Inter-organizational participation and user focus in a large-scale product development programme: The Swedish hand tool project

Abstract

In the Swedish Hand Tool Project previous research was put into practice in ten new user-friendly products. The project was initiated and sponsored by six of the largest Swedish manufacturing industries and supported by a Swedish foundation. User requirements for hand tools were given precedence in the product development programme. People who deal with hand tools in different ways (users, manufacturers, distributors and researchers) participated in four working groups from the beginning to the end of the project. In addition to the design, evaluation and production of the new hand tools, marketing activities, dissemination of information and training in presenting ergonomic tools were carried out during the project. The development programme was studied by means of open observation and critical incident interviews with randomly chosen members of the different working groups and the project board. Actual activities were compared with intended activities of the three project phases. Negative as well as positive events during the project were identified. The large-scale development programme, involving several different kinds of actors, has produced ergonomically designed products, and expanded both knowledge and markets for hand tools. Relevance to industry Industry can gain from inter-organizational participation and user focus in product development. The study describes and analyses a programme to design and produce well-functioning hand tools as well as to support their distribution.