Doing more with less - Future by Semcon # 1 2014

EN TIDNING OM KONSTEN
ATT UTVECKLA FRAMTIDEN
#3 2013
futurebysemcon#12014
“Beesareextremely
importantfornature”
ANN-BRITT CARLSSON
AFTER
WORK
name 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.
TEXT:JONASFRANZÉNPHOTO:MIKAELGÖTBLAD
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: BEEKEEPING
Beekeepingfollowsanannual
cycle,whichbeginsin thespring
when thebeeswakeupafter
winter.Thebeesbuildupasur-
plusofhoney,whichcanbehar-
vestedfor thefirst timeduring
thesummer.Dependingon the
typeofplantsinbloomaround
thehivewhenharvesting,the
honeyhasdifferent characters.
Aswinterapproaches,thebee
colonyisprovidedwithasugar
solution tocompensatefor the
honey taken.
+
THE USERS’
BEST FRIEND
THEME:WORK
WONDERSWITH
EXISTINGTECHNOLOGY
QOROS–HOWTO
BUILDACARBRAND
FROMSCRATCH
FIVEWEEKS’WORK
ATTHEPRESSOF
ABUTTON
INTERACTIONDESIGN:BESTWHENYOUDON’TNOTICEIT
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
26Whyweneedrobotswithemotions
TheIsraeliscientistGuyHoffmanhasdevelopedarobotthat
canreacttoyouremotions–andwhichcouldbethemiddle
groundbetweenbeingonyourownandbeingwithsomeone.

FUTURE BY SEMCON 1.2014 3
16EXTENDINGA
POWERSTATION’SLIFE
ThehydropowerplantatLandafors
wasalmost40yearsold.Fortum
thoughtitwastimetoextendits
lifeandmaximizeproduction–and
askedSemconengineersforhelp.
30 THEGARAGE
SOLUTIONOFTHEFUTURE
WhenSemconwascommissionedto
developasystemforserviceinformation
forQorosAuto,itcouldstartfromscratch.
Aluxuriouschallengeatatimewhen
manymanufacturersarelockedinto
outdatedsystems.
Website: www.semcon.com Letters: Future by Semcon, Semcon AB, 417 80 Göteborg, Sweden. Change of address:
future@semcon.com Publisher: Anders Atterling. Tel: +46 (0)70-447 28 19, email: anders.atterling@semcon.com
Semcon project manager: Madeleine Andersson. Tel: +46 (0)76-569 83 31, e-mail: madeleine.andersson@semcon.com
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
AFIRE-HOSE
Allgotechhadaprototypeof
anentirelynewsolutionfor the
cleaningoffirehoses.Semconled the
development and thenewmachine
does theworkina thirdof the time
andat alowercost.
36 MEETTHE
SEMCONEXPERTS
InSemconBrains,JanHinrichMüllertells
usaboutvehicledesign,SaraNilsson
explainshowtechnologyshouldhelpits
usersandthedesignerMattiasAckeby
talksabouthownewchallengesallow
himtokeepupdatedandalert.
A
lmost 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 GRANLUND
CEO,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.
kevinphelps,aftersalesdirector,qorosauto
Whichproductsintoday’scarsdoyouthinkhavethemost potential
todevelopintosomethingevenmoreeffectiveinthefuture?
“Customerexperience!Ifwecanmakeinformationabout thecarand
itsperformancemoreuseful,it givesusachance touse thecarmore
efficiently.It requires thedevelopment ofsystemsencompassing
everythingfrom thecustomerand thevehicle to thesellerand the
manufacturer,but theendresult willlead toabetterexperience,in
spiteoflesseffort.”
guyhoffman,vice
president,idcmedia
innovationlab
Howcouldweget moreuseout
ofasinglerobot?
“Travis,myspeakerdockrobot,isrun
byasmartphoneyouconnect toit.
Whenyoupluginyoursmartphoneit
becomesyourrobot.Thesmartphone
is therobot’sbrain,whichmeansit
canbeconstantlyupgraded,andit
alreadyknowsmuchabout you.This
willdefinitelybeoneof theways to
makerobotsmuchmorepowerful
without having todevelopnew
softwareforeveryversionof the
robot that comesout.”
helenekelöf,diagnosticengineer,semcon
Howcanserviceschedulesreduceamachine’sdowntime?
“Bybreakingdowndesigndrawingsinfunctionalgroups,the
service techniciangetsanoverviewof theentirefunction,and
thereforecansolve theprobleminashorter time.”
22
PAGE
26
PAGE
30
PAGE

