Time to market is crucial (Future by Semcon #1 2012)

1ULTRAFOGPUTTING
OUTFIRESWITHMIST
1SHORTESTTIMETO
MARKETWINSTHEPRIZE
1 THEWORLD’SMOSTEFFICIENT
ELECTRICCAR–SMALLANDSAFE
Onlinecustomersarechangingtheworld
–MikeWalshexplainshow
B SVERIGE PORTO BETALT PORT PAYÈ
FUTURE
SEMCON AB
417 80 GÖTEBORG
futurebysemcon#12012 CUSTOMERS
OFTHE FUTUR E
AFTER
WORK
PONTUS LINDBERG:
“Ironmanhastaught
metofocus”
About me
“I like to work long-term with a clear focus on
results and discipline,both at work and in my
free time.At work,I work with pharmaceuti-
cals at Semcon and in my free time I train and
compete in what has been called the world’s
toughest sport – the Ironman triathlon dis-
tance.I am 35 years old and I live with my girl-
friend and four bikes in Hammarby Sjöstad in
Stockholm.”
About my job
“I have a Masters in Engineering,specialising
in technical biology and have recently started
a new assignment at AstraZeneca.Basically,
it’s about developing tablets,making sure
that the active substance is excreted in the
right place in the body.”
About Ironman
“I was looking for a physical challenge, and
because Ironman is the hardest thing to do,
I wanted to try it.When I noticed that I was
good at it and that I continued to develop,
it gave me more energy and focus to con-
tinue.
In August 2011 I became the Swedish
Ironman champion. It was a great feeling.
I started when I was 28, but I swam com-
petitively when I was young, so I had some
experience from before. Most of my com-
petitors are full-time professionals who has
been active in the sport since their teens, so
of course I had some catching up to do. On
the other hand, I continue to get better and
better at the same time as many of my age
have already peaked.
What I’ve learned from Ironman:
“The great thing with Ironman is that it is
so physically demanding.It inspires me to
work towards long-term goals.My training
has taught me to set challenging but realistic
goals,to have staying power and be able to
work towards a goal without losing focus.I
see my job in the same way.“
FACTS: IRONMAN/TRIATHLON
The triathlon is an endurance sport com-
prising swimming,cycling and running
performed back-to-back.There are differ-
ent distances but Ironman is the toughest
variant,with its 3,860 metre swim,180 km
cycling and 42 km run.
name Pontus Lindberg
what i do at work Civil engineer,
technical biology
office Semcon,Stockholm
what i do after work Triathlon,
Swedish Ironman champion
current challenge Getting into my
new assignment at AstraZeneca
+
A MAGAZINE ABOUT
ENGINEERING SERVICES &
PRODUCT INFORMATION #1 2012

2 FUTURE BY SEMCON 1.2012
42NEWANTIBIOTICS
THATSAVELIVES
LytixBiopharmaisonthewayto
solvingoneoftoday’smajormedical
problems–multi-resistantbacteria.
Semconishelpingthecompanywith
itsclinicaltrials.
1 2
3
ANTIBIOTIKA MOT RESISTENTA BAKTERIER
Peptid LTX-109 fäster på
cellmembranet.
Bakte
sprän
inte f
Tradit
cellen
då får
resist
47FOGPUTSOUTFIRES
MOREEFFECTIVELY
UltraFog’ssprinklersystemwith
waterfogisnotjusteffective–italso
reduceswaterdamage.Semconhas
helpedwiththeirdevelopmentand
documentation.
22MEETSEMCON’S
SHARPESTMINDS
InSemconBrainsyouwillmeetAnnsofi
Nihlén,whoknowshowdrugsreact
withinthebody,DavidGillblom,who
focusesonsustainability,andKalleMag-
nusson,whoco-designedtheVolvoV60.
CONTENTS # 1.2012ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE OF FUTURE BY SEMCON
EDITORIAL
The race against time
P
roduct development is moving faster
and faster. In order not to fall behind
the global competition, companies need
to develop more products in less time,
products that are also becoming more complex.
Time is playing an increasingly important role
in this competition. Being first has become in-
creasingly important in a world where custom-
ers choose the most affordable and best prod-
uct, regardless of where it originates.
AT SEMCON we have over 30 years’experience of
helping our customers with this challenge – to
get the best product onto the market as quickly
as possible. In this issue of Future you can read
more about the importance of what is known as
time to market and the methods that can help
you win the race against the clock.
WE ARE ALSO proud in this issue to take you
with us on assignments with companies such
as Getinge, Gordon Murray Design, Lytix, Ultra
Fog and Forsmark. Medical technology, vehicles,
pharmaceuticals, fog sprinkler systems and nu-
clear power. No challenge is too difficult for us.
ON 26 APRIL I hand over the baton to Markus
Granlund, who will become Semcon’s new
CEO. You can read more about him on page 51.
Semcon’s nomination committee has proposed
that I return to the post of Chairman of the
Board. I would like to thank our customers and
employees for four wonderfully exciting and
eventful years as CEO and I look forward to fol-
lowing the future development of both Semcon
and our customers. 1
KJELLNILSSON–CEO,SEMCON
26SMALLCAR,
GREATSAFETY
GordonMurrayDesignhastakena
revolutionaryapproachtoautomo-
tivedevelopmentwithitsT27electric
car.AlongwithSemcon,theyhave
alsomadeasmallcarverysafe.
32THECONNECTED
CONSUMEROFTHEFUTURE
Youngpeopletodaydonotrecognizea
lifewithout theinternet.Consumer
expertMikeWalshtravelstheworldto
seehowthisphenomenonaffectsfuture
consumption.
FUTURE
BYSEMCON
INYOURIPAD
Look for“Semcon”
in App Store

FUTURE BY SEMCON 1.2012 3
Website: 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, e-mail: 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. Editor:
Katarina Misic. Designer:Mathias Lövström.Website: spoon.se Repro: Spoon Printing:TrydellsTryckeri,Laholm.Translation:Cannon
Språkkonsult.ISSN: 1650-9072.
6Theproductrace
Developinggoodproductsisnotenough
withtoday’sglobalcompetition.You
mustalsomakesureyou’refast.Future
looksatwhytimetomarketcouldbe
yourmostimportantchallenge.

24
PAGE
PEOPLE #1.2012PEOPLE IN THIS ISSUE OF FUTURE BY SEMCON
26
PAGE
professorgordonmurray,ceoandtechnical
director,gmd,england
Howimportant istimetomarket forelectricvehicles?
“It isprobablymoreimportant forelectricvehicles thaninternal
combustionenginevehiclesbecauseyouhave tosettleon thebattery
technologyand thepowerelectronicssystemyouaregoing touse,
and these technologiesaremovingalongat quitearate.Thereismore
pressurewithbatteryelectricvehicles tocapture thecurrent technol-
ogyandget it out there.”
Getting products to market faster is becoming
increasingly important. Meet some people in Future
by Semcon speaking on the subject of time to market.
anderspettersson,globalproductmanager,loading
equipment,getingeinfectioncontrolab,getinge,sweden
Howimportant isit tobefirst withaproduct inthemedicalsector?
“Ourindustryhaslonglead timesandisless technology-intensive than theautomotive
industry,forexample.It iscontrolledbyregulationsandit isdifficult fornewplayers toenter
themarket.Getingeisaleaderinitsfield.WhenweproducedournewSMARTproducts,we
coulddistanceourselvesfurtherfromourcompetitors.”
annsofinihlén,pharmacokineticist,semconstockholm,sweden
Howcanyouhelpcustomersinthepharmaceuticalsectortoreducetheirtimetomarket?
“Alot ofit isabout strategy.Wekeepadvisingourcustomers touse theright skillsandmake
theright studiesat theright time.Selecting theright patient group to test drugson,and
runningmultiplestudiesinparallelmayalsobeways toreduce time tomarket.”
16
PAGE

heddawold,clinicaltesting
managerandprojectmanager,lytix
biopharma,oslo,norway
Howisthepharmaceuticalsector
workingtoget productsout faster?
“Verygoodplanningis themost important thing.For
smallbusinessesit isimportant topurchasequality
servicesfrompartnerswhowecan trust.Electronicdata
collectioninclinicalstudiesmayprovideanimportant
advantage.Onaverage,it savesbetweenoneand two
monthsperstudy,whichcouldlead toadrug
beinglaunchedsixmonthsearlier.”
davidgillblom,sustainabilityand
hmiengineer,semcongöteborg,sweden
Moreandmoreproductsarebeingproducedfaster–canyou
combinethat trendwithaperspectiveonsustainability?
“Right nowIhave tosayno.In thefutureIamconvinced that it will
bepossible.I hopeso.But it dependson theproduct,theprocess
andenergy.If theproduct isfullyrecyclablewithout losingquality
during theprocessit ispossible.We’renot thereyet with
complexproducts–it’sstillmostlyavisionsofar.”
kallemagnusson,vehicledesigner,
semcongöteborg,sweden
Isit possibletostreamlinethedesignprocesswith
thingslikecarswithout losingcreativity?
“Yes,but youhave to thinkof thedesignprocessas
agiant machine.Inorder tobeable tostreamlineit,
youhave tohaveveryclearspecificationsfrom the
client at theoutset.Thenit canmovemorequickly
fromconcept toproduction.”
25
PAGE
42
PAGE
22
PAGE

FOCUS:
TIME TO MARKET

THE
FASTEST
WINSTherace toget yourproductsonto the
market asquicklyaspossiblehasnever
been tougher.Fierceglobalcompetition
forcustomersmeans that noonecan
afford tobeslow.However,tobecome
thefastest alsomeansbecoming the
smartest.Theright strategy toreduce
the time tomarket is thekey tosuccess.
TEXT PETER HAMMARBÄCK & KATARINA MISIC PHOTOS PAUL BRADBURY, MIELE,
SCANIA, MANU FERNANDEZ, ISTOCKPHOTO & ROINE MAGNUSSON

1
JUNE
2006
After 26 years, Olli-Pekka
Kallasvuo had finally realised
his dream. As of now, he was
CEO of the world’s largest
telecommunications
company, Nokia. Then, the
former rubber and paper
manufacturer posted a record profit of EUR 7.2
billion, and despite a smaller market share in
the US, nothing looked like hampering the
company’s continued dominance. Just a couple
of years later, Nokia’s shares had plummeted
by 66 per cent and its sales by 88 per cent.
The start of Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo’s nightmare
could be traced back to one moment: 9 January
2007, when Steve Jobs introduced Apple’s first
iPhone with the words“today Apple is going
reinvent the telephone”. In 2011, Apple overtook
Nokia as the world’s largest manufacturer of
smart phones (Nokia is still largest in terms of
total mobile phone sales). The year before, the
iPhone topped the sales charts in Nokia’s home
market, Finland, a particularly painful setback
for the Finnish national symbol.
In 2007, when Apple revealed its iPhone
with its touchscreen, Nokia models still had
12-key keyboards. When Nokia introduced its
touchscreen the following year, they still had
menus designed for their old models. What
took two or three steps to do on an iPhone
took four or five steps to do on a Nokia.
IN 2008, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo realized that
competition from the iPhone would not go
away. Despite several experiments with new
models, Nokia continued to lose market
share, sales and credibility in the smartphone
market. In September 2010 Kallasvuo was
replaced by former Microsoft boss Stephen
Elop, the company’s first non-Finnish CEO.
He quickly scrapped Nokia’s Symbian operat-
ing system and allied them with Microsoft
and their Windows Phone operating system.
The first Windows Phone model was pre-
sented in late 2011.
It took Steve Jobs two and a half years to bring
the iPhone onto the market in 2007. It took
Nokia over four years to produce something
that could be considered a worthy competitor.
Meanwhile, Nokia has lost a staggering EUR 60
billion in market value since 2007. Whether the
collaboration with Microsoft will finally reverse
Nokia’s decline remains to be seen.
“The market is changing. The whole smart
phone data transformation is a window that
will last for one or two more years. Then the
market will be saturated. The question is: can
Nokia and Microsoft come up with relevant
phones fast enough?”says Pal Zarandy of the
Finnish strategy company Rewheel to the New
York Times.
The key word for both Nokia’s failure and
the company’s potential comeback is speed.
Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo did not succeed quickly
enough and with the right products in re-
sponding to Apple’s revolutionary telephone,
and when his replacement Stephen Elop took
up the reins in 2010, the focus was on bringing
new models onto the market faster, through an
alliance with Microsoft, in order to make the
window mentioned above by Pal Zarandy.
“By using Microsoft’s operating system,
Nokia has trimmed its time to market for new
handsets by two-thirds,”said Elop to the New
York Times, in conjunction with the launch of
its first Windows Phone model.
In a world where consumers are continually
looking for the latest thing, a fast time to mar-
ket is a high priority. No consumer who can
afford it wants to buy last year’s mobile phone,
car or even dishwasher. New models create at-
tention, which will hopefully lead to important
mass media coverage for the product. Neither
does any company want to spend more money
and time than necessary in developing and
manufacturing their products. Whether it is
about reducing time in the manufacturing pro-
cess or in product development, ensuring that
the product reaches the consumer and starts
generating revenue is everything.
HOWEVER, this hasn’t always been the case.
Thirty years ago, companies like Polaroid,
Xerox, IBM and Ford could thrive on long de-
velopment cycles, high stock levels and a high
percentage of their products being remodelled.
Capital and scale decided the winner. Now that
the internet and globalization are part of every
one’s daily life, the way companies compete
with each other has changed. Reaching the
customer first with the right products at the
“The capacity to reach
the market first – or
to copy quickly – is
essential.”
Dan Markowitz, time to market expert
FOCUS:
TIME TO MARKET
What is time to market?
Timetomarket(TTM)isdefinedasthetime
it takesfromwhenaproductconceptis
createduntilitisavailableforsale.Theshort-
erthetime,thefasteracompanycanmake
moneyontheirproductandhopefullytake
significantmarketsharefromcompetitors.
+

lowest possible cost has become what separates
the winners from the losers. The American
time to market expert, Dan Markowitz, a resi-
dent of Apple’s home state of California, says
that the time from idea to finished product is
of paramount importance for a successful busi-
ness in today’s fast moving economy:
“Time to market is crucial today. In a
global economy, with immediate and freely-
accessible communication, any company can
copy another company’s ideas and products
cheaply. The capacity to reach the market first
– or to copy quickly – is essential.”
The importance of launching products
quickly is highly dependent on the type
of market in which the company operates.
Anders Richtnér, head of research at the de-
partment of business and management at the
Stockholm School of Economics, believes that
time to market is most important for those
companies who need to get more and more
products onto the market, have low profit
margins and also who invest a lot of capital in
product development.
“These companies have to bring out their
products very quickly. If you operate in a sec-
tor like this, it is automatically difficult to
make money,”he says.
Another key factor in the greater focus on
time to market is the increasingly intense
global competition.
“Today, large corporations are trying to
create a global market. So they have to battle
against many more competitors, as there are
a lot of companies in the same market. Many
manufacturing companies try to create a tem-
porary monopoly for a new product, but the
window for this is getting smaller. It’s very
difficult to achieve a temporary monopoly on
a global level nowadays,”says Richtnér.
Achieving this coveted temporary mo-
nopoly brings two advantages: a good chance
of high sales initially, and the opportunity to
charge a higher price for the product because
no one else is offering the same thing. How-
ever, again, the possibility of achieving such a
monopoly has become increasingly difficult.
A Dutchman buying a new flat screen TV is
just as likely to buy a Korean LG as a domes-
tic Philips. A Finn looking for a new phone
might go for HTC’s new Sensation model
from China, even though he grew up with
Nokia telephones. And an American think-
ing of buying a car could soon drive home an
Indian Mahindra SUV, manufactured in Korea,
instead of a Ford from Detroit. In Mafia circles
they would call this a‘lack of loyalty.’In this
context, we talk about customers’ ‘increasing
sophistication’:
“Consumers have become more sophis-
ticated, more demanding,”says Richtnér.
They have more knowledge about what they
are buying, they compare different products
and know what is on its way out. Neither is
it certain that a product that works well in
Scandinavia will sell equally well in India.
Companies have to look at volume on a global
basis, while providing product diversity at a
local level.
OF COURSE, the question everyone is strug-
gling with is: how to get your products onto
the market faster? The answer is complex and
rooted in the importance of time to the par-
ticular industry you work in. There are many
methods, and the one you choose depends
as much on the prospects for the industry
you operate in as the objectives you pursue.
However, when considering time to market, it
is almost impossible not to start with Toyota
and their Lean philosophy, which took them
to the top of the automotive industry.
“I am a committed supporter of lean
product development in order to cut time to
Nokia’s former CEO,Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo,presents a new model at the telecoms trade show in
Barcelona,on 12 February 2008,almost a year after the iPhone was launched.It will be 2011 before
Nokia can exhibit,according to experts,a worthy competitor to the iPhone.By then Olli-Pekka
Kallasvuo will no longer be with the company.
FOTO:MANUFERNANDEZ/SCANPIX

W
ithcertainprojectsit isex-
tremelyimportant that the
product comes tomarket at
aparticular time.Project managerJo-
hannaGrimmefält worksonprojectslike
this,currentlyforalargemedicaldevice
company.Thekey tosuccessisinvesting
energyintoplanning theproject andits
productionprocesses.
“Bymakingit clearhowaprocess
shouldwork,youcansavealot of time,”
shesays.
Herexperienceinimplementinglean
productionhasbeengained through
themanyprojectsshehascompleted
forvariousclients.Essentiallyit’sabout
gooddocumentationandsubsequently
refining themethods that hasshown to
beeffective.Thisaccuratedocumenta-
tionmakesit easy toidentifywhat can
beoptimized.
“It takesboth timeandknowledge to
writeprocessdescriptions,but youget
alot out ofit.If thereisdocumentation,
otherprojectsin theorganizationcan
use thesamemethodand thenobvi-
ouslyalot of timecanbesaved.”
ForJohannaGrimmefältlean
productionistheanswer
PlanninganddocumentationareJohannaGrimmefält’stools
formanagingtimetomarket.Bymakingprocessesleaner,she
helpsherclientsbringtheirproductstomarketquickly.
TEXT JONAS FRANZÉN PHOTO NICKE JOHANSSON
THESPECIALIST
Johanna Grimmefält
Title: Project Manager
Office: Semcon,Göteborg,Sweden
It’snot just about documentinghow
it went,but alsoabout howaprocess
shouldproceed.Certainprocesses that
shouldbeclearlydocumentedinad-
vanceare theinternalchainsofapproval.
Evenbefore theproject starts,it has to
beclearwhowill take thedecisionsand
when theyare tobemade.
“Thechainsofapprovaldon’t neces-
sarilyhave tobeshort,but theyshould
befast,”sheexplains.
Another thing that isimportant to
ensureyoufinishon timeis toget the
suppliers todeliveron time.Therecould,
forexample,bedeliveriesofmachines
andmaterials that areessentialinorder
tostart production.Youcanalsouse
different methodshere.Oneis toallow
peopleat different levelsof thecompany
tohavedirect contact.
“Ifaseniormanagerphonesandasks
how thingsaregoing,thisdemonstrates
theimportanceof theproject.It hasa
guaranteedeffect,”shesays.
Sheisconvinced that it pays toplan
anddocument,just asalackofplanning
cancauseproblems.
“Unlesseveryoneworkingon the
project,bothinternalandexternal,isin
agreement about theprocessright up
until theproduct isfinished,thewhole
project isat risk.Leanhassomethingfor
everyone.”1

market. Just look at Toyota: they have long
been able to develop cars within three years,
compared to five years for the Big Three car-
makers in Detroit. For a complex product like
a car, 40 per cent is a fantastic reduction in
time to market,”says Dan Markowitz.
The Toyota“lean”concept is nothing new
for most people with the slightest interest in
the manufacturing industry. A short sum-
mary of this Japanese production theory: find
all errors immediately and eliminate every-
thing in the production process that does not
create value for end users.
“Many companies try to copy Toyota’s lean
approach, but this often just ends up with
a couple of nice PowerPoint pictures about
working more effectively, and not much more.
Toyota is absolutely outstanding and it still has
an enormous advantage. They are lean in their
whole way of thinking and being,”Richtnér says.
THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY has been forced to
be innovative in finding ways to launch their
products more quickly and cheaply, rang-
ing from standard platforms used for several
models and facelifts of existing models to ex-
tend their lifetime, to previously unthinkable
alliances where bitter rivals work together to
develop costly new technologies. However,
success is often determined before these
measures are taken.
“Ultimately, vehicle manufacturers need
to make decisions about which products to
invest in, and then carry out those decisions.
In the automotive industry there are so many
possible development paths, so it is even more
important to do the right things. It may sound
simple, but it is difficult when you have a
product that won’t come onto the market for
three years. Then it mustn’t fail,”says Stefan
Ohlsson, head of Automotive RD at Semcon.
One company that has had to make a lot
of decisions in a short time is Volvo Cars.
Since the company was sold to the Chinese
company Geely in 2010, CEO Stefan Jacoby
has had a lot to do. However, how things are
really going for him and the company can’t be
gauged by this year’s results. We won’t know
until 2015.
“I think I can safely say that no car
manufacturer in history has so dramatically
changed its methods from one generation
to another as we are doing now. With a new
platform, new engines and new models, we
will be a completely different company in
about three or four years,”he said in an inter-
view in Veckans Affärer.
The long product development times
naturally provide considerable opportuni-
ties to save time throughout the process. A
report from the analysts Oliver Wyman shows
that focus on reducing time to market has the
greatest impact on stimulating performance
within product development: reducing time
to market has an impact of 25–50 per cent,
compared to cutbacks in RD at 14–30 per
cent and reduced unit costs with an impact of
2–11 per cent.
If a car manufacturer decides to increase its
range from 10 to 15 models, the question is:
how to do it most effectively? One way is to
do everything yourself and increase resources
at every stage, which is a risky move in the
automotive industry, as it is sensitive to
economic conditions. Another way is to limit
your own scope and let others do the work.
“Outsourcing development projects to
partners such as Semcon has a much greater
effect on both time to market and total cost
than other measures, something that all the
major car manufacturers have begun to realize.
If we can reduce product development time by
just a few months, this means big profits for
our customers,”says Stefan Ohlsson.
An area where time to market will be criti-
cal in the next few years is environmental
technology. The fact that Toyota produced
the first hybrid car, the Prius, gave them a
big advantage in the market, one that is still
noticeable even though the car was launched
in 1997. Whoever is first to take the next leap
in areas such as electricity, hybrid and fuel
efficiency will gain significant market share in
an already competitive car market.
And it’s not just in the automotive indus-
try that companies are competing to be first
to market with new environmental technolo-
gies. In the cleantech industry, time to market
is also one of the most important challenges.
Whoever manages to develop even cheaper
and more energy-efficient solar panels, wind
turbines, biofuels or hydropower will have a
great head start on their competitors.
THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY’S capacity for inno-
vation in terms of time to market is attracting
covetous looks from several directions. Two
quirky collaborations seen in recent years have
been between the pharmaceutical manufac-
turer AstraZeneca and Jaguar Land Rover, and
between GlaxoSmithKline and McLaren. In
both cases, the aim is for the pharmaceutical
companies to learn from the automotive in-
dustry’s speed of innovation and production.
The golden days of the pharmaceutical in-
dustry, when big sellers like Losec and Lipitor
brought huge profits, are over. Nowadays, the
industry is struggling with expired patents,
a lack of new big-selling products, increased
competition from generic companies, and
increased regulatory demands on new drugs.
In this context, a mere 10 per cent of drugs
tested on humans becoming revenue-gener-
ating products is not good enough. Further-
more, original concept to launch normally
takes around 10–15 years.
“The automotive industry has been through
a huge number of structural changes yet is
still a hugely innovative sector and a growth
industry in many countries and for many
players. This is something that others can
learn from,”Vivian Hunt of the consulting
“For a complex product like a
car, 40 per cent is a fantastic
reduction in time to market.”
Dan Markowitz, time to market expert
FOCUS:
TIME TO MARKET

company McKinsey told Reuters.
According to Porsche Consulting, average
product development time in the automotive
industry has fallen by 28 per cent in recent
years, while in the pharmaceutical industry it
has risen by 31 per cent over the same period.
“In terms of production costs, the auto-
motive industry may be a model for other
industries. The amount of high tech that is
offered at affordable prices in today’s cars is
remarkable,”Reto Hess of Credit Suisse Pri-
vate Banking told Reuters.
AN INDUSTRY WITH completely different devel-
opment cycles to the automotive and phar-
maceutical industries is the fashion industry.
Again, there is a huge focus on getting their
products onto the market quickly, but it’s a
case of weeks rather than years. One example
is the Spanish fashion chain Zara. The cliché
about Spaniards having a‘mañana mañana’
mentality feels far from the truth and unde-
served when you hear about their production
process: from the original sketch it only takes
a couple of weeks until the garment is in the
shops. This method is based largely on verti-
cal integration – that is to say that Zara owns
the entire production chain: from the design
department, through factories, right up to the
stores. Zara outsources less than many of its
competitors in the fashion industry, resulting
in shorter lead times.
The financial cost of keeping it all‘in the
family’is, however, higher, not least because
of higher labour costs in Zara’s factories in
Europe compared with Asian outsourcers. But
Zara’s calculations seem to indicate that it is
worth it. The design department in A Coruña,
consisting of 200 people, designs 40,000
garments each year, of which over 10,000
become physical items. This is far more than
most competitors. Through the internal
network, patterns are sent directly from the
designer to the factory, which is often located
nearby. Within days, the garments are put to-
gether. Within two weeks they are hanging in
the stores. Zara’s production process means
that a garment is often discontinued when the
FOCUS:
TIME TO MARKET
waysto
improvetime
tomarket8
A car worker in theToyota factory,working according to Lean.
1 SIX SIGMA
Amethodologydevelopedby
Motorolain the1980s.Lessfocuson
logistics thaninLean,moreemphasis
onstatistics,measurement andleader-
ship.About eliminatingvariationin
processesformaximumefficiency.Very
hierarchical.
2 “THE PLATFORM MODEL”
It takesalong time toreinvent the
wheelbeforeeachproductlaunch.Com-
panieswhofindaplatformfromwhich
tolauncharangeofproductshavea
lot togain.Newflavoursofcarbonated
waterareoneexample.Thebottleis
thesame,thecontent is99percent the
same,but withanewflavourandlabel
it becomesanewproduct tomarket.
3 LEAN
Developedin theautomotive
industry. Fordwasanearlyadopterof
assembly-lineproduction,but today
LeanisassociatedwithToyota.Involves
eliminatingeverythingin theproduc-
tionprocessnot creatingvalueforend
users,andincorporating“just in time”
deliveries..
4 PARTNERSHIP
Strongpartnershipswithashared
agendaareeverythingindevelopment
projects.Apartnercancontributewith
skills that youdon’t haveinyourown
companyorreinforcewithmoreman-
powerinkeyareasand thusget thejob
donefasterandwithbetterquality.
There are many methods for getting products
to market quickly.Future by Semcon has listed
some of the most common.
PHOTO:ISTOCKPHOTO

clothing giant would actually have been able
to sell more of it. However, this same method
leads to the fashion retailer coming out with
new products all the time, leading to custom-
ers returning to the shops more often.
“They have created a feeling of anticipation
in their customers, who want to snap up new
items before they sell out. It keeps sales high
throughout the year, while keeping costly
price reductions to a minimum,”the analyst
Kris Miller told Bloomberg Business Week.
It’s hard to talk about the subject of time
to market and not return to the example of
Apple. Time and time again they have shown
how a product can change an entire indus-
try, whether we’re talking about computers,
music, telephones, tablets or TV. Apple was
never the first company in these markets, but
once they decided the focus of their product,
they were quick to develop it and leave com-
petitors behind.
THIS SPEED HAS been achieved in several ways.
Firstly, due to the clear leadership of for-
mer CEO Steve Jobs. The story of how Apple
developed the iPad is a prime example of this
clarity. After having come across a Microsoft
employee at several dinners, who bragged
about how good their Windows tablet would
be, Jobs decided to show what a tablet could
really do. He gathered his team and gave them
the instruction:
“I want to make a tablet, and it can’t have a
keyboard or a stylus.”
Another key factor in Apple’s speed is their
ability to link to resources outside of Apple,
so-called‘open innovation’. For example, the
iPod was taken from concept to prototype in
eight weeks and to finished product in six
months thanks to engaging external resourc-
es to develop both software and hardware.
Instead, Apple focused on its core business:
ergonomics, design and the ability to under-
stand customers’expectations.
Vertical integration, lean, open innova-
tion, standardization and platforms, external
development assistance – all of these methods
help companies save both time and money.
However, many industries and companies have
also reached a certain plateau in their quest to
improve time to market, having streamlined
for a long time. For these companies, product
development has reached the same phase the
100 metres sprint. You can shave a hundredth
here and there by coming out of the starting
blocks a little faster, improving your finish,
trying new shoes and clothing to reduce air
resistance, and so on. But on the whole, there
is not much to streamline. A few hundredths
of a second each year are gained, but not much
more. Then suddenly, a Usain Bolt comes along
and finds ten hundredths in a perfect race.
IN RECENT YEARS, computer simulations have
been responsible for a‘Usian Bolt effect’
within product development. When compa-
nies started to test their products virtually
instead of physically it meant that time to
“My advice is to stop for a
moment and clear up some other
strategic issues, firstly: what are
we competing with? Where will
we become profitable?”
Anders Richtnér, Stockholm School of Economics
5 SIMULATION
Different typesofcomputer
simulationfacilitateandspeedup the
testingofnewproductsormanufactur-
ingsystems.Withsimulation,youcan
understandearlyonhowproductsand
systemswillbehavein therealworld
andfinderrors that wouldotherwise
havecauseddelays..
6 “OPEN INNOVATION”
Apple’sSteveJobswasakeenad-
vocateof‘stealing’goodideasfromoth-
ers, or‘openinnovation’,asit ismorepo-
litely termed.Theconcept waslaunched
in2003andinvolvescompaniesusing
externalideas,innovationsandpractices
aswellasinternalones,toachievemore
effective technicaldevelopment.
7 AGILE METHODS
Theagileapproachisusedprimar-
ilywithsoftware,andisaparadigm
shift from theearlier‘waterfall’model.
Theagileapproachhaslessemphasis
ondocumentationandmorefocuson
flexibility toachieve thebest results.
8 “FOLLOW THE SUN”
Companieswithoperations
around theglobecanmaximize the
effectivenessofdevelopment projects
throughplanningaccording to time
zones.Example:a teamprogrammerin
SiliconValleywillworkuntil6pm,and
then turn the taskover toa teamin
Bangalore,India,whereit is7:30am.
Strain simulation on a mobile phone design. Steve Jobs presents a new iPod model.
PHOTO:COMSOL
FOTO:ISTOCKPHOTO

market could be cut significantly for many.
More and more companies use things such as
CAD and CFD (computational fluid dynamics)
for design, and in a simulated environment to
see how the products operate and function.
CFD, which can analyze how products meet
air currents, withstand cooling and chemical
reactions, etc., is the latest big trend. When
the summer Olympics were held in Beijing
in 2008, for example, 89 per cent of all the
swimming medallists wore a special swimsuit
– the Speedo LZR Racer.
“When I dive into the water with the suit,
I feel like a rocket,”the American swimming
star (sponsored by Speedo) Michael Phelps
said at a press event. He won eight Olympic
golds in the Speedo costume. CFD simulation
had an important role in the development of
the super-suit, which maybe after all was a bit
too fast for its own good: after the Olympics
it was banned by the International Swimming
Federation as it was considered ’technologi-
cal doping’.
A 2011 INVESTIGATION conducted by the Ab-
erdeen Group shows that companies that use
CFD simulations during product develop-
ment reduce product development time by
28 per cent.
Further
more, the
study also finds
that CFD users, to
a greater extent than
those not testing with
CFD, produce products
that meet quality standards,
revenue requirements and cost
requirements. The main reason is that
design and functionality faults are detected
in an earlier phase of product development.
CFD itself, however, is a relatively sophis-
ticated form of simulation. Simpler types of
simulations are also used, for example, by the
German white goods manufacturer Miele.
A few years ago, they started to test user
behaviour with a 3D simulation called CAVE
–“Computer Aided Virtual Environment”.
They send a tester into a room with 3D pro-
jections of a kitchen on the walls, and ask the
tester to turn the oven on, for example, which
does not actually yet exist physically – only
on the product developer’s drawing board.
“The need for physical and relatively ex-
pensive models is reduced drastically with
the new technology, which of course saves
time and money,”said Miele’s senior designer
Andreas Enslin about the CAVE tests.
The next step within simulation may be
that the much vaunted‘cloud’will lead to
companies being able to start testing sooner.
Today it can take a relatively long time to get
started on simulation because of software,
training and programming. With cloud com-
puting, this time is likely to reduce.
“FASTER IS, ALMOST ALWAYS, BETTER. From
decision making to business settlements to
communication to product introduction, it is
almost always speed that decides the com-
petitive edge”is a frequently-published quote
from GE’s legendary CEO Jack Welch. Getting
products to market quickly is undoubtedly
important for many companies, but there are
other success factors, quality perhaps being
the most important. Only focusing on time to
market, and ignoring all other objectives, is not
a wise strategy,”believes Anders Richtnér of
the Stockholm School of Economics. He means
that companies have to answer several ques-
tions before even considering time to market.
“There is sometimes a lot of focus on
method. You feel stressed because everything
is moving faster. My advice is to stop for a mo-
ment and clear up some other strategic issues,
firstly: what are we competing with? Where
will we become profitable? The basis of any
successful business is understanding who your
customers are and what their needs are.”1
FOCUS:
TIME TO MARKET
1 ZARA
Byowning theentireproductionchain–
verticalintegration–andhavingdesigners,seam-
stresses,logisticsdepartment andstorepersonnel
whoalwaysseem tobeon thestartingblocks,Zara
garmentsarein theshop twoweeksafter thefirst
sketchisfinished.
2 PENGUIN BOOKS
ThepublisherPenguinwanted tospeedup
itsbookpublication.Producinga traditionalbook,
fromconcept toshelf,often takesseveralyears.
Withitse-bookcompanyPenguinShorts,fornovel-
lasandshort stories,theycanproduceane-bookin
about amonth.
3 SCANIA
Bybuilding their trucksfromfinishedmod-
ules,whichcanbecombinedinmanydifferent
ways,Scaniacandeliveruniqueproducts toallits
customersinless time.Modularizationsimplifies
andminimizes
thenumberof
component var-
iantswithout
compromising
customization
andproduction
efficiency.
4 MIELE
White
goodsmanu-
facturer
Mieleuses
simula-
tions to
shorten
time to
market.By
studyinguser
behaviourin3D
environments they
understandquickerwhat
theyhave tochangeanddonot need tocreate
physicalmodels to thesameextent.
5 APPLE
ThesecretivecompanyApple’sdevelop-
ment modelseems tobelargelybasedonfinding
theskillsneededforeachindividualproject.They
recognizewhen theirownemployeesneedhelp,
andbringinanyexternalexpertiserequired toget
theproduct finishedon time.Thefirst iPodwas
completedinsixmonthsbecause thecompany
brought inoutsidehelp.
6 TOYOTA
Theworld’slargest automaker tookFord’s
“assembly-line”approachandrefinedit intowhat
isnowknownasLeanorToyotaProductionSystem.
Somekeys tohowToyotaworks:optimizingflows,
minimizingwasteinproductionandstopping
theprocess themoment afault isdiscoveredina
product andfixingit.
companiesthat
succeededinreducing
theirtimetomarket6

S
imulation can help you to cal-
culate the optimum design and
placement for a wind turbine.
Or how turbine blades in a jet engine
should be designed to be as effective
as possible. Or how much noise a car
makes at different speeds and on
different surfaces. And many other
things. All this even before there is a
physical product to look at and test.
“What youcancalculateisreallyonly
limitedbyyourimagination.Progressis
constantlybeingmadeandhasgained
momentum thanks toincreasedcomput-
ingpower,”saysPontusWettrell,headof
ComputerAidedEngineeringat Semcon.
Reducingcosts,improving thequality
of theendproduct andbringing the
PontusWettrellsavestime
withsimulations
Simulationandcalculationdomorethansimplydetecting
problemsatanearlystage.Theyalsohelpsyoutotesttheright
thingsandtovisualizetheproductbeforeitevenexists.ForPontus
Wettrell,simulationisashortcuttoafastertimetomarket.
TEXT JONAS FRANZÉN PHOTO NICKE JOHANSSON
THESPECIALIST
Pontus Wettrell
Title: Head of CFD
Multiphysics
product tomarket asquicklyaspossible,
are themainreasonswhycompanies
choose tomakeuseofsimulationsand
calculationswhendevelopinganew
product.Thegoalis todetect potential
problemsearlyin thedevelopment
process.
“Byusingcalculationsandsimula-
tions,youcanfindagreat dealof the
problemsin theconceptualphase.”
Makingasmanychangesaspossible
beforestarting todevelopprototypes
savesbothmoneyand time,asit requires
fewer test items.
“However,thereisnoconflict between
simulationand testing.Theideais that
themethodsshouldcomplement one
another.With thehelpofagoodsimula-
tionyoucanbetterdeterminewhat is to
be testedandhowit shouldbecarried
out.That wayyoucanuseprototypes
and test items toconfirmwhat you’ve
previouslyworkedout,insteadoffinding
faultsfor thefirst time,”saysWettrell.
Historically,most companieshave
reliedprimarilyon testing,but over
time,moreandmorehaveincreased the
amount ofcalculationsandsimulations.
“Simulationcanbeused tomake
automaticoptimizationsand through
this tomakeinformedchoicesregarding
thechoiceofdifferent product features.
Thisisbecomingincreasinglyimportant
as today’sproductshavemoreandmore
features.”
Anotheradvantageis that it isnot just
the techniciansinvolvedwhocansee
howaproduct worksat anearlystage.
“Forexample,market strategistscan
get agoodideaof theproduct so that
theycanstart theirwork.It means that
thewholeorganizationhasaheadstart
and the timeit takes todevelopapro
duct canbemadeshorter,”hesays.1

FOCUS:
TIME TO MARKET

Theworld-leadingmed-techcompanyGetingewanted
todevelopanewrangeoftrolleyswithinayear.Therewas
onlyoneopportunitytolaunch–atthemostimportant
industrytradefairinGermany,andnothingcouldgowrong.
Toensurehavingtheproductsreadyintime,Getingechose
tooutsourcetheentireassignmenttoSemcon.
TEXT FLORENCE OPPENHEIM PHOTOS ANDERS DEROS GETINGE
Fast
roll-out
+

etinge is the world’s leading supplier of
complete solutions for effective clean-
ing, disinfection and sterilization in
healthcare and life sciences. After many
years of expansion, the Group consisted
of small islands of companies, products
and manufacturing facilities. Therefore,
in 2009, management decided to review
and restructure parts of its product
range, and achieve economies of scale
with a smaller range of components in higher
volumes.
Their Infection Control business area de-
signs and manufactures autoclaves (sterilizing
machines used for materials like plastic, glass
and metal) and washer-disinfectors (which
clean and disinfect surgical instruments, for
example) for hospitals, clinics, the pharma-
ceutical industry and laboratories. One of
the areas they were starting to overhaul was
peripherals for the advanced washing and
sterilizing machines, primarily trolleys, where
there were many different solutions and
unique variations. Getinge also wanted to im-
prove the design and make it more attractive.
“In this industry, the focus has tradition-
ally been mostly on function, not so much
on design,”says Anders Pettersson, global
product manager for Loading Equipment at
Getinge Infection Control AB.
THERE IS A MAJOR LAUNCH opportunity within
the industry – the medical technology trade
fair Medica in Germany in November each
year. Getinge’s policy is to take part in the
show every other year, and this is why the
launch date was predetermined. The project
had to take just under a year – for the design,
development and production of a completely
new product range.
“Everyone agreed that it was an aggres-
sive schedule,”says Anders Pettersson, then
head of engineering at Getinge’s development
department.“Missing the deadline for the
project, which was named SMART, was not an
option. Such a comprehensive project had to
start immediately, in order to start paying off
the development costs. We couldn’t afford to
wait a further two years to launch.”
Getinge had a number of existing products,
but began in principle with a clean sheet of
paper. They established clearly defined re-
quirements for the new product range, which
was called SMART, after the project. The
goal was to combine attractive design with a
clearer ergonomic profile, better functionality
and a modularized manufacturing system.
“Trolleys are work tools and we wanted
a clear ergonomic profile. They should look
ergonomic and easy to use. We also wanted to
introduce a number of automated features to
facilitate usage,”explains Pettersson.
In order to clarify project responsibilities,
Getinge chose to outsource the entire assign-
ment externally, not just in terms of resources
but also location.
“With the demanding schedule, we were
concerned that the new project could have
interfered with other Getinge projects, if
the work had been carried out in-house. We
therefore chose to make this demarcation, and
outsource the entire responsibility for devel-
oping a finished product. It was a good way for
us to avoid internal prioritization problems.”
THE ASSIGNMENT was divided into three parts:
general administrative project management
with responsibility for regulatory require-
ments and documentation, product design
and assembly and production. After careful
evaluation Semcon was commissioned to lead
and be responsible for design and the manu-
facture of prototypes, and carry out the work
at their own premises.
“We needed a partner who could develop
new functions and produce the relevant soft-
ware, adapt this to the new design and have
access to expertise in several areas, so that
the project could run without interruptions.
Semcon showed great desire and they had
the right people for the assignment,”states
Pettersson.
In the initial phase there was a need for ex-
pertise in mechanics and electronics. One of
the mechanical engineers, Nils Bjerkås, took
“Missing the deadline
was not an option.We
couldn’t afford to wait
a further two years to
launch.”
Anders Pettersson, global product manager for Loading Equipment,
Getinge Infection Control AB
FOCUS:
TIME TO MARKET
G

Nils Bjerkås
Title:Head of Mechanical Design group
Office: Semcon,Göteborg
Anders Pettersson
Title: Global Product Manager,
Loading Equipment
Office:Getinge Infection Control AB,
Getinge

over the technical project management from
Anders Pettersson later in the project.
“They wanted a committed and versatile
person as the project was quite complex,”
says Bjerkås, who is today head of mechanical
design at the Total Design Office department
at Semcon Göteborg. A lot of it involved the
development of a structured modular pro-
gramme with combination options, to reduce
the number of variants in the product range.
NILS BJERKÅS and his colleagues received sug-
gestions and ideas about appearance and
features from industrial designers employed
by Getinge. Their design proposals would
then be integrated into the finished product,
without compromising functionality. In this,
they were successful, as the finished products
are very similar to the preliminary sketch.
Aspects of the old features could be re-used,
developed and adapted to the new design.
They worked hard to find modules to keep the
number of variants down, with the flexibility
to be used in different combinations.
The big challenge was, of course, that the
deadline could not be moved.
“We had to learn to prioritize more than
usual. We had to make decisions and move
on, in order not to get bogged down and
spend too much time on individual aspects.
We had set clear milestones that we followed
very closely.”
Semcon designers worked in parallel with
the project’s industrial designers and the
overall project manager, where good commu-
nication was essential to make progress.
“All parties in the project could sit and
work together in Semcon’s offices in Göte-
borg, which of course made it easier to make
quick decisions on specific matters. This is a
common approach for us at Semcon. It also
makes it easier when you need expertise in
any aspect,”says Bjerkås.
AN EXAMPLE OF this was when they were get-
ting towards the end and needed someone
with skills in technical documentation. An-
other was when they had to build prototypes
and were able to use Semcon’s own prototype
workshops in Göteborg and Jönköping. Most
of the tests were also carried out in Semcon’s
own test centre.
“One challenge with this pressurized
project was that we needed pictures for
manuals and technical information, without
having any finished products to photograph.
A department within Semcon produced
photo-realistic images – images that look
like photographs but are computer-generated.
This allowed us to produce manuals before
the products were even made.”
All SMART products are different types
FOCUS:
TIME TO MARKET
Semconhasdevelopedanewcontrolsys-
temwhere the threeautomaticfeatures
PowerDrive,SemiAutomaticLoading
andaheight-adjustableloading tableare
integrated.Thesystemiscontrolledfrom
apanelon thehandle,andallows theuser
tocontrol thefunctionswithout lettinggo
of thehandle.
In this typeofindustryit iscrucial
that theproductsareeasy toclean
and that therearenoplaceswheredirt
cancollect.Round tubesandrounded
cornerswereincludedinbothdesign
andconstructionworkfrom thestart.

of trolleys for transport and loading. In total
there are over 40 variants - combinations of
size, geometric differences and functions de-
pending on the type of autoclave and custom-
er requirements. The new trolleys have three
automated functions that can be installed
individually or in combinations. The first is
an auxiliary drive - PowerDrive - to reduce
the load on the back and shoulders with heavy
loads. When you press a button an extra
wheel folds down, enabling it to move both
backwards and forwards.
The load tables on the trolleys are height-
adjustable so that the user can always work
at an ergonomically-correct height. The third
feature is an automatic loading function,
which allows the trolley to dock with the front
of the autoclave or washer and automatically
unload with a simple press of a button.
“We had some of these features before, but
weren’t able to combine them. Now, all the
functions can be accessed via an integrated
controller on the handle. Semcon did a good
job of keeping the big picture in mind and de-
veloping the products we had ordered.”
When it was time for launch, Anders Pet-
tersson fell ill, and Nils Bjerkås represented
the products at the Medic Fair. This went
well, and Getinge’s new products stood out
compared with the competition.
“The holistic approach to the product and
design, which is quite daring for this indus-
try, received a lot of positive comments,”says
Pettersson.“We will continue to put more
emphasis on design. Design is not only about
a product looking nice, but it should radiate
precisely the values you want to communi-
cate.”
SALES OF THE NEW SMART products will be
driven by sales of autoclaves and washer-dis-
infectors - it is very rare for Getinge to sell its
trolleys separately.
“2011 was a very good year for us. It
showed that we were right in thinking that
the market wanted this type of complex prod-
uct,”says Pettersson. 1
The trolley’sload tableis
height-adjustableso that the
usercanalwaysworkat an
ergonomically-correct height.
In theconstructionwork
therehavebeenveryspe-
cificweight requirements.
Asmart,neat designand
aframewithroundedcor-
ners that canalsocarryup
to200kg.Thisrequirement
wassolvedwith thehelpof
computer-basedanalysis
(finiteelement analysis)
coupledwith thephysical
testingofprototypes.
PowerDriveisanelectricauxiliarydrivefor
heavyloadsandparticularlyusefulwhenit
has tobestartedfromastandingposition.
With the touchofabuttonon thehandle,
anextrawheelfoldsdown,enablingit to
movebothbackwardsandforwards.
Thewheeldesignwasadapted to theergonomicdesign
andmakes the trolleyeasy tomanoeuvreandrunquietly,
evenwithheavyweights.AchallengeforSemcon,who
afterdialoguewithvarioussuppliersfoundasolution
that meetsall thecustomer’srequirements.
With thesemi-automaticloadingandunloading
operation,theoperatordoesnot have to touch
thehot load.Theproducts tobedisinfectedare
inarackonwheels,placedon the trolley’sload-
ing table.Whenyoupress thebutton,therack
ispushedinto theautoclave,andemergesafter
disinfection.
”Design is not only about a product
looking nice, but it should radiate
precisely the values you want to
communicate.”
Anders Pettersson, Getinge Infection Control

Hållbarhetsexperten
LOREM IPSUM DOLOR DavidGillb-
lomärhandplockad tillSemconför
sinakunskaperomhållbarhet.Hans
jobbäratt säkraallaleverantörsled
miljömässigt –fråndesignoch
produktion tilldistributionoch
återvinning.
–Viserhurenprodukt ärkon-
strueradochhuråtervinningsbar
denär.Exempelvissägerett EU-krav
påbilaratt deskavara85 till90
procent återvinningsbara.Mende
ärlångtifrångjordaav85procent
återvinningsbart material.Vipå
Semconkanutforskadet glappet
ochmöjligheternaatt påverka
tillverkningsprocessen,sägerDavid
Gillblomochfortsätter:
–Viskastöttakundernavarde
änärisinprocess.Det kanhandla
omprojektledningiett tidigt skede
ellerseminarierochworkshops
föratt lärakonstruktörernaom
hållbarhet.Vigårinochhöjermed-
vetandegraden.
Intresset förSemcons tjänster
ärstort –ochväxerinomområdet
hållbarproduktutveckling.
–En tydlig trendäratt fleroch
flervill taett störremiljömässigt
ansvar.Marknadenväxerför tänket
kringhållbarhet ochdet finnsmy-
cket att göradär.Det handlarom
storasatsningarpåekonomiskoch
socialsystemnivå,intebaradetaljer.
DavidGillblom tänkerbåde
smått ochstort.Påsakersomkan
göraskillnad.
–Jagvillförändravärlden.
Hållbarhetsarbetet görnytta.Jag
villatt allapåSemconskakänna
såframöver.Att viverkligengör
någontingochatt vipåverkar
positivt.
DAVID GILLBLOM, HÅLLBARHETS- OCH HMI-INGENJÖR, SEMCON GÖTEBORG, SVERIGE
TEXT MARCUS OLSSON JENS EKELUND
PHOTOS ANDERS DEROS, RICKARD KILSTRÖM
NICKE JOHANSSON
SEMCON
BRAINS
“There is a clear trend for more
and more people wanting to
take greater environmental
responsibility.” David Gillblom, Sustainability
and HMI engineer, Semcon Göteborg

FUTURE BY SEMCON 2.2010 23FUTURE BY SEMCON 1.2012 23
The sustainability
expert
DAVID GILLBLOM washand-pickedbySemcon
forhisknowledgeofsustainability.Hisjobis to
provideenvironmentalassurance throughout
thedevelopment chain–fromdesignandpro-
duction todistributionandrecycling.
“Weseehowaproduct isdesignedand
howrecyclableit is.Forexample,thereisanEU
requirement that carsshouldbe85–90percent
recyclable.But theyarealongwayfrombeing
madefrom85percent recyclablematerial.At
Semconwecanexplore thisgapandopportuni-
ties toinfluence themanufacturingprocess,”says
Gillblom,continuing:
“Wewillsupport customerswherever theyare
in theirprocess.Thiscanincludeproject manage-
ment at anearlystage,orseminarsandwork-
shops to teachdesignersabout sustainability.We
raise thelevelofconsciousness.”
Interest inSemcon’sservicesissubstantial
–andisgrowingwithinsustainableproduct
development.
“Thereisaclear trendformoreandmore
peoplewanting to takegreaterenvironmentalre-
sponsibility.Themarket isgrowingwhenit comes
to thinkingabout sustainabilityand thereisalot
todo there.We’re talkingabout largeinvestments
ineconomicandsocialsystems–not just details.”
Gillblom thinksin termsofboth thelargeand
smallscale.About things that canmakeadiffer-
ence.
“Iwant tochange theworld.Sustainability
workbenefitsus.Iwant everyoneat Semcon to
feellike thisin thefuture.Togenuinelydosome-
thingand that it hasapositiveeffect.”
david gillblom, sustainability and hmi
engineer, semcon göteborg, sweden

ANNSOFI NIHLÉN knows all about
what happens when a drug is
absorbed into the body.Her area
of expertise,pharmacokinetics,is
a small but very important part of
drug development.
“All people are different,weigh
different amounts and have dif-
ferent metabolisms.Therefore,it’s
important to find out how much of
a drug is absorbed and how quickly
it disappears from the body,so that
you can advocate a dosage that is
not dangerous to anyone.”
Early drug development is a new
area within Semcon,currently em-
ploying about twelve people.It’s a
long process between discovering a
molecule and a finished product on
a pharmacy shelf.The process also
requires many different skills.
“We cover a lot in drug develop-
ment and hope to expand further
in the future.”
Pharmacokinetics enters the
process when a molecule has to
be tested on animals and then
humans.As a pharmacokineticist,
Nihlén performs computer simula-
tions and calculations regarding
how animals and humans respond
to the substance.
“Last summer,for example,I ran
simulations to optimize the dosage
of a drug that a company is testing
on cancer patients.”
Previously,Annsofi worked at a
major pharmaceutical company,
but at Semcon she helps a number
of smaller biotech companies with
their drug development.
“It’sreallygreat workingat Semcon
and helping these small companies.
I feel I can contribute with my skills
and do some good.
annsofi nihlén, pharmacokineticist, semcon stockholm, sweden
The pharmaceutical expert
BEHINDTHESCENES
ATSEMCONBRAINS
AnnsofiNihlénusessimulation to
seehowdrugsreact inside thebody.
SeeAnnsofiNihlén talkingabout
what makesherworkexcitingat
semcon.com
SEMCON
BRAINS
PHOTOGRAPHED AT THE SWEDISH MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY EXHIBITION IN STOCKHOLM “MARVELS OF THE HUMAN BODY”

The design expert
KALLE MAGNUSSON co-developed theexterior
designof theVolvoV60.Anassignment where the
creativeprocesswasunique.
“Asarule,you’regivenafewkeywords,but this
timewegot nothing.Thiswas theapproachof
SteveMattin,theheadofdesign.It gaveusfreedom
andfelt challenging.Ihavemyselfbeenemployed
byandworkedatVolvoindifferent positionsforal-
most 30years.Thiswassomethingcompletelynew.
Semconhasastrong traditionofdeliveringits
services to theVolvoCarsdesigndepartment.
“Youstart bypresentingadesignconcept.Then
yougointodetailbeforeit becomesindustrialized.
With theV60,it startedwithadesigncompetition
forin-housedesignersbefore theselectionwas
trimmeddownandwestartedworkingonfull-
scalemodels.
Everyday,Magnussonsees theresult ofwhat the
teamcameupwithalmost fiveyearsago.
“When thecarcameout it was themost extreme
initssector.Thedistinctive thingisitssportiness
andaudacitywithitsclear“coupélines”.Wewere
thinkingsportsestateand that it wouldbevery
Volvo.Wegot someinspirationfrom theclassic
P1800 ES,whichwasbothsportscarandestatecar.”
Magnusson’snext designisonalargerscale.
“I’mworkingwithVolvoBuses.We’recurrently
producinganexteriorforanewbus.Design-wise,
we’re talkingcompletelydifferent perspectivesand
dimensions thanwhat I’veworkedonbefore.It’sa
funchallenge.”
kalle magnusson, vehicle designer,
semcon göteborg, sweden

LegendarycardesignerGordon
Murrayhasswappedspeedfor
efficiency.ButhisT27isnotonly
theworld’smostefficientelectric
car,it’salsoextremelysafe
–thanksinparttoSemcon.
TEXT DAVID WILES PHOTOS MICHAEL ROBERT WILLIAMS GMD
smallis
safe

G
ordon Murray’s master-
piece is the McLaren F1,
a car described by Au-
tocar magazine as“the
finest driving machine
yet built for the public
road”. Not only was the
F1 the world’s fast-
est road car for many
years, but it was also practical; it combined a
top speed of 372km/h with comfort, excellent
driver visibility, plus room for two passengers
– and their luggage.
While Murray’s current project may not
be as sexy or as glamorous, it is no less
groundbreaking. The T27 is the world’s most
fuel-efficient electric car. And not only that:
Murray, with his company Gordon Murray
Design (GMD), has developed a revolutionary
manufacturing process for producing it which
promises lighter, cheaper vehicles that require
less energy to make and with shorter time to
market and less investment. The big automo-
tive OEMs are paying attention and Murray is
expecting big things.
“The idea behind leaving high-performance
cars and starting this business was that it was
the next challenge – and one where we could
make a difference,”he says.“And, I think,
make a good business out of it as well.”
THE MCLAREN F1 and Murray’s electric car, the
T27, may be polar opposites in many ways,
but they have more in common than meets
the eye. For a start there is the seating
configuration, with the driver seated in the
middle of the cockpit with two passengers
behind. Barry Lett, GMD’s design direc-
tor, says the two cars also share a common
packaging philosophy.“The seed of what
was achievable with the occupant packag-
ing and luggage packaging for a small city
car was apparent when we were doing the
McLaren F1,” he says.“Whether you are try-
ing to design a supercar with a small frontal
area for maximum aerodynamic benefit,
or you want to keep the exterior as small
as possible for parking and congestion
benefits, both cars have the same goal: to
optimise the efficiency of the package. And
of course the smaller you make the car, the
easier it is to reduce weight.”
GMD’s focus on shedding weight has led to
a car that – in its petrol-engine format, the
T25 – is exactly 200kg lighter than a similarly-
sized Smart, weighing in at just 575 kg. The
battery-powered T27 still weighs only 680 kg.
Lightweight is key to T27’s remarkable fuel ef-
ficiency – the equivalent of 350 mpg, or 0.81
litres/100km – but it is not everything.“It’s
also the attention to detail,”says Murray, who
made his name as a Formula 1 designer with
Brabham and McLaren.“We focused on the
wheel bearings, tire sizes, low inertia wheels
– this comes from our racing background.
It is such a different approach from a big car
company where the wheels are styled first, and
their size is chosen by the stylists. We are the
opposite; we spent ages trying to get to the
wheel rim as light as we possibly could.”
WHILE THE DESIGN of the T27 is finished and
there are prototypes running, Gordon Murray
Design has no plans to put the car into pro-
duction itself.“We are essentially an intel-
lectual property company, not a car manu-
facturer,”says Murray.“We have devised and
industrialised a new high-volume way of
producing vehicles and we are in the process
of selling as many licenses as we can to as
“Together with Semcon we
have categorically proven
that with the right design,
the right materials and the
right partnership, you can
make small cars very safe.”
Professor Gordon Murray, CEO and technical director, GMD
Gordon Murray’s legendary McLaren F1 has more
in common with theT27 that you might think.

many different companies as we can. T25 and
T27 are physical entities, working examples of
what we have trademarked.”At time of writ-
ing there is interest in the iStream manu-
facturing process from 22 countries.“We are
currently in discussions with a group that
would like to produce T25 and the T27 in the
UK, which would be a real feather in all our
caps,”says Murray. If the deal were signed to-
day, the vehicles could be on the road in about
two years.
MURRAY STARTED exploring the possibilities of
devising a smarter way of building cars in the
early 90s.“Nothing to do with emissions and
fuel consumption in those days, but I started
looking into why there were so few smaller
vehicles around,”he says.“I saw that if you
have to spend EUR 500 million on tooling
for a tiny car, you are not going to make any
money on it. That is why people don’t do it.”
So iStream aims to make small cars fi-
nancially viable to produce.“This is totally
disruptive engineering,”says Murray.“An
iStream plant doesn’t need a stamping plant,
it doesn’t need a body-in-white spot welding
plant, and in some cases it doesn’t even need
a paint plant.”
iStream stands for Stabilized Tube Rein-
forced Exoframe Advanced Manufacturing.
“The exoframe is a very low carbon steel
tube,”explains Murray.“In itself that frame
is not terribly stiff from the point of view of
torsion, bending or crash, but we have a low-
cost composite panel which is then placed
into that frame and bonded to it.”That bond-
ed structure creates immense torsion and
bending stiffness and, most importantly, good
control over crash loads. The rest of the body
in white is a combination of non-structural
injection-moulded plastic panels and some
semi-structural injection moulded panels.
WHEN IT COMES TO automotive safety, the
received wisdom has long been that bigger is
better, but GMD set out to ensure that the
T27 would achieve a minimum four stars in
Euro NCAP tests. Lett says:“T27 was to be an
electric vehicle specifically for city environ-
ments that had to achieve the same level of
safety as cars that are designed to bomb up
and down the motorway at 70mph.”Mur-
ray adds:“Because we have a very different
structure and a very different architecture,
we needed a partner who, like us, is used to
thinking outside the box. We found that in
Semcon.”
Professor Gordon Murray (right,with his design director Barry Lett) wanted a new challenge after his years in Formula 1.With his electric cars,he hopes to show that
the development time can be reduced,that new solutions can be produced economically and that even small city cars can be made safe.
The electric carT27 can hold three adults and
750 litres of luggage,and weighs only 680 kg.

The first of three projects on the T27 in
which Semcon was involved was a feasibility
study looking into what kind of airbag and
seatbelt systems could work with the T27’s
unique architecture.“We had a blank sheet
of paper really because you can’t necessar-
ily apply the wisdom that you have from a
normal car; you have to look at this car on its
merits and come up with a system adapted
for it,”says Nordine Chekaoui, systems
group manager at Semcon UK. Happy with
the results of the feasibility study, Gordon
Murray Design asked Semcon to implement
its solutions into the vehicle using virtual
engineering.
TRADITIONAL VEHICLES usually have side airbags
mounted in seats or doors and Inflatable cur-
tains fitted in the side header rail to protect
against side impacts.“To get airbag systems
to protect body and head in a side impact
crash scenario is quite difficult in this case
because the occupant is in the middle of the
vehicle,”says Chekaoui.“You need a side air-
bag solution that will deploy in time and stay
deployed for long enough for the occupant
to arrive and come into contact with it.”The
other issue was that because of the canopy-
style opening, it was not feasible to fit an
inflatable curtain. Semcon’s solution was to
fit one airbag mounted on the B pillar offering
protection to both body and head.
THE FRONT AIRBAG was also a challenge: how to
install an airbag in a steering wheel as small
as the T27’s.“It is very difficult to find an
airbag that is big enough but that would fit
in such a small wheel,”says Chekaoui.“We
looked at what could be done and came up
with a solution that was reasonable in terms
of being packageable in a small wheel, but still
effective in a crash.”
The next aspect was to devise the seatbelt
system.“The belt geometry was not straight-
forward, with the seat being so far inside the
vehicle,”says Chekaoui.“Normally your belt
hangs from the B pillar and comes across your
chest. With the T27 you are in the centre of
the car and you have occupants behind you
who need to be able to get in and out.”GMD’s
unique solution sees the seatbelt retractor
mounted just behind the seat on the floorpan.
Nordine Chekaoui
Title: Systems Group Manager
Office: Semcon UK
QA
Gordon Murray on theT27’s future
■ How will the T27 change
the automotive industry?
I doubt it will change
everything as at very high
volumes, stamped steel
still makes a lot of sense
from the point of view of
investment. But iStream
still beats it on energy and
lightweight. VW, Audi
and BMW are now push-
ing lightweight, but their
methods are very expensive
and energy intensive. Ours
is the opposite.
■ What challenges do elec-
tric car manufacturers face?
A big obstacle is retail price,
and that is proportional to
the cost of the batteries,
plus the trade-off between
cost and range; a five-seater
family vehicle running on
batteries makes no sense at
all today. Managing a large
battery mass in a crash
is not easy, and there are
issues with the charging
infrastructure.
■ What sales ambitions do
you have for the T27?
At the moment there is no
real opposition besides the
Smart. Smart is self-limit-
ing in its market because it
is a two-seater with a small
boot. T27 holds three adults
and has 750 litres of luggage
space. So we think there is a
much wider market for it.
■ Who is the ideal buyer
for T27?
The biggest segment is the
second or third family car.
Other market segments
are students and first-time
buyers; learner drivers,
or people who have just
passed their test; then
there are commuters and
people who live in the city.
■ What lessons learned in
Formula One have found
their way into T27?
Every single part of the T27
has been optimised for cost
and weight and functionality.
That is something that runs
through the veins of every-
one designing racing cars.

Semcon had to optimise belt functions like
pretensioning and load limiting to work with
the driver airbag system and the interfacing
cabin geometry.
While Semcon’s engineers were at work on
these restraint solutions, Gordon Murray De-
sign asked for assistance in coming up with a
better pulse profile for the T27 – basically to
ensure that the occupants of this very small,
very stiff car do not decelerate too abruptly in
the event of an accident.“By tuning the shape
and thickness of the longitudinal tubes at the
front of the car we could get them to crush in
the right way, to get the maximum amount
of energy management from the tube,”says
Chekaoui.
THE T27 MAY BE TINY, but Murray, Lett and Chek-
aoui are all happy with its level of safety, as well
as the quick development time and the relatively
low cost of the solutions.“Sure, we could have
come up with some totally spectacular solu-
tions, but these would not have been possible
in real life because they would have been too
expensive,”says Chekaoui.“Our solutions are
concepts, but they are manufacturable.”
Murray says the safety work done by the
two companies has implications not just
for the T27 project but for the automotive
industry as a whole.“There is a huge stigma
attached to the safety of small cars,”he says.
“Together with Semcon we have absolutely
and categorically proven that with the right
design, the right materials and the right part-
nership, you can make small cars very safe.
And we have demonstrated that both from an
analysis point of view, and from testing. That
is a very big step forward for the future of city
cars.”1
Professor Gordon Murray
Title: CEO andTechnical Director
Office: Gordon Murray Design,
England
Barry Lett
Title: Design Director
Office: Gordon Murray
Design,England

QA MIKE WALSH
CONSUMER EXPERT
Consumersofthefuturewon’tknow
howlifewouldbewithouttheinternet,
smartphonesandbeingpermanently
online.Butthefutureis,accordingto
consumerexpertMikeWalsh,already
here.“Wewilllookbackonthistimeand
saythatthiswasarevolutionaryshift.”
ike Walsh may be a futur-
ist, but you won’t find him
making predictions about
what technologies and
gadgets we will be using
in 2050. What is of most
interest to the 35-year-old
Australian, who travels the
world observing firsthand
the latest trends and ideas,
is how human beings will
behave in the future. And
not the distant future, but tomorrow.
Walsh studied law before getting involved
in the emerging field of online consumer
behaviour. Following senior strategy roles at
News Corporation in Australia and Asia, he
became intrigued by the differences between
digital consumers in emerging markets and
those in the west. Today he is CEO of the
consumer innovation research agency Tomor-
row and a sought-after international speaker.
Walsh talks to Future about how companies
should engage with tomorrow’s consumers;
why they need to behave like viruses; and how
the web will affect the next generation of con-
sumer products.
You believe that the key to understanding
the future is not technology and systems but
rather people.Why?
When I try to predict who the winners and
losers are going to be in industry, or which
technological platforms are going to succeed,
it always comes down to human behaviour
and often the cultural dynamics of individual
countries or populations, and how they see
reality. This is often the best indicator of both
trends and whether‘things’are going to work
or not. Look at Intel. They have about 100 an-
thropologists on staff. It is surprising in a way
because they do not have a direct retail busi-
ness – they are manufacturers. But they are
plagued by this question of what is the future
of technology. If they can’t understand that,
they don’t know what kind of devices they are
going to need to be making processors for.
The consumers of tomorrow will be the first
generation brought up not knowing a world
without the web and social media:how will
this fact affect their behaviour as consumers?
TEXT DAