef-ficient your engine is, it still has to be able to make the car go. And the car weighs more than the driver and passengers. The majori-ty of the engine’s power goes on moving the car, rather than the people in it. If you make the car lighter, this ratio changes drastical-ly. BMW is currently at the forefront of this development. They are one of many vehicle manufacturers finding ways to squeeze out more and more efficiency out of daily car use. 20 years ago this was unthinkable.”

The goal is to produce a car that is incred-ibly powerful when necessary – and ener-gy-efficient when power is not needed.

“An interesting way of working is, in the middle of a manufacturing process, selling the product in order to buy it back later – all before it even leaves the factory.”

Steve Evans, Cambridge University, UK



“The transition to more electronic engine systems enables us to understand even more about combustion and changing parts in the process. This allows us to develop engines which can be both a monster and a small kit-ten. When engine construction was only about mechanical design, this was an impossibility,” says Evans.

DOING MORE WITH LESS is an approach that has been part of the furniture industry for more than half a century. Ikea has built its entire business on it.

“Ikea has found ways to build up small pieces of wood to form good, clean, structural elements. I mean furniture. You can genuinely say that they make the most of their material, because they use as much as possible of the trees they get their material from.”

The Danish company Vitsoe is not as well-known but just as good at the same thing, according to Evans.

“When I met their new owner Mark Ad-ams, I received his business card. On the back it said ‘Buy less’. Vitsoe makes extremely beautiful furniture, which is also modular. The customer buys as much material as is required, and can then gradually add to the

furniture over time. In many ways it’s very similar to Lego. If you bought a Vitsoe shelf in 1960, it’s fully compatible with anything you can buy today. Nothing needs to be thrown away.”

The power industry has very different challenges. There, companies often have older facilities. They are constantly trying to opti-mize existing production and proven technol-ogy to deliver more energy. The energy sector has huge untapped potential. Particularly in the U.S., argues Mark Milstein.

“The entire industry is almost a stranger to innovation. They want to rationalize because they are forced to meet certain regulatory requirements and laws. However, they don’t do more than they have to, simply because there is not sufficient incentive for it. There is a lot they can do by repositioning assets. People’s awareness of energy efficiency and consumption has increased, but the big com-panies – at least in the U.S. – do not do much to allow people to modify and improve their behaviour.”

NEW BUSINESS MODELS are other future solu-tions, according to Steve Evans at Cambridge.

“The first challenge is to understand how

effective you can be right now. You also have to wear the right ‘glasses’ when reviewing your own production. When you step into the factory, you have to look at the processes, energies and resources wasted. You also have to take care of that waste. And this requires new business models. This is a tendency I’m seeing today,” says Evans.

He mentions Dow and 3M as examples. Both companies work closely with many of the largest vehicle manufacturers.

“An interesting way of working is, in the middle of a manufacturing process, selling the product in order to buy it back later – all before it even leaves the factory. Dow and 3M are involved in, among other things, paint-ing cars, and in their case it may be that they buy an unpainted car body on the produc-tion line, paint it and then sell it back to the same vehicle manufacturer. Imagine that everything is done under one roof – in the same factory. Dow and 3M then have an in-centive to use as little paint as possible. They simply have to see what they can do to get as much money as possible back when the body is painted. It’s things like that which power development. And it’s really about doing more with less. 1

BMW’s new i3 engine is a major leap for-ward. At the same time it can be just as im-portant to influence external factors, such as weight and aerodynamic drag, reducing fuel consumption and increasing performance. Photo: BMW.




An almost forty-year-old hydroelectric power station had to be upgraded for the 21st century. So Semcon was called in to give the power station a fresh start. TEXT JOHAN LARSSON PHOTOS JENS L’ESTRADE

NEW LIFE FOR POWER STATION


The Fortum hydropower plant in Landafors between Söder-hamn and Bollnäs needed modernizing. The monitor-ing equipment dated from 1976 when the plant was built, which made it difficult and awkward for mainte-

nance personnel to troubleshoot if something happened, and maintenance required a lot of manual work. It was also very difficult to find replacement parts if any part of the equip-ment broke. Semcon’s hydropower depart-ment was commissioned to tear out all the old wiring and electrical equipment and build new, modern electrical and control equipment for the station.

“The control system controls and mon-itors the entire power station. Monitoring

is a very large and important aspect of this kind of power station because the station is unmanned and run via satellite from a control centre in Stockholm,” says Semcon’s Johan Nolander, technical manager on the project.

A CONTROL SYSTEM in a hydroelectric plant consists of thousands of cables, switches, relays and other electrical functions, which are all linked together to form a function-ing whole. For the most important systems, such as the power supply to the power plant machinery, there are several different backup systems which can provide redundancy if one or more of the systems is knocked out. If the power plant is left completely without power, it is imperative that the relapse doors can be opened. Therefore, the station in Landafors has both a diesel generator and battery power

to revert to should both of the dual systems for external power supply be down. These functions alone require hundreds of metres of cable.

Semcon engineers started from the draw-ing board to design the new system, work that forms a major part of a project like this. The design itself took about six months.

“We at Semcon have a basic concept to start from, but it always has to be adjusted to match the existing power plant. The basis of all power plants is the same - there is a turbine and a generator, but after that a lot of things differ from station to station. And there are also different components to main-tain and replace in different projects,” says Nolander.

When the control system is designed, the blueprints are sent to a contractor, who builds


the electrical cabinet with the measurement systems, connections and the specific appara-tus that will later control the power station’s functions. The job of the control system is to control the amount of water discharged to the turbine, control and manage the power and voltage of the electric power generated by the power plant’s generator. It is extremely im-portant that the electrical power sent to the power grid is of the right quality to maintain balance and power quality in the grid.

HYDROPOWER STATIONS in Sweden are used today as regulating power, which means that when electricity use goes up and down in a community, or other power sources experi-ence irregular production, the power company can increase or decrease the effectiveness of its hydropower plants to compensate for these fluctuations. This is how the grid ensures a steady quality of power. Hydropower works well as a regulating power because you can easily control its effect with how much water is let through, and it can also store power for

later in the form of water in the power plant’s dams. Today, when renewable energy such as wind, solar and wave power is becoming more common, providing an irregular power supply, more regulating power is required.

When the components of the system have been designed and built, it is time to assem-ble them in the power plant and then connect everything. Then everything is rigorously tested.

“Every single cable has to be tested before it is put into service. So we test every single wire and connection individually and mark it with green pencil on the design,” says Göran Urby, Semcon project manager.

WHEN EVERYTHING has been approved and all the signals in and out of the control system are tested, the moment of truth for the pro-ject team approaches, when the power plant is put into operation with the new system for the first time.

“Test driving and deploying this kind of power station is an extremely stressful situa-

tion. You have to have been involved in a lot of projects to handle it,” says Göran Urby.

“Of course it’s stressful. But it’s a glorious feeling when you succeed. Getting it to work really gives you a buzz,” says Nolander.

Fortum’s hydropower plant in Landafors was launched approximately a year after the start of the project. The launch of the new control system was successful.

“It turned out to be an excellent power station. Often there are certain teething prob-lems when you’ve ripped out everything and put in the new control systems. But nothing like that happened. It’s quite unique. We’re very pleased with this,” says Robert Bronegård of Fortum, head commissioner of the project.

“The only problem is that the operating staff hasn’t had the opportunity to practice trouble-shooting with the new system,” he adds.

He is backed up by his colleague, Bertil Planeskog, a maintenance engineer at Fortum.

“There has been surprisingly few alarms or problems. The end product was incredibly functional. It ticks over and works around the

“The end product was incredibly functional. It ticks over and works around the clock with no problems.”

Bertil Planeskog, maintenance engineer, Fortum



Göran UrbyManager, Hydropower, Semcon

Bertil PlaneskogMaintenance Engineer, Fortum, head of hydropower plants in Hälsingland

Robert BronegårdProject supervisor, main

commissioner, Fortum

Lars Thyr Resource Coordinator,

Fortum

clock with no problems. This is a tribute to Semcon’s responsiveness throughout the pro-ject. All power stations have their own quirks so it’s impossible to make a routine. And that’s what I think was the best thing about the Semcon staff - they’ve been responsive and supportive of various wishes and ideas during the time,” he says.

Semcon has worked with Fortum in the hydropower field for many years.

“Working with Fortum is great as we’ve worked with them for a long time. We worked together even before they were called Fortum. This means that we’ve got to know them and their business well and have created rela-tionships with different people at Fortum. Everything comes down to the fact that we understand each other. Therefore our projects will prove good business for both parties,” says Göran Urby, who himself has worked in hydropower for the past seven years.

WITH THE NEW control system in place in Landafors, Fortum has a fully computerized monitoring system which service personnel can access through a computer in the con-trol room.

“In the past, we haven’t even had a station or plant computer. We were completely blind. Now we can easily see everything from water flow to the temperatures and reactions within the power plant,” says Bronegård.

“Once there’s a problem, operating per-sonnel can go in and see exactly what has

happened. It’ll be easier to troubleshoot. For example, you could see trends regarding what happened a year ago. Before, monitoring ca-pabilities weren’t great. Then, you had to go and read by a meter by hand to see what was happening in the machine,” says Nolander.

“It’s really gratifying to be able to get a background about what’s happened and is happening,” says Planeskog.

LANDAFORS WAS THE THIRD project for Johan Nolander where the entire control equipment was replaced. In between these major projects, there are smaller projects of a different nature. As an electrical engineer, he sees hydroelec-tric as a really exciting area.

“It’s an interesting process, how it works, and you learn new things all the time. You meet new challenges all the time. No plants are the same,” he says, and is backed up by his Semcon colleague Göran Urby.

“There’s an amazingly fascinating world hiding within these buildings. It’s exciting,” he says. 1

About: LandaforsThe station in Landafors is an overground sta-tion with a bulb-turbine unit in a Kaplan style, directly connected to the generator. This type of turbine is spindle-shaped and sits horizontally instead of vertically, which is the most common arrangement. This design is suitable for power plants with a relatively low vertical fall, such as Landafors. The plant is relatively small, with an average annual production of 56 GWh per year, compared with Sweden’s largest hydropower plant, Harsprånget on the Lule river, which pro-duces 2 131 GWh per year on average.

THE SOLUTIONHOW SEMCON SOLVED THE CUSTOMER’S PROBLEM

THE ASSIGNMENT: Ascom gave Semcon the assignment of being involved in the development of an ergonomic and functional wireless alarm transmitter for hospital patients and residents of nursing homes. To make the transmitter more attractive for the patients to wear, it also had to be designed so that it did not look like an alarm or a care tool.

THE SOLUTION: Semcon contributed design, form and elements of plastic construction. The design is stylistically pure and the choice of materials elegant. The alarm transmitter is adaptable so that the wearer can easily customize the design by replacing different elements on the transmitter. The distinctive button in the middle makes the alarm very clear and easy to use.

THE RESULT: The finished product is more like a piece of jewellery than an alarm. The desirability of the alarm will help patients in hospitals and residents of nursing homes to have more freedom of movement without a compromising their safety. The alarm was recently awarded the prestigious international prize Red Dot Design Award 2014.TEXT JONAS FRANZÉN PHOTOS ASCOM

A more personal alarm transmitter


PERSONALIZED CUSTOM COLOURS

The button in the middle, ring around the button and the buckle around the wrist strap can be changed. It enables wearers to change the alarm according to personal taste. This customizability can also be used by nursing staff to discreetly highlight which ward a patient belongs to. Another advantage of the ability to change colours is that the alarm can be tailored to colour codes according to the country you are in. The usual colour for an alarm, for exam-ple, can vary from country to country.

CUSTOMIZABLE

It is possible to replace the wrist strap with a fastening to hold a string to wear around your neck. In this way, the alarm can be worn either around the neck or on the wrist, ac-cording to what best suits the user.

CLEAR

The alarm button in the middle is dis-tinctly designed and intuitively easy to find. The pared-down design, without unnecessary elements, means that the wearer doesn’t have to look for the but-ton or risk pressing the wrong thing.

CONTROL ASSISTANCE

The small ring around the button in the centre has a double function. It partly protects it so that the alarm button cannot be pressed by mistake and also makes it easier to access the alarm button when it is needed.

SAFE

The transmitter around the wrist has a number of smart functions which make it safe. When no pulse can be detected or if it is removed it sends an alarm to care staff. It can also be permanently locked onto people with dementia to reduce the risk of the alarm being removed.

STYLISH

Streamlined, and using elegant materials, it seems as if the product resembles a piece of jewellery more than an alarm. This makes it more attractive to wear. The idea behind the design was to make a product that looks styl-ish and modern looking.

HI-TECH

Behind the elegant facade there is a highly-technical product. The system has two-way radio communication and all transmitters are continuously monitored to check that they are functioning. Alarms from patients or residents are sent directly to the relevant staff to quickly make them aware of the summons and the user’s position.



In the automotive industry, they’ve been around for years – service schedules where every function is explained on one page, instead of spread about on a num-ber of pages. The step from the world of vehicles to other areas has taken time,

but two years ago Semcon launched a service schedule for other industries.

“While today’s technological products are becoming more effective, technical materials have become increasingly difficult to read for service technicians. Normal instructions are not always suitable for the aftersales market. If you discover that a function isn’t wor-king, with the new service schedules you go

directly to a single function – saving both time and money,” says Helen Ekelöf, a Semcon diagnostics engineer. She is the person taking all the old available designs and redrawing them according to the new model.

“First, together with the customer, we create a standard design for service schedu-les, then we draw up flows for each function. This can actually be used for anything with an electrical functionality – robots, process plants, machinery – but the more complex the system, the greater the saving,” she says.

As many people use these function designs in their day-to-day work, a lot of time is wasted in leafing through the large manuals to

see what the connections look like. In addi-tion to being very time-consuming and inef-ficient, it also makes the training period for new employees unnecessarily long.

ALONGSIDE Atlas Copco, Semcon has deve-loped a pilot diagnostic tool for drilling rigs. The tool was tested during a workshop and the difference was striking.

“We selected a number of different service technicians from Norway and Sweden, and divided them into two groups. They were then instructed to perform a diagnostic on drilling rigs with the exact same problem. One group had to troubleshoot using the new service

DO YOU KNOW WHERE THIS CABLE GOES?

Multi-page instructions on the same piece of paper and more of everything when it comes to detailed

information. Semcon’s new interactive service schedules are the service technicians’ equivalent of

the Swiss army knife – all in the one tool.TEXT OLIVIA KRANTZ PHOTOS ATLAS COPCO & ANNA TÄRNHUVUD


About: Service schedules≠ By combining service schedules according to function, 6-8 pages of drawings can be compressed into one page. ≠ With the new service schedules, technical faults can be fixed in half the time compared to repairs with a standard diagnostic tool. ≠ Faster access to specific information.

≠ Faster fixes mean greater efficiency and money saved. ≠ The training period for new technologies reduces. There is greater opportunity for new technicians to do their job as quickly as experienced technicians. ≠ With clearer and more transparent manuals, technicians can perform more advanced tasks, which previously required specialized skills.

Helen EkelöfDiagnostics engineer, Semcon

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manual and the other with their regular manuals. After the exercise, we found that it was 20% quicker to find faults with the new service manuals. The ones who benefited most were the less experienced technici-ans. I can see great potential in being able to put greater detail in troubleshooting guides for our more advanced products, as we can then also help the more experienced service technicians,” says Kreso Milic, product ma-nager for the diagnostic tool at Atlas Copco Rock Drills.

In recent years he has seen drilling rigs develop from simple drills with certain automation to more advanced robotic machines that run on autopilot and drill by themselves according to a predetermined grid pattern.

“Today we have the technology to log on to machines wirelessly to extract informa-tion. It’s a completely different situation compared to ten years ago, but it also places greater demands on our service technician to know about a lot of different technolo-gies,” says Milic.

In this case, the pilot scheme was for drilling rigs used above ground, but the idea is that Atlas Copco’s diagnostic tools will be widely used, for everything from drills above ground to loaders and trucks in mines. The final service schedule will be interactive and designed for computers with touch screens.

“For example, we will have more specific information you can click on in each part of the schedule, something that will make things even simpler for the engineers,” says Milic.

THE INTERACTIVE ASPECT alone is a very large advantage over traditional tools. With vir-tual manuals, there is almost no limit to the functions which can be added, compared to a printed pdf. The schedules can be cus-tomized to become multi-functional, and work on tablets, computers and have a touch function.

“If you put the service schedule on a web portal, you can add links and other features. For example, you can get a quick overview of where a particular component is. In tradi-tional functional drawings we don’t specify this – just the underlying functionality,” says Helen Ekelöf.

Another advantage of the interactive version is that it is also possible to get the whole thing in every language. In addition, you can add part numbers and other specific information directly to the drawings. A bit like a Swiss army knife – all the vital facts are easily accessible in one place.

The finished tool is expected to enter service at Atlas Copco before the summer.

“Our first test with the pilot involved a fairly simple fault, but if we think of slightly more complex faults, I’m confident that we will be able to save significantly more time in the future,” says Kreso Milic. 1


GADGETS WE LIKE

SMART WATCHPEBBLE

The Pebble smart watch has become a major crowdfunding success. The idea was to have a watch as an extended arm of your smartphone, for example, showing notifications when you receive emails or miss calls and tracking your social media interactions. The watch itself runs on its own operating sys-tem – Pebble OS – which can communicate with both iOS and Android phones through Bluetooth.

STONE-POWERED CLOCKGRAVITYLIGHT

A lamp powered by stones? Yes – the crowdfunded Gra-vity Light is just as simple as it sounds. Simply by using gravity, a motor generates current to power a LED light. Hang up a nine-kilogram weight, and you get light for 30 minutes. The project is aimed at developing countries with inadequate power supply.

VIRTUAL REALITY GLASSESOCULUS RIFT

Imagine a large pair of ski goggles with displays in front of the eyes and a large range of sensors, connected to a small box. By connecting all these sensors your field of view changes depen-ding on how you turn your head and move - the 90’s fad for ”virtual reality” is here for real. The target of USD 250 000 was reached in four hours – in total almost USD 2.5 million was raised.

SMART CHECK ON YOUR HOUSECANARY

Measure temperature, humidity and noise levels - and keep track of what’s going on in your house, even when you’re not home. By linking a household’s mobile phones with the Canary unit the system learns who is who, and you can clearly see when your family member are home or out. If you have pets, you can watch them directly on your smartphone.

... which are crowdfunded – launched by small players where individuals can

find about the idea and then choose to support the project. Kickstarter.com

is the website with the most and best-known crowdfunding projects.

“The Pebble smart watch has become a major crowdfunding success.”

DOORBELLSKYBELL

Leave your home, but still be in. The SkyBell doorbell lets you see who’s calling at the door no matter where you are, by connecting to your wireless network and dialling up your smartphone. In addition, the built-in microphone and speaker allow you to talk to whoever’s at the door.


Q&A GUY HOFFMANROBOT EXPERT

Do you occasionally need a shoulder to cry on or someone to enjoy listening to music with? Dr Guy Hoffman’s research shows that robots can fill these roles. His robots can act on stage, improvise jazz, and react sympathetically to your troubles in a way that is unmistakeably human.

It was when Guy Hoffman pro-grammed the little automated camera on wheels to whine like a dog that he first understood the effect robots could have on people. Hoffman was working in a computer lab at Tel Aviv Uni-versity as a graduate student in the late 1990s and the little robot was the lab’s new toy. The robot could look for an object, such as a ball, and then move towards it,

but once there it had no way of picking it up. So Hoffman programmed it to whine like a dog when it reached the ball, and was struck by the reaction of visitors to the lab.

“They felt sorry for the robot,” he says. “Very compelling behaviour had been achieved with very simple tools and I understood for the first time the expressive and communicative power of robots.”

Today as Assistant Professor at the School of Communication at IDC Herzliya in Israel, and co-director of the IDC Media Innovation Lab, Hoffman is a leading figure in the field of human-robot interaction. He spoke to Future to discuss why a robot’s appearance is less impor-tant than the way it moves, how robots could help victims of violence, and the benefits of making robots hallucinate.

Why is human-robot interaction an important topic for research?

There are lots of areas where robots could be of use. For example, populations are aging, and many elderly people would like to remain as inde-pendent as possible in their own homes, but there are not enough people to look after them. You can imagine that my grandmother would like to continue living at home, but there are things that are difficult for her to do, like standing on a chair to change a light bulb. So I believe we’re on the

TEXT DAVID WILES

PHOTO JONATHAN BLOOM


Guy HoffmanCurrent positions: Assistant Professor at the School of Communication at IDC Herzliya, Israel, and co-director of the IDC Media Innovation LabEducation: PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Tech-nology in Human-Robot Interaction, and an M.Sc. in Computer Science from Tel Aviv University. Also studied animation at Parsons School of Design in New York and Philosophy at the Hebrew University.Hobbies: Running, vegan cooking, woodworkingIf you could have a robot at home, what tasks would you want it to carry out? Definitely folding the laundry, my most hated of all chores.

TravisRobot


cusp of a new era where we will see robots in homes and offices, hospitals and schools, just like we have seen with computers. And if we are sharing our spaces with robots then it’s important to think about how those robots will behave and communicate how they want to work with us.

What are you aiming to achieve? What does the ideal human-robot interaction look like?

It should be an effortless dance. I want robots to be helpful in a quiet way that meshes with our own behaviour in a way that makes us feel that we’re connected to them. You know when you work with some-one you know and are accustomed to, and you both just know what to do and what to expect from each other? That kind of fluent choreography between humans and robots is the ideal.

What are the challenges to achieving this flu-ent choreography?

First of all, the robot has to have a good sense of what the human’s intentions are. Secondly, the robot needs to create its own behaviour in a way that meshes with the human’s behaviour. Thirdly, the robot has to

communicate its own internal state and its own intentions to enable the human to match its behaviour.

What technical solutions have you come up with to enable your robots to gauge a human’s behaviour?

The predictive part of my solution is not particularly complicated – it’s basically just using very standard statistical learning tech-niques to predict what the human will do. But the way my approach differs from tradition-al approaches is in how this prediction then

feeds into the rest of the robot’s behaviour. In one system I built I wondered what would happen if the prediction created a hallucina-tion in the robot’s “mind”. The robot behaves based on what it sees, but what if what it sees changes based on what it thinks is going to happen? So if the robot expects the human to move left, suddenly in the robot’s camera feed – its eyes – the human is seen as being further to the left than it actually is. What it actually sees is not just what comes in from the microphones and the cameras, but comes from its own anticipation of the human’s behaviour. It is a mixture of hallucination and reality, and it works surprisingly well.

What are the benefits for human-robot inter-action of having a “hallucinating” robot?

In some cases the benefits are an improve-ment in the efficiency of the cooperation, in others we don’t see any improvement. But in all cases we see that people rate the robot as being more intelligent, more trustworthy, more committed – all the things you want from a team member. When we asked the participants to write a few sentences about the robot, they used words like “he” and “she” instead of “it”.

Your smartphone dock robot, Travis, has a very appealing design. How important is design for the way we interact with a robot?

That robot was designed primarily around the way it moves, not the way it looks. When you take it out of the box people are not very impressed by it, but it is once it starts moving

What Guy Hoffman has learned about humans from building robots

1 HUMANS ARE VERY FAST LEARNERS.Whenever I do an experiment where a ro-

bot and a human cooperate, it’s very hard to set up the task in a way that the human doesn’t just take over instantly. Humans learn quickly and adapt quickly, and they are very good at carrying out sophisticated tasks.

2 OUR BIOLOGICAL MACHINERY IS AMAZING.When you build a robot you see how

robot behaviour and each movement is a huge engineering challenge, and you get a real appre-ciation of the beauty of our biological machinery.

Just think about how quiet our muscles are. Any motor that we build is loud and not that strong. And we have muscles that can lift a heavy weight without making any sound.

3 OUR BRAINS ARE WIRED FOR SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR.The smallest cues of social behaviour

that a robot shows – the little nods, the looks – make us immediately kick into our social mindset. It is very easy to trick humans into feeling social. That is why animation, theatre and movies work: we don’t need a lot to be-lieve that there is someone else on the other side.

Q&A GUY HOFFMANROBOT EXPERT

“I want robots to be helpful in a quiet way that meshes with our own behaviour in a way that makes us feel that we’re connected to them.”

Guy Hoffman, robot researcher


that people feel that it has a strong personal-ity, that it’s cute. When I designed this robot I started off with a very basic animation of simple cones and spheres to see how expres-sive I could get it to be. They are placed in a precise way to create a certain movement that expresses a certain personality, and now everybody thinks it is very nicely designed. But it is the way it moves that makes you feel a sense of engagement. People respond to it very strongly, which points towards the expressive power of robot movement, rather than design.

Do robots influence human behaviour? Definitely. My research recently looked at

sharing an experience with a robot. We used the robotic speaker dock and had people listen to music. In one case the robot would just act as a speaker, and in another the ro-bot would respond to the music as if it was enjoying it. When we asked people to rate the songs, they thought the song was better when the robot responded to it. So this is an example of the robot’s response influencing

the human response to an experience. Our research has also found that a person

who is relating negative events perceives a robot’s responsiveness in a similar way to how they perceive a human response – if they are attentive and caring, or distracted and uninterested.

In new research that we are now running we want to see if people will actually tell the robot more when they get a positive response. So the question we want to answer is: do peo-ple trust a robot when it seems responsive?

How could this knowledge be applied?Imagine someone in a nursing home telling

her life story to a robot, and the way the robot behaves could really change the way the per-son experiences their story. Or a person who was a victim of violence and is uncomfortable opening up to another person. Robots could be an interesting middle ground between being alone and being with somebody. You get the benefits of social responsiveness without the invasion of privacy or the danger of being

judged. Some people are disturbed by the fact that a person might have to talk to a robot, and I definitely don’t advocate replacing hu-man communication with this, but there are situations where human communication is just not possible.

How far can human-robot interaction go? Are there limits to the depth of interaction that can take place?

We should take any far-reaching claims about robotics with a grain of salt. The chal-lenges that remain are far greater than what we have achieved so far. It will take a lot of smart minds and great engineering to take these ideas into the real world. We should look at these studies, including my own, as the first blips on the radar of what human-ro-bot interaction can be. We are at the same place human psychology was at the beginning of the 20th century; we are seeing interesting patterns and we are setting up some theories about what they mean, but we have definitely not solved the challenges yet. 1


QOROS DID IT RIGHT FROM THE START


Last winter something unique was produced – the first car from a completely new car brand, the Chinese company Qoros. To make the car easy to service, Semcon has helped create a

whole new world of information.TEXT KARIN AASE PHOTOS QOROS AUTO ILLUSTRATION TOBIAS FLYGAR


A fter visiting several car mechanics, Mar-cus Jansson and his colleagues were lost in thought. They had seen how mechanics often had to spend far too much time trying to find

the information they needed to fix the car in front of them. They had seen how many digital instruction manuals, despite all the opportunities that modern web functionality offers, mostly featured page after page of text. They had seen that there was an opportunity to create something entirely new.

Fortunately, they also had the opportunity to do just that.

In 2007, three people in Shanghai had em-barked on something that had not taken place for many, many years. They were building up a new car brand from scratch: Qoros. And now Marcus Jansson, Håkan Andersson and Olle Lundgren would be a part of it. That’s why they were standing on the factory floor and thinking about how to create an information system offering the most optimal way to pro-vide information digitally.

MARCUS JANSSON IS an IT specialist at Sem-con in Trollhättan and was hired to coordi-nate all matters concerning IT systems and processes for Semcon’s deliveries to Qoros. When someone does something as unusual as building up a whole new car brand, you can’t do everything yourself – you need external partners. And since several people within Qoros’ top management had a background in the European automotive industry and had worked with Semcon before, they also wanted to involve Semcon with Qoros.

“I have a very simple philosophy,” explains Kevin Phelps, After Sales Director at Qoros.

“If we as manufacturers make everything easy for retailers and garages, they in turn will make everything easy for the end user, and it’s companies who do that which will be successful in the long run, regardless of the industry. Therefore, I wanted to use Semcon, as I’ve learned from collaborating with them over the past eight years that they understand the importance of this.”

ONE OF THE THINGS that Semcon therefore had responsibility for was developing Qoros’ service information: all the information that a garage may need to be able to service and repair a car.

“It can be anything from how to loosen a cer-tain screw, to how the entire electrical system looks,” explains Håkan Andersson, Semcon’s diagnostics team leader. However, responsibil-ity for the service information does not begin when the car is finished. Quite the contrary.

“There is a common misconception that the aftermarket is something you engage in when everything is finished, but if you want to make a car easy to repair or service, you have to think about these aspects when de-signing the car,” says Andersson.

Otherwise the risk is that operations that should be both simple and cheap become dif-ficult and expensive, or that the owner can’t even change a light bulb himself as the engine is in the way.

“We were therefore involved in the develop-ment phase to help develop the car’s servicea-bility, in other words that it should be designed in the most service-friendly manner possible.”

Normally, there are already routines for

this. However, Qoros is of course developing from scratch, and even if they have a lot of talented people they have no existing structures, and no ready answers.

“Everything was com-pletely blank,” remembers Andersson.

“Normally, you come in and maybe suggest certain changes to some details, but here we had to be proactive and come up with sugges-

tions for everything. It was a huge job to build up all these processes, but even if it’s given us some grey hairs it’s been so much more fun than anything else. This has been a challenge that I will never get to experience again, and it has been a privilege to be part of it.”

HOWEVER, THE VEHICLE’S serviceability was not the only thing that had to be taken care of – the content of the service information also needed to be produced. Also here, in planning how all of the information should be pre-sented, there were advantages to Qoros being completely new.

“Of course it’s been a challenge, but at the same time it’s been a luxury to be able to build up the information in the way that we think is ideal,” says Olle Lundgren, head of workshop information at Semcon in Trollhättan.

“A great number of older brands are un-fortunately locked into systems that were developed a long time ago and really need fundamental change, but this is associated with very large costs and is therefore much more difficult.”

In this case, Qoros had no such limita-tions and Olle Lundgren and his colleagues in Trollhättan, Göteborg, Kineton in the UK and

Kevin PhelpsAfter Sales Director, Qoros

“If we as manufacturers make everything easy for sellers and workshops, then they in turn will make everything easy for the end customer.” Kevin Phelps, After Sales Director, Qoros


Fakta: Semcons bidrag till QorosSemcon har förutom att utveckla serviceinformationen och dess portal även varit inblandade i flera andra delar av Qoros utveckling.

Owners Information Owner’s Manual Multi Media Hub Manual Service and Warranty Booklet Qoros Driver Portal E-manual Mobil Apps

Service Information Workshop Information Repair Procedures Labour Times End of Life Vehicle (ELV) Information Special Tools & Chemicals Guided Fault Tracing Wiring Diagrams Qoros Dealer Portal Service Information

Parts Information Parts Engineering Parts Catalogue content Menu Pricing packages Accessory Installation Instructions

Technical Training Classroom training courses E-learning products Train the Trainer

Warranty Strategy and policies support

Dealer start-up support in Slovakia IT system support

Qoros Auto has had help from Semcon in over 20 different product information areas.� Car owner information� Service information� Spare parts information� Training for service staff� Installation instructions for accessories� Support with warranty strategies and policies � Support in establishing resellers in Slovakia � IT systems support

IT systems support

Digital self-study products

Classroom- based servicing

courses

Training videos

Training of trainers

Support in establishing resellers in

Slovakia

User manuals

Service and warranty booklet

Service schedules

Installation instructions for

accessories

End of Life Vehicle (ELV) Information

Process times

Diagnosis and trouble-

shooting

Spare parts preparation

Contents of spare parts catalogue

Qoros reseller portal, service information

Garage information

Special tools and chemicals

Repair methods

Menu price system

Infotainment manual

Mobile apps

Qoros customer portal with digital

instruction manual

Support with warranty strategies and

policies


Shanghai, China could brainstorm freely, lean on their experience from other car brands and develop a system that would be as easy as possible to use for the end user.

And that’s why Marcus Jansson was standing thinking on the garage floor. Along with his colleagues, he was on a field trip to a number of garages to study how mechanics actually looked for information today, how it worked practically and how they would actu-ally like it to be.

BASED ON THIS preliminary work, they chose to develop a new web portal where garages were able to log in and get access to all the infor-mation they needed.

“For us, publishing digitally was not our primary concern, but we want to make it as easy as possible for individual mechanics to get exactly the information they need to re-pair or service the car,” explains Jansson.

“For this, modern web functionality is far superior. If you need to replace a fuel filter, just click on the link and get all the informa-tion you need. Meanwhile, you have a wealth of useful information just a click away, and if you want, for example, an overview of the entire fuel system in conjunction with a fil-ter change, you don’t have to leaf through a book – you just click on the link. This isn’t just a portal, it’s a whole world of islands of information which we have put together and created a context from.”

The foundation of the digital delivery is the Semcon cloud service “Lodges” which includes modern and user-friendly interfaces for different devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones. Moreover, Lodges is also an automated information distribution channel which continuously provides the different units with updated content.

“In this way we can ensure that mechanics at all times have access to the latest and most relevant information required to perform their work as efficiently as possible,” says Jansson.

Another feature of the new portal, which is also one of the basic functions of Lodges, is the mechanic’s ability to obtain car-specif-ic information by inputting the car’s chassis number. The system knows exactly how the car was built, and filters out any information not applicable to that particular car. If it has manual transmission, there is no reason for mechanics to read how to repair an automat-ic, and if there’s no sunroof that information does not need to appear.

“The risk of finding the wrong information has disappeared, and this is not only useful but also incredibly effective,” explains Jansson.

“Sticking my neck out, I’d say that this por-tal and the opportunities to consume informa-tion that it offers is something truly unique, and among the most advanced in the industry.

IT’S NOT JUST Marcus Jansson who is satisfied. Jan Enslow, After Sales Manager at Qoros, says that many who have seen the results have praised it, including himself.

“When we saw Semcon’s first suggestion on how to package all the information in an application, there was no question that this was something that everyone in the auto industry would like. The final results will be absolutely perfect!” 1

The web portal allows the technician to obtain car-specific information by entering the chassis number.

Olle Lundgren, head of garage information, Marcus Jansson, IT specialist and Håkan Andersson, diagnos-tics group manager.

Documentation is an im-portant part of the quality process. Unfortunately, the good intentions often dis-appear in paperwork and the inefficient use of resour-ces. For Andritz, in Växjö, a project regarding process efficiency with Semcon be-came a turning point. TEXT JOHAN JARNEVING

PHOTOS COLOURBOX & SEMCON

The factory in Växjö designs and manufactures driers for the pulp industry. This involves large machi-nes and the market is global. The company is part of the Austrian

technology group Andritz, with 23 000 em-ployees worldwide.

In the spring of 2012, documentation

requirements increased drastically. Among other things, the group implemented a new enterprise resource system.

“The requirements were now reduced for shipping units. Previously the requirements were at a higher level. The list of require-ments contains 150 predefined requirements and a dryer consists of almost 300 shipping units. It’s easy to see that the documen-tation was extensive,” says Olaf Büttner, purchasing and quality manager at Andritz in Växjö.

To meet these requirements and their own

productivity needs, Andritz started a project with Semcon.

“When we came in, the quality department was working with a check list and ticking off the requirements by hand. It worked but it was very time consuming. It could take up to five weeks’ full-time work for one person - per project!” says Carina Pettersson, technical project coordinator at Semcon, who was in charge of the Andritz project.

TOGETHER WITH A group working directly with documentation and IT at Andritz, Pettersson and Semcon analyzed workflow and resources.

“We discovered that much of the work was routine and ideal to automate. An Excel do-cument and a custom macro meant that five weeks of manual work could be done with the push of a button,” says Pettersson. THE SOLUTION ALSO INTRODUCED error checking, which has improved the quality of the work. Errors are discovered in time and can be add-ressed without significant staff resources.

“We enjoyed a good collaboration with Semcon regarding construction development in the past, and this efficiency project shows how beneficial it is to look at the business with an outsider’s eyes occasionally,” says Büttner. 1

Work more effectively at the push of a button

Carina Pettersson, technical project coordinator at Semcon, and Olaf Büttner, purchasing and quality manager at Andritz.



TEXT LINDA KARLSSON ELDH, JOHAN JARNEVING & JOHANNA LAGERFORS

PHOTOS ANNA SIGVARDSSON, ANDERS DEROS & LARS ARDARVE

SEMCON BRAINS


The interiors expert

JAN HINRICH MÜLLER is satisfied with his product only when it is safe, convenient, and comfortable - and, of course, fits stylistically with its environment. He is responsible for developing interior details, with an emphasis on door panels.

“The biggest challenge in my work is combining all the ergonomic as-pects with the safety requirements,” says Jan. “All drivers, regardless of their body size, should be able to sit

comfortably in a car, while still being able to withstand a severe side im-pact as well as possible.”

In cars from the 70s and 80s, door panels were usually manufactured from hardboard and only covered certain parts, while the door panels in today’s modern cars are padded, high-tech creations with up to 40 different components.

“Nowadays it’s very important that the car’s interior looks to be

moulded from one piece, both graph-ically and in terms of design,” Jan continues.

In order to achieve the right look without compromising on safety and comfort, he constantly has to put his creativity to the test.

“Using new materials and ge-ometric tricks, we can constantly develop new design elements that are actually not approved, and still achieve five stars in a crash test.”

JAN HINRICH MÜLLER, EXTERIORS AND INTERIORS PROJECT MANAGER, SEMCON GERMANY

BEHIND THE SCENES AT SEMCON BRAINSDo you want to know more about Jan Hinrich, his work and the challenges at Semcon? See the film at semcon.com.

FUTURE BY SEMCON 3.20103 37FUTURE BY SEMCON 1.2014 37


THE MORE TECHNOLOGY we come across in everyday life, the more important Sara Nilsson’s work is. She is an interaction designer, and she is only really happy with her performance after an encounter with tech-nology happens naturally and completely logically.

“My job is all about the user experience,” says Sara. As an interaction designer, you need to be able to go

into situations and see them with a different person’s eyes - a driver in busy traffic, an industrial welder, or a public transport passenger. Curiosity towards behaviour and understanding how the brain works is

as important as a feeling for colour and form. Technical knowledge is required but is of less importance.

“The visual impact comes first and the design can both help and hinder a system. The design should facilitate the understanding and show the user the way. Interaction design requires as much aesthetics as logic.”

Interaction design is still a relatively new field. For Sara one of the job’s challenges is in defining her specialist expertise in relation to more traditional design roles.

“More and more people are discovering interaction design. An industrial designer’s job is perhaps more visible, but the lack of a well thought-out interface is noticeable as soon as you use the product.”

Right now, she is working with a high-technology client which has become aware of the possibilities in interaction design.

“That’s what is so inspiring about this job. Getting to know a new area and understanding how the user works, and then finding a solution which simplifies his or her daily life and makes it more effective.”

The interaction expertSARA NILSSON, INTERACTION DESIGNER, SEMCON SWEDEN

SEMCON BRAINS



“IT’S WHEN CUSTOMERS really challenge us de-signers that really good ideas develop.”

So says Mattias Ackeby, designer at Semcon. He thinks that the innovative part of the designer’s work is the most fun, where the needs of the cus-tomer and the skills of the designer fuse together.

“I’ve been interested in technology ever since I was little and my dad bought a nice old car for me and my twin brother to play with,” he says.

That car became Mattias and his brother’s playhouse and this led to technical school, and a lifelong interest.

“We designers have to maintain our curiosity and our interest in technology in order to do a good job. The job means we have be excited to try and go slightly further at each step,” he says.

Right now, Mattias is involved with the develop-ment of a cylinder head for Volvo.

Mattias puts 100% into all his projects, but doesn’t get so stressed out as there are intensive periods interspersed with calmer ones.

Outside work, he and his wife right now are cur-rently renovating an old 1920s town house.

“It’s a relaxing complement to the job, more physical, but there’s also a lot to learn all the time. I’ve really benefited from my job because I’m used to learning new things quickly,” he says.

Mattias often combines design and method development, for a few years at a time, because he sees the benefits of keeping familiar with how CAD tools are used in real life. And he likes the fact that every assignment involves a large aspect of problem-solving.

“It has made me very solution-oriented, even in private.”

The design expertMATTIAS ACKEBY, SENIOR DESIGNER, SEMCON SWEDEN



THE HO SE MASTERS

Cleaning a fire hose has been an expensive and tedious process. Allgotech’s innovation has resulted in a machine that improves the working environment, cuts costs and reduces the effect on the environment. Semcon has been part of transforming the prototype to the finished product and now sights are set on the international market.TEXT JOHANNA WIMAN PHOTO ALBIN BOGREN

The tube is pressed between two rollers, meaning it needs less water when being washed.

Per-Arne FritjofssonProduct developer at Allgotech

Erik AhlénCEO, Allgotech


THE HO SE MASTERS

“THIS IS A TECHNICAL PARADIGM SHIFT,” says Per-Arne Fritjofsson, product developer at Allgotech.

He used to work as a firefighter. Therefore, he has experience of the cumbersome, heavy and dirty work involved in cleaning fire hoses after use during emergencies. The technology was old-fashioned: first the hose was rolled out in long gutters and cleaned. Then it was filled with water to test the pressure and fi-nally dried in a hot air system.

“I toyed with the idea of making the entire process a single step. That was where it start-ed,” says Fritjofsson.

The fire hose washing system Hose Mas-ter, which Allgotech has now developed, in collaboration with Semcon, cleans, pressure tests and dries the fire hose - in one-third of the time. There are a number of differenc-es from the previous technology. The tubing is fed through a machine instead of being

rolled out to its full length, which reduces the workspace. The biggest innovation, howev-er, is the pressure insertion technique itself. By isolating a small amount of water in the tubing between two pairs of rollers, you can compress the water and build up the right pressure. In this way you avoid filling the hose with large amounts of fresh water which is then flushed away.

Another advantage is that Hose Master au-tomatically discovers and marks holes. With the old technology, any damage was marked manually - a risky and uncertain process that has now been avoided.

“The working environment changes com-pletely. The amount of work is reduced - the same process happens in a third of the time and the costs will be much lower,” says Frit-jofsson.

When the collaboration with Semcon start-ed, he had created an early prototype which they continued to develop together. Klas Re-ingård, project manager at Semcon, thought from the start that the idea was interesting.

“Allgotech made it clear - they wanted to create a machine that was the best on the market, and we welcomed that challenge with open arms,” he says.

The Hose Master is a blend of existing and brand new technology, according to Reingård. The greatest challenge was in developing the pressurization device, which contains most of the new and central functions of the machine.

“Moreover, it has been challenging because Allgotech was a start-up company which could not invest limitless amounts of money. We had to find our way slowly and find solu-tions that suited us both. What was fun was that this was a broad project with a number of aspects, from developing a concept to testing prototypes. The project has involved a lot of stakeholders and covered several different knowledge areas,” says Reingård.

Now the work is continuing, making the Hose Master even more reliable and building up an organization that can both manufacture and distribute on a larger scale. Allgotech’s CEO Erik Ahlén says that they have already sold six machines, three of which have been delivered to different locations in Sweden.

“From the outset, the Hose Master has been intended for the international market. Market surveys show that this technology is completely new, and as we were first and have a patent, we naturally want to exploit it. We truly believe that this technology will eventu-ally be established everywhere,” he says. 1

The fire hose washer Hose Master cleans, test pressures, and dries the fire hose in a third of the time, compared to traditional systems. It can also automatically detect and mark any holes.


SEMCON UPDATEWHAT’S HAPPENING IN SEMCON’S WORLD

WHO WOULDN’T WANT their own indoor bug-gy to drive around with at home in the palace? For an anonymous sheikh in Saudi Arabia, the dream will soon become reality. Last autumn, he ordered ten specially-designed buggies and at the end of the summer the mini cars will be ready for delivery.

”The buggy is like a small golf cart and is made to be driven indoors. It will most likely be used in one or more of the sheikh’s palaces,” says Peter Fischer, project manager at Semcon.

The little red car has two seats, light-coloured leather interiors, and a maximum speed of 25 km/h. It has no gear system, and brakes

automatically when you step off the throttle. The order went through the German company SL-Rasch, which mainly delivers lightweight architecture to Saudi Arabia and Dubai. The first prototype was developed by Semcon’s partner IPDD. Semcon has since developed the exterior, interior, door handles and steering wheel.

Semcon built indoor cars for a sheikh

PHOTO: SEMCON


Future manager of the year works at SemconSara Berglund, manager at Semcon’s Jönköping office, won the ”Future Ma-nager of the Year” award at the Swedish Chefgalan awards earlier this year.

”It feels surreal but it’s great to be noticed. At Semcon I’ve had the opportunity to develop my leadership skills to the maximum with my team and I see the award as proof that I’ve succeeded,” said Berglund.

The Chefgalan awards were organi-zed by the management magazine Chef.

XLPM 2.0 launched in the spring of 2014

E-Bike ready for sale

SEMCON’S PROJECT METHODOLOGY XLPM has been updated and will be launched on 15 May. The new version will include models for project, programme

and portfolio management consistent with current PMI and ISO standards. In addition, there will be extended support for programme and portfolio mana-

gement, a simplified user interface for XLPM Online and improved document templates. The first version of XLPM was published in 2010.

THE INTERNAL project with the electronic bicycle E-Bike has resulted in a product that can now be made available on the general market. The project started as a thesis in 2009 and two prototypes were built in 2010. These were demonstrated for the first time at the German car show IAA in 2011.

Now the electronic bike has received the required approval for use in traffic and is clas-sified as an EU moped. So far no dealer is stocking the E-Bike, but to start with, it can be produced on a small scale and used at a number of Semcon workplaces.

Semcon sponsors STCC for the 7th year in a rowFor the seventh consecutive year, Semcon is sponsoring Scandinavia’s biggest touring car championship, STCC. The championship is decided over nine rounds across Sweden. In ad-dition to classic racing venues such as Knutstorp and Mantorp there are also two city races: STCC Semcon Göteborg City Race and STCC Semcon Stockholm City Race. The first round is at Ring Knutstorp on 10 May.

Semcon in partnership with SOS Children’s VillagesA long-term partnership with SOS Children’s Villages has started. Semcon is helping a village in northern India, as well as supporting the organization with both engineering services and grants for their international operations.

EN TIDNING OM KONSTEN ATT UTVECKLA FRAMTIDEN # 3 2013

future by semcon

#1 2014

“Bees are extremely important for nature”

ANN-BRITT CARLSSON

AFTER WORKname Ann-Britt Carlsson.at work Product owner for system information at Volvo Car Customer Service.after work I’m a beekeeper.challenge right now Ensuring the bees have survived the winter so that it’s possible to increase the number of hives. T

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AE

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About me“I’m 56 and I live on a farm outside Stenungsund in Sweden. In 2005 I bought my first hive, and today I have 37 of them. I’ve worked at Semcon since 2002.” About my job“As a product owner at Volvo Car Customer Service I manage system information and produce manuals for the factory system. I’m responsible for them being pro-duced in time, that they contain the right information and that they are translated into the correct languag-es. The best thing about my job is that it is varied and stimulating.” About beekeeping“Pollinating insects are essential for nature and vege-tation. They contribute to biodiversity, which is im-portant for the creation of a stable ecosystem and for food production. Bees are the most important pollinating insect for most fruits and berries. If you reduce food availability for pollinating insects by investing in large monocultures, you’re taking a fatal risk. If, instead, around the world, people paid greater attention to pollinating insects, crop yields would increase. For me, beekeeping is a way to contribute to a better environment.” What I’ve learned from beekeeping“As a beekeeper you have to be outside in nature and see it changing. You also have to be constantly one step ahead of the bees and manage them in the best way so they don’t swarm or become debilitated by disease. The ability to take a complete break and think outside the box is useful when you’re back at work. It’s good for creativity.”

ABOUT: BEEKEEPINGBeekeeping follows an annual cycle, which begins in the spring when the bees wake up after winter. The bees build up a sur-plus of honey, which can be har-vested for the first time during the summer. Depending on the type of plants in bloom around the hive when harvesting, the honey has different characters. As winter approaches, the bee colony is provided with a sugar solution to compensate for the honey taken.

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THE USERS’ BEST FRIEND

THEME: WORK WONDERS WITH EXISTING TECHNOLOGY

QOROS – HOW TO BUILD A CAR BRAND FROM SCRATCH

FIVE WEEKS’ WORK AT THE PRESS OF A BUTTON

INTERACTION DESIGN: BEST WHEN YOU DON’T NOTICE IT

A MAGAZINE ABOUT THE ART OF CREATING THE FUTURE # 1 2014

Technology

Doing more with less - Future by Semcon # 1 2014