robertbronegård,project
supervisor,fortum
Whichpartsofmaintenanceaffect
ahydropowerstationthemost?
“Wehavealocalcomputerizedmonito-
ringsystemwherewecanseeeverything
functioning.Ifwecanlearnwhy things
happen thenwecanchoose tofocuson
it inourserviceprogramme.Wecanfind
these thingsbefore theycauseproblems.”
petergartmark,production
developmentmanager,semcon
What unexpectedwasteoftimecanyou
findonatraditionalproductionline?
“Alackof toolsat astationwhereseveral
peopleareworking.If there’sonlyone tool
whichanumberofpeopleneed,ofcourse
that means that oneof themhas towait
until theotherisfinished.”
olafbüttner,
purchasingand
qualitymanager,
andritzinväxjö.
Product development without tech-
nologicaladvances,isit possible?
“Yes,werefineourproductsand
theirfunctionalityeveryyear.The
workiscarriedout inproject form
andweplacegreat emphasison
safetyandenvironmentalaspects,to
makeit easierfor theoperatingper-
sonnel.Anexampleiswithanolder
drier.We’vedevelopedanautomatic
ejectionsystem,which theoperator
previouslyhad todomanually.”
saranilsson,interactiondesigner,semcon
Howdoyouupdateafunctionalinterfacewithout confusingtheuser?
“Firstyouhavetounderstandtheuser’smentalimageofthesystem.Youhaveto
keepthatlogic:youcan’t,forexample,changethepedalconfigurationinacar.If
there’saclearvisualidentity,youdon’tdeviatetoomuchfromthat,either.Ifthepictu-
reisclearforyou,youcanimprovealotwhilepersuadingtheuserat thesametime.”
36
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16
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35
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13
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Doing more with less - Future by Semcon # 1 2014

Innovationsaremoving theboundaries
regardingwhat new technologycando.But
thewinnersof thefuturecouldbe thosewho
simplyimproveonwhat theyalreadyhave.
Thechallengeis todomore–but withless.
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.

M
agnusPerssonworksin
productiondevelopment at
SemconinGöteborg.Hehas
extensiveexperienceofimprovement
workwithin theindustryandusesava-
rietyofmethodsand tools toeliminate
lossesandstandardizeapproaches.But
it isequallyimportant tocreatelearning
organization tospreadgoodexamples.
“Oneof themajorlossareaswithin
theindustryismaterialsupply,”says
MagnusPersson.“Therearebusinesses
withproductsconsistingof thousandsof
itemswhicharenot deliveredpre-sorted
intoproductionandwhereemployees
spendalot of timelookingformaterials-
quiteunnecessarily.”
Dailymanagement,whichcan
MagnusPerssononhow
lesswaitingincreasesprofits
Trouble-freeproductionwithoutbottlenecksisthegoalof
mostbusinesses.Butsometimestheyareallaffectedby
problemswhichrequireurgentaction.Constantworkto
eliminatebottlenecksandfindareasoflossbeforethese
problemsbecomeacuteincreasesbothcontrolandreliability.
TEXT FLORENCE OPPENHEIM PHOTO LARS ARDARVE
THEEXPERT
Magnus Persson
Title:SeniorEngineer,Production
Management
Office: SemconSweden
achieve thingssuchassolvingproblems
before theyreachproductionisanother
areawithgreat improvement potential,
aswellasbalancing theproductionflow.
“Achievingawell-balancedproduction
withnoneed towait orbeingforced to
put upbuffersisakeyingredient ofan
efficient productionflow.”
Thecoreissueforcustomersisusually
wanting toimprove theirgeneralprofita-
bility,orwanting toimprovelead-times
because thereisnot time todeliver
according to thecontract with theend
customers.Developinganewproduct
orproductionenvironment,oranalyzing
theentireprocessfrommarket toend
customer,areotherareas.
“I’veworkedonalot ofprojectsinvolv-
ingbothnewproductsandnewcapabil-
ity,but alsoonrationalizationofvarious
kinds,suchas thestandardizationof
components tominimize thenumberof
itemsusedinproduction.”
Anewassignment alwaysbegins
withacurrent situationanalysisusing
provenindustrialmethodology.Persson
defines,measuresanddocumentsall
theactivities,layouts,andequipment
involvedinorder toobtainameasurable
modelandunderstand thevalueof the
different parts.
“Myworkisverymuchabout iden-
tifyingvalue-addingandnon-value
addingactivitiesin theproductionwork
anditsprocesses.It could,forexample,
mean that youreviewhowworkstations,
equipment andpremisesareused.”
Theanalysisis thenput intoameas-
urablemodel,whichforms thebasisofa
needsanalysisandavisionofwhat the
client wants toachieve.
“Using theuser’svisionand thecur-
rent situationanalysisIcandefineand
proposesolutions that thecustomer
shouldconsider.I’moftenalsopart of the
workat theplanningphaseandinreal
projectswhere theimprovements that
thecustomerdecidesonareimplement-
ed,”saysMagnusPersson.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
FOCUS:
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.
FOCUS:

W
orkmeasurement isapower-
fulproduction tool.Bycare-
fullygoinginandmapping
out allactivitiesinproductionyoucan
quantify timeusedonvalue-addingand
non-valueaddingactivities,but alsoin
different disruptionsinproduction.The
resultsareused toprioritizewhichdis-
ruptionsorwastesof timeare themost
important things tofix.Semconoffers
expertisenot onlyinworkmeasurement,
but alsoin trainingandisalsoasupplier
of timeandmotionstudyequipment.
“Timeandmotionstudiesareaneffec-
tivemethod tofindopportunitiesforim-
“Customershavereducedtheir
lead-timeby20%withourhelp”
Heisageniusatfindingtimesavingsinproductionprocesses.
“Allnon-valueaddingtimecanbetranslatedintolowercostsand
shorterlead-times,bybetterdesigningtheworkplaceorusing
moresuitabletools,forexample,”saysPeterGartmark.
TEXT FLORENCE OPPENHEIM PHOTO ANDERS LIPKIN
THEEXPERT
Peter Gartmark
Title:Team Leader within
production development
Office: Semcon Sweden
provement,”saysPeterGartmark,group
managerwithinproduct engineeringat
SemconinKarlstad.“Wemeasureall the
activitiesinaprocess,both the timeit
takes toassemble thedifferent partsbut
also,forexample,fetching toolsorasking
acolleagueforadvice.”
Anexampleofnon-value-added time
isputtingawasheronanut anumberof
timeseveryday,when thewashercould
havebeenattached to thenut from the
start.Value-adding timeis thingswhich
helpincrease thevalueof theproduct.
“Wehaveexamplesofcustomerswho
havereduced theirlead-timeby20%
withourhelp.”
After the timemeasurement,Peter
Gartmarkseparates thevariousactivities
andanalyzeswhichhave thegreatest
potentialforimprovement.Thisresult
is thenused tomakealist ofpriorities
withsuggestionsonhow to,forexample,
designabetterworkplace tominimize
installation timeand thusshorten the
lead-time.
Anotherimportant part ofGartmark’s
workisidentifyingopportunities to
reduceset-up times.Waiting timescan
consist offetchingmaterials,changing
toolsorcleaningmachines.Thisim-
provement worklooksat bothwhen the
machineisinoperation-externalset-up
time-andwhenit isstationary-internal
set-up time.
“Weuse the toolSMED-SingleMin-
uteExchangeofDie-whichstrives to
minimizeinternalset-up time toone
minute.Asimplemeasure,forexample,
isensuring that thenecessary toolsare
alreadyinplaceandnot waitinguntil the
machinehasstopped.”
Someunnecessary timelossiseasy to
eliminate,othersrequire theredesignof
equipment or tools.
“Weuse the timeasa time-saving
and thereforeasabasisforinvestment.
Ifit takesanhour tochangea tool,in
practiceonehourwhen themachineis
stationary,andwecancut that time to
halfanhourwithanew tooldesign,then
thehalf-hoursavedcanberegisteredas
revenueinacapitalbudget.”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
FOCUS:

“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.

FOCUS:
Analmostforty-year-oldhydroelectricpowerstationhadtobe
upgradedforthe21stcentury.SoSemconwascalledintogivethe
powerstationafreshstart.
TEXT JOHAN LARSSON PHOTOS JENS L’ESTRADE
NEWLIFEFOR
POWERSTATION

T
he 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
FOCUS:

GöranUrby
Manager,Hydropower,
Semcon
BertilPlaneskog
MaintenanceEngineer,
Fortum,headof
hydropowerplantsin
Hälsingland
Robert Bronegård
Project supervisor,main
commissioner,Fortum
LarsThyr
ResourceCoordinator,
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: Landafors
The 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
Amorepersonal
alarmtransmitter

PERSONALIZED CUSTOM COLOURS
Thebuttonin themiddle,ringaround thebuttonand the
bucklearound thewrist strapcanbechanged.It enables
wearers tochange thealarmaccording topersonal taste.
Thiscustomizabilitycanalsobeusedbynursingstaff
todiscreetlyhighlight whichwardapatient belongs to.
Anotheradvantageof theability tochangecoloursis that
thealarmcanbe tailored tocolourcodesaccording to the
countryyouarein.Theusualcolourforanalarm,forexam-
ple,canvaryfromcountry tocountry.
CUSTOMIZABLE
It ispossible toreplace thewrist strapwith
afastening toholdastring toweararound
yourneck.In thisway,thealarmcanbeworn
eitheraround theneckoron thewrist,ac-
cording towhat best suits theuser.
CLEAR
Thealarmbuttonin themiddleisdis-
tinctlydesignedandintuitivelyeasy to
find.Thepared-downdesign,without
unnecessaryelements,means that the
wearerdoesn’t have tolookfor thebut-
tonorriskpressing thewrong thing.
CONTROLASSISTANCE
Thesmallringaround thebuttonin thecentre
hasadoublefunction.It partlyprotectsit so
that thealarmbuttoncannot bepressedby
mistakeandalsomakesit easier toaccess the
alarmbuttonwhenit isneeded.
SAFE
The transmitteraround thewrist hasa
numberofsmart functionswhichmakeit
safe.Whennopulsecanbedetectedorifit
isremovedit sendsanalarm tocarestaff.
It canalsobepermanentlylockedonto
peoplewithdementia toreduce theriskof
thealarmbeingremoved.
STYLISH
Streamlined,andusingelegant materials,it
seemsasif theproduct resemblesapieceof
jewellerymore thananalarm.Thismakesit
moreattractive towear.Theideabehind the
designwas tomakeaproduct that looksstyl-
ishandmodernlooking.
HI-TECH
Behind theelegant facade thereisa
highly-technicalproduct.Thesystemhas
two-wayradiocommunicationandall
transmittersarecontinuouslymonitored
tocheck that theyarefunctioning.Alarms
frompatientsorresidentsaresent directly
to therelevant staff toquicklymake them
awareof thesummonsand theuser’s
position.

I
n 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
DOYOUKNOW
WHERETHIS
CABLEGOES?
Multi-pageinstructionsonthesamepieceofpaper
andmoreofeverythingwhenitcomestodetailed
information.Semcon’snewinteractiveservice
schedulesaretheservicetechnicians’equivalentof
theSwissarmyknife–allintheonetool.
TEXTOLIVIA KRANTZ PHOTOS ATLAS COPCO ANNATÄRNHUVUD

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.
HelenEkelöf
Diagnosticsengineer,Semcon
N5
D-IN
Master
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3
4
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3
4
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JUMPER
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4GND
8
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JUMPER
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D-OUT
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13
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IN1 IN2
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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 WATCH
PEBBLE
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 CLOCK
GRAVITYLIGHT
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 GLASSES
OCULUS 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 HOUSE
CANARY
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.
...whicharecrowdfunded–launched
bysmallplayerswhereindividualscan
findabout theideaand thenchoose to
support theproject.Kickstarter.com
is thewebsitewith themost and
best-knowncrowdfundingprojects.
“The Pebble smart watch has become
a major crowdfunding success.”
DOORBELL
SKYBELL
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.

QA GUY HOFFMAN
ROBOT EXPERT
Do you occasionally need a
shoulder to cry on or someone to
enjoy listening to music with?
Dr GuyHoffman’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.
I
t 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 Hoffman
Current positions: Assistant Professor at the School of
Communication at IDC Herzliya,Israel,and co-director of
the IDC Media Innovation Lab
Education:PhD from Massachusetts Institute ofTech-
nology in Human-Robot Interaction,and an M.Sc.in
Computer Science fromTel Aviv University.Also studied
animation at Parsons School of Design in NewYork and
Philosophy at the Hebrew University.
Hobbies:Running,vegan cooking,woodworking
If 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.
Travis
Robot

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
WhatGuyHoffmanhaslearned
abouthumansfrombuildingrobots
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.
QA GUY HOFFMAN
ROBOT 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.”
GuyHoffman,robotresearcher

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
FROMTHE
START


Lastwintersomethinguniquewasproduced
–thefirstcarfromacompletelynewcarbrand,
theChinesecompanyQoros.Tomakethecar
easytoservice,Semconhashelpedcreatea
wholenewworldofinformation.
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
KevinPhelps
AfterSalesDirector,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:Semconsbidrag tillQoros
Semconharförutomatt utvecklaserviceinformationenochdess
portalävenvarit inblandadeifleraandradelaravQorosutveckling.
OwnersInformation
Owner’sManual
MultiMediaHubManual
ServiceandWarrantyBooklet
QorosDriverPortalE-manual
MobilApps
ServiceInformation
WorkshopInformation
RepairProcedures
LabourTimes
EndofLifeVehicle(ELV)Information
SpecialToolsChemicals
GuidedFaultTracing
WiringDiagrams
QorosDealerPortalServiceInformation
PartsInformation
PartsEngineering
PartsCataloguecontent
MenuPricingpackages

AccessoryInstallationInstructions
TechnicalTraining
Classroom trainingcourses
E-learningproducts
Train theTrainer
WarrantyStrategyandpoliciessupport
Dealerstart-upsupport inSlovakia

ITsystemsupport
QorosAutohashadhelp
fromSemconinover
20differentproduct
informationareas.
˜ Carownerinformation
˜ Serviceinformation
˜ Sparepartsinformation
˜ Trainingforservicestaff
˜ Installationinstructionsforaccessories
˜ Support withwarrantystrategiesandpolicies
˜ Support inestablishingresellersinSlovakia
˜ ITsystemssupport
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.

Documentationisanim-
portantpartofthequality
process.Unfortunately,the
goodintentionsoftendis-
appearinpaperworkand
theinefficientuseofresour-
ces.ForAndritz,inVäxjö,a
projectregardingprocess
efficiencywithSemconbe-
cameaturningpoint.
TEXT JOHAN JARNEVING
PHOTOS COLOURBOX SEMCON
T
he 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
Workmoreeffectivelyat
thepushofabutton
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 issatisfied
withhisproduct onlywhenit issafe,
convenient,andcomfortable-and,
ofcourse,fitsstylisticallywithits
environment.Heisresponsiblefor
developinginteriordetails,withan
emphasisondoorpanels.
“Thebiggest challengeinmywork
iscombiningall theergonomicas-
pectswith thesafetyrequirements,”
saysJan.“Alldrivers,regardlessof
theirbodysize,shouldbeable tosit
comfortablyinacar,whilestillbeing
able towithstandaseveresideim-
pact aswellaspossible.”
Incarsfrom the70sand80s,door
panelswereusuallymanufactured
fromhardboardandonlycovered
certainparts,while thedoorpanels
in today’smoderncarsarepadded,
high-techcreationswithup to40
different components.
“Nowadaysit’sveryimportant
that thecar’sinteriorlooks tobe
mouldedfromonepiece,bothgraph-
icallyandin termsofdesign,”Jan
continues.
Inorder toachieve theright look
without compromisingonsafetyand
comfort,heconstantlyhas toput his
creativity to the test.
“Usingnewmaterialsandge-
ometric tricks,wecanconstantly
developnewdesignelements that
areactuallynot approved,andstill
achievefivestarsinacrash test.”
JAN HINRICH MÜLLER, EXTERIORS AND INTERIORS PROJECT MANAGER, SEMCON GERMANY
BEHINDTHESCENES
ATSEMCONBRAINS
Doyouwant toknowmoreabout Jan
Hinrich,hisworkand thechallengesat
Semcon?See thefilmat semcon.com.

FUTURE BY SEMCON 3.20103 37FUTURE BY SEMCON 1.2014 37

THE MORE TECHNOLOGY wecomeacrossineveryday
life,themoreimportant SaraNilsson’sworkis.Sheis
aninteractiondesigner,andsheisonlyreallyhappy
withherperformanceafteranencounterwith tech-
nologyhappensnaturallyandcompletelylogically.
“Myjobisallabout theuserexperience,”saysSara.
Asaninteractiondesigner,youneedtobeabletogo
intosituationsandseethemwithadifferentperson’s
eyes-adriverinbusytraffic,anindustrialwelder,
orapublictransportpassenger.Curiositytowards
behaviourandunderstandinghowthebrainworksis
asimportantasafeelingforcolourandform.Technical
knowledgeisrequiredbutisoflessimportance.
“Thevisualimpactcomesfirstandthedesigncan
bothhelpandhinderasystem.Thedesignshould
facilitatetheunderstandingandshowtheuserthe
way.Interactiondesignrequiresasmuchaesthetics
aslogic.”
Interactiondesignisstillarelativelynewfield.
ForSaraoneofthejob’schallengesisindefiningher
specialist expertiseinrelationtomoretraditional
designroles.
“Moreandmorepeoplearediscoveringinteraction
design.Anindustrialdesigner’sjobisperhapsmore
visible,but thelackofawellthought-outinterfaceis
noticeableassoonasyouusetheproduct.”
Rightnow,sheisworkingwithahigh-technology
clientwhichhasbecomeawareofthepossibilitiesin
interactiondesign.
“That’swhatissoinspiringabout thisjob.Getting
toknowanewareaandunderstandinghowtheuser
works,andthenfindingasolutionwhichsimplifieshis
orherdailylifeandmakesitmoreeffective.”
The interaction expert
SARA NILSSON, INTERACTION DESIGNER, SEMCON SWEDEN
SEMCON
BRAINS

“IT’S WHEN CUSTOMERS reallychallengeusde-
signers that reallygoodideasdevelop.”
SosaysMattiasAckeby,designerat Semcon.He
thinks that theinnovativepart of thedesigner’s
workis themost fun,where theneedsof thecus-
tomerand theskillsof thedesignerfuse together.
“I’vebeeninterestedin technologyeversinceI
waslittleandmydadbought aniceoldcarforme
andmy twinbrother toplaywith,”hesays.
That car became Mattias and his brother’s
playhouse and this led to technical school,and a
lifelong interest.
“Wedesignershave tomaintainourcuriosity
andourinterest in technologyinorder todoa
goodjob.Thejobmeanswehavebeexcited to try
andgoslightlyfurtherat eachstep,”hesays.
Right now,Mattiasisinvolvedwith thedevelop-
ment ofacylinderheadforVolvo.
Mattiasputs100%intoallhisprojects,but
doesn’t get sostressedout as thereareintensive
periodsinterspersedwithcalmerones.
Outsidework,heandhiswiferight nowarecur-
rentlyrenovatinganold1920s townhouse.
“It’sarelaxingcomplement to thejob,more
physical,but there’salsoalot tolearnall the time.
I’vereallybenefitedfrommyjobbecauseI’mused
tolearningnew thingsquickly,”hesays.
Mattiasoftencombinesdesignandmethod
development,forafewyearsat atime,because
heseesthebenefitsofkeepingfamiliarwithhow
CADtoolsareusedinreallife.Andhelikesthefact
that everyassignment involvesalargeaspect of
problem-solving.
“It hasmademeverysolution-oriented,even
inprivate.”
The design expert
MATTIAS ACKEBY, SENIOR DESIGNER,
SEMCON SWEDEN

THE HO
Cleaningafirehosehasbeenanexpensiveandtedious
process.Allgotech’sinnovationhasresultedinamachine
thatimprovestheworkingenvironment,cutscostsand
reducestheeffectontheenvironment.Semconhasbeen
partoftransformingtheprototypetothefinishedproduct
andnowsightsaresetontheinternationalmarket.
TEXT JOHANNA WIMAN PHOTO ALBIN BOGREN
The tube is pressed between two rollers,meaning
it needs less water when being washed.
Per-ArneFritjofsson
Product developer
at Allgotech
ErikAhlén
CEO,Allgotech

SE MASTER
S
“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 theirownindoorbug-
gy todrivearoundwithat homein thepalace?
ForananonymoussheikhinSaudiArabia,the
dreamwillsoonbecomereality.Last autumn,
heordered tenspecially-designedbuggiesand
at theendof thesummer theminicarswillbe
readyfordelivery.
”Thebuggyislikeasmallgolfcart andis
made tobedrivenindoors.It willmost likely
beusedinoneormoreof thesheikh’spalaces,”
saysPeterFischer,project managerat Semcon.
Thelittleredcarhas twoseats,light-coloured
leatherinteriors,andamaximumspeedof
25km/h.It hasnogearsystem,andbrakes
automaticallywhenyoustepoff the throttle.
Theorderwent through theGermancompany
SL-Rasch,whichmainlydeliverslightweight
architecture toSaudiArabiaandDubai.Thefirst
prototypewasdevelopedbySemcon’spartner
IPDD.Semconhassincedeveloped theexterior,
interior,doorhandlesandsteeringwheel.
Semconbuiltindoorcarsforasheikh
PHOTO: SEMCON

Futuremanagerofthe
yearworksatSemcon
SaraBerglund,manageratSemcon’s
Jönköpingoffice,wonthe”FutureMa-
nageroftheYear”awardat theSwedish
Chefgalanawardsearlierthisyear.
”It feelssurrealbut it’sgreat to
benoticed.At SemconI’vehad the
opportunity todevelopmyleadership
skills to themaximumwithmy team
andIsee theawardasproof that I’ve
succeeded,”saidBerglund.
TheChefgalanawardswereorgani-
zedbythemanagementmagazineChef.
XLPM2.0launchedinthespringof2014
E-Bikereadyforsale
SEMCON’S PROJECT METHODOLOGY
XLPMhasbeenupdatedandwillbe
launchedon15May.Thenewversionwill
includemodelsforproject,programme
andportfoliomanagement consistent
withcurrent PMIandISOstandards.In
addition,therewillbeextendedsupport
forprogrammeandportfoliomana-
gement,asimplifieduserinterfacefor
XLPMOnlineandimproveddocument
templates.Thefirst versionofXLPMwas
publishedin2010.
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.
Semconsponsors
STCCforthe7thyear
inarow
For theseventhconsecutiveyear,
SemconissponsoringScandinavia’s
biggest touringcarchampionship,
STCC.Thechampionshipisdecided
overnineroundsacrossSweden.Inad-
dition toclassicracingvenuessuchas
KnutstorpandMantorp therearealso
twocityraces:STCCSemconGöteborg
CityRaceandSTCCSemconStockholm
CityRace.Thefirst roundisat Ring
Knutstorpon10May.
Semconin
partnershipwithSOS
Children’sVillages
Along-termpartnershipwithSOS
Children’sVillageshasstarted.Semcon
ishelpingavillageinnorthernIndia,
aswellassupportingtheorganization
withbothengineeringservicesand
grantsfortheirinternationaloperations.

Doing more with less - Future by Semcon # 1 2014

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