Pricing and Profitability of Global Maintenance Service

Nowadays, very few of the machine manufacturers offer only machines to the customer but rather tries to offer different sorts of services to them as spare parts and maintenance. Furthermore, the literature has examined the shift of machine manufacturers to service providers and has given suggestions on management of the servitization. However, literature does not include that much research about the pricing of machine manufacturers’ service business. Thus, many manufacturers use only cost-based pricing to their maintenance work and do not take the customer perceived value into account. In addition to this, the global environment makes the pricing situation even more complex because different markets have different characteristics that have an impact on pricing. Therefore, the study brings a new viewpoint to the literature of the manufacturers’ service business by adding a pricing point of view to it. Furthermore, the study expands the literature on the value-based pricing and pricing process towards the industrial service business. This thesis is based on the case study, which is done to the large global machine manufacturer’s maintenance pricing, which does not include the maintenance contracts. The idea of the thesis was to investigate how to systematize the pricing of the hourly-based maintenance work by analyzing the pricing situation with the pricing process provided by literature and building the pricing model, which takes all the related factors into account. The topic was approached by creating a pre-understanding of the literature and the case company. The actual empirical study included both quantitative and qualitative analyses in terms of the theory given by the literature. The study finds out that the market characteristics and the pricing determinants, which are customer perceived value and costs, are the main factors, which affect the selection of the pricing model. Market characteristics as competition and customer characteristics have an impact on the objectives of pricing and pricing strategies, which together define the business model. The business model, in turn, defines how the manufacturer wants to pursue the whole maintenance business, which affects the price structure. Although that exact customer perceived value is difficult to define, this can be used to form the pricing structure, which depends on the complexity of the work and urgency of the need. In addition, the costs determine how much the manufacturer has to get from the customer at least, so it has an impact on the pricing policy. The pricing model should lead to the desired direction so that the manufacturer can obtain their objectives. The pricing structure should be based on different works rather than different customers and should have different price levels for preventive and corrective maintenance as the corrective maintenance generates more value to the customer. In addition, the structure should have higher prices for urgent work and overtime because the customer values those when they have a need. Although the pricing model is value-based, it can use the gross margin to reflect the value differences. Furthermore, the model should work as a framework for local units and allow discounts for good reasons, so that the prices are based on local needs and have the flexibility to obtain long-term profitability

Development of a Plastic Shredder

This report covers a project for the Division of Product Development at Lund University to build and further develop a plastic shredder. It was based on open-source blueprints from the Precious Plastic machine series, a nonprofit project by Dave Hakkens to reduce plastic waste. Its purpose is to shred common plastic waste so that the shreds can be remelt to create new products by students in the subsequent machines of the series. The main goals of the project were to build the shredder at minimum cost and to develop an improved version after testing it. It was built using in-house machines at the schools workshop and is powered by a gearmotor build from parts found at a local junkyard. Minor modifications were made of the original designs to improve handling and assembling of the machine. The gearmotor and its electronics were also built on a separate platform to create a modularized unit that is easily detached if desired to be used in other applications. The shredder worked as intended but caused some difficulties during assembly. The redesign addressed this issue aswell as increased the rate of cutting action by modifying the knives and counterknives. Due to lack of time and restricted funds, an actual version of this redesign was never built and tested

The hydrology and preservation condition in the flat-topped burial mound: Klangshøj at Vennebjerg in Vendsyssel

Klangshøj is a flat-topped burial mound similar to the Royal Jelling mounds, although smaller. The myths tell that a well has existed on top of the mound as at Jelling and a spring had flown at the base of the mound. In order to verify the myths and a similar hydrology in Klangshøj as found in Jelling, several borings have been carried out in a north-south line across the mound. The investigation showed that Klangshøj is built of sods mainly harvested from heathland. The sods are of different grain sizes from fine sand to clay. The preservation conditions were excellent in three of the six borings, where undecomposed plant remnants, occasionally greenish, were observed. A 14C-dating showed that the mound was built in the Viking Age. The hydrology in Klangshøj is the same as in the Jelling mounds, with a permeable bioturbation zone covering almost impermeable, distinct sod layers. This form a perched groundwater table in the transition zone, which keeps the distinct sod layer below anaerobic, i.e. the preservation conditions extremely favourable. The perched water table drains internally as in the Jelling mounds, and there are no current nor fossil evidence to suggest a spring was ever present at the foot slope, as the local legend suggests. Moreover, it seems unlikely that a well, similar to the one on the Jelling mound, has existed on the top of the north-facing slope, as the amount of water the well would have been able to collect is little

Pricing and Profitability of Global Maintenance Service

Nowadays, very few of the machine manufacturers offer only machines to the customer but rather tries to offer different sorts of services to them as spare parts and maintenance. Furthermore, the literature has examined the shift of machine manufacturers to service providers and has given suggestions on management of the servitization. However, literature does not include that much research about the pricing of machine manufacturers’ service business. Thus, many manufacturers use only cost-based pricing to their maintenance work and do not take the customer perceived value into account. In addition to this, the global environment makes the pricing situation even more complex because different markets have different characteristics that have an impact on pricing. Therefore, the study brings a new viewpoint to the literature of the manufacturers’ service business by adding a pricing point of view to it. Furthermore, the study expands the literature on the value-based pricing and pricing process towards the industrial service business. This thesis is based on the case study, which is done to the large global machine manufacturer’s maintenance pricing, which does not include the maintenance contracts. The idea of the thesis was to investigate how to systematize the pricing of the hourly-based maintenance work by analyzing the pricing situation with the pricing process provided by literature and building the pricing model, which takes all the related factors into account. The topic was approached by creating a pre-understanding of the literature and the case company. The actual empirical study included both quantitative and qualitative analyses in terms of the theory given by the literature. The study finds out that the market characteristics and the pricing determinants, which are customer perceived value and costs, are the main factors, which affect the selection of the pricing model. Market characteristics as competition and customer characteristics have an impact on the objectives of pricing and pricing strategies, which together define the business model. The business model, in turn, defines how the manufacturer wants to pursue the whole maintenance business, which affects the price structure. Although that exact customer perceived value is difficult to define, this can be used to form the pricing structure, which depends on the complexity of the work and urgency of the need. In addition, the costs determine how much the manufacturer has to get from the customer at least, so it has an impact on the pricing policy. The pricing model should lead to the desired direction so that the manufacturer can obtain their objectives. The pricing structure should be based on different works rather than different customers and should have different price levels for preventive and corrective maintenance as the corrective maintenance generates more value to the customer. In addition, the structure should have higher prices for urgent work and overtime because the customer values those when they have a need. Although the pricing model is value-based, it can use the gross margin to reflect the value differences. Furthermore, the model should work as a framework for local units and allow discounts for good reasons, so that the prices are based on local needs and have the flexibility to obtain long-term profitability

Automobile Control Systems : Transition from Controller Area Networks to Ethernets

Due to concerns about the negative impacts of powering vehicles using fossil fuel and the future availability of fossil fuel, there has been an increased focus on electric vehicles. However, current electric vehicle energy efficiency is a key problem as these vehicles are not as efficient as fossil-fueled vehicles. One way of decreasing a vehicle’s energy consumption is to reduce the weight of the vehicle, while still ensuring the safety and reliability of the vehicle. Controller Area Network (CAN) systems have been used in vehicles to realize real-time applications, however the low peak data rates of CAN have begun to limit the applications that can be realized. This bachelor’s thesis project focuses on secure communication within a vehicle using Ethernet. Additionally, the use of Power over Ethernet can be used for powering some of the network attached devices within the vehicle. The goal is to reduce the number of components and the weight of the vehicle while continuing to ensure the security and reliability of the communication – even when the network grows in size (either in physical size or in number of connected devices). This thesis shows that an Ethernet based system can serve as a possible replacement candidate for the CAN system due to its low latencies and high bandwidth. Ethernet is also a very scalable system with none of the limitations that a CAN system have.Den negativa påverkan av fossila bränslen har de senaste årtionden haft en negativ på planeten, mängden fossila bränslen över världen konsumeras även i en högre takt än vad som produceras. Därför har fokusen för att finna förnybara energi källor som både är effektiva och inte påverkar miljön på ett negativt sätt ökat. Därför är elbilar en viktig del i konverteringen av enheter som drivs av fossila bränslen till förnybara energikällor. Ett av problemen i en elbil är att energi konsumptionen är inte lika effektiv som fossila bränslen inom bil industrin. Ett sätt att sänka energi konsumptionen är att minska mängden komponenter inom en bil för att minska på vikten, utan att påverka säkerheten och tillförlitligheten. Tidigare har man använt sig av ett CAN system för att försäkra sig om systemet fungerar felfritt i realtid, problematiken med detta system är att när nätverket ökar i storlek så sätter de fysiska begränsningarna av detta system stop för den garanterade säkerheten. Detta kandidatexamensarbete kommer att fokusera på den interna kommunikationen i en elbil med hjälp av ett ethernet baserat kommunkations system över CAN systemet. Power over Ethernet tekinken kommer att tillämpas för de systemen som kan drivas av detta system. Målet är att reducera antalet komponenter som behövs och att garantera säkerheten och tillförlitligheten av den interna kommunikationen när nätverket av komponenter ökar i storlek. Det här kandidatarbetet visar att Ethernet kan ersätta det nuvarande CAN systemet ef-tersom att Ethernet erbjuder låga latenser och hög bandbredd. Detta arbete visar även att Et-hernet är väldigt skalbart och har inte begränsingarna som ett CAN system har

Painetankkausajoneuvon esisuunnitteluprosessin kehittäminen

Uusien tuotteiden kehittäminen lähtee liikkeelle esisuunnitteluprosessista. Jet-Tekno Oy:n painetankkausajoneuvon esisuunnitteluprosessi alkaa ajoneuvon perustietojen määrittämisestä. Tuloksena saadaan ajoneuvon mittapiirustus, joka sisältää tiedot päämitoista, alustaan kohdistuvista kuormista ja ajoneuvon massasta. Prosessin koettiin työllistävän yrityksen suunnitteluosastoa liikaa sen kohtuullisen yksinkertaiseen lopputuotteeseen nähden. Opinnäytetyön tavoitteena oli kehittää prosessia yksinkertaisemmaksi ja nopeammaksi huomioiden yrityksen kehittyvät tarpeet. Tavoitteita lähestyttiin toimintatutkimuksen avulla. Tutkimustehtävänä oli löytää parannettavaa painetankkausajoneuvon esisuunnitteluprosessista. Opinnäytetyö tehtiin toimeksiantona Jet-Tekno Oy:lle. Työn tuloksena valmistui Excel-pohjainen työkalu, joka yhdisti esisuunnitteluprosessissa tehtyjä vaiheita. Työkalun avulla prosessin läpimenoaika nopeutui ja prosessista saatiin huomattavasti yksinkertaisempi. Aiemmin prosessin suorittaminen oli työllistänyt lähes pelkästään yrityksen suunnitteluosastoa. Uuden toimintatavan myötä työtaakka saatiin jaettua tasaisemmin myynti- ja suunnitteluosaston kesken. Esisuunnittelua tehostava työkalu luotiin vastaamaan tämän hetken tarpeita silmällä pitäen yrityksen toiminnan kehittymistä kohti tuotteiden yhtenäistämistä. Seuraava kehitysaskel prosessin tehostamiseen voisi olla tuotekonfiguraattori, joka rakennettaisiin toimimaan tämän työkalun alkutietoaineiston pohjalta.This thesis was commissioned by Jet-Tekno Oy. In the company, the pre-design process in the creation of a dimensional drawing for a pressure refueling vehicle was seen as too time-consuming and laborious in comparison to the reasonably simple end result. The goal of this thesis was to develop the pre-design process to be simpler. The goals were approached with action research. The research problem was to find out how the pre-design process could be improved. As result of the work an Excel-based tool was created which combined the tasks of the process. The tool simplified the process and shortened its lead time. Previously the pre-design phase had caused work mainly to the company’s design department. With the new pre-design process tool, the workload of the process can be divided more evenly with sales and design departments. The pre-design process tool was created to meet the current demands with an eye for the company’s operations developing towards product modulation. The next development step for this pre-design process could be a product configurator that would be built to function on basis of this tool’s base information data

Designing a chassis for a gravel recycler

Sverige är ett stort och glesbefolkat land med många vägar, vilket leder till att en stor del är grusvägar. Jämfört med asfalterade vägar kräver grusvägar mer frekvent underhåll. Detta underhåll sker vanligtvis med en väghyvel. Syftet och målet med detta examensarbete är att utveckla en ramkonstruktion för en mobil grusåtervinningsmaskin som ska dras bakom en väghyvel. Arbetet inleds med en produktutvecklingsprocess som genererar fyra delkoncept. Vidare väljs lämpligt material och ytbehandling för ramkonstruktionen. Slutligen utförs dimensionering av delkoncepten. I resultatet presenteras en konstruktion bestående av hjulupphängning, ramkonstruktion, dragstång och en höjdjusterbar draganordning. Slutsatsen av arbetet är att konstruktionen som presenteras i resultatet uppfyller de mål som fastställts

The hydrology and preservation condition in the flat topped burial mound Klangshøj at Vennebjerg in Vendsyssel

Klangshøj is a flat-topped burial mound similar to the Royal Jelling mounds, although smaller.The myths tell that a well has existed on top of the mound as at Jelling and a spring had flown atthe base of the mound. In order to verify the myths and a similar hydrology in Klangshøj as foundin Jelling, several borings have been carried out in a north-south line across the mound.The investigation showed that Klangshøj is built of sods mainly harvested from heathland. Thesods are of different grain sizes from fine sand to clay. The preservation conditions were excellentin three of the six borings, where undecomposed plant remnants, occasionally greenish, wereobserved. A 14C-dating showed that the mound was built in the Viking Age. The hydrology inKlangshøj is the same as in the Jelling mounds, with a permeable bioturbation zone coveringalmost impermeable, distinct sod layers. This form a perched groundwater table in the transitionzone, which keeps the distinct sod layer below anaerobic, i.e. the preservation conditionsextremely favourable. The perched water table drains internally as in the Jelling mounds, andthere are no current nor fossil evidence to suggest a spring was ever present at the foot slope, asthe local legend suggests. Moreover, it seems unlikely that a well, similar to the one on the Jellingmound, has existed on the top of the north-facing slope, as the amount of water the well wouldhave been able to collect is little