INTERORGANIZATIONAL PARTICIPATION AND USER FOCUS IN A LARGE-SCALE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM - THE SWEDISH HAND TOOL PROJECT

In the Swedish Hand Tool Project previous research was put into practi ce in ten new user-friendly products. The project was initiated and sp onsored by six of the largest Swedish manufacturing industries and sup ported 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 beginni ng to the end of the project. In addition to the design, evaluation an d production of the new hand tools, marketing activities, disseminatio n of information and training in presenting ergonomic tools were carri ed out during the project. The development programme was studied by me ans 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 projec t were identified. The large-scale development programme involving sev eral different kinds of actors, has produced ergonomically designed pr oducts, and expanded both knowledge and markets for hand tools. Releva nce to industry Industry can gain from inter-organizational participat ion and user focus in product development. The study describes and ana lyses a programme to design and produce well functioning hand tools as well as to support their distribution. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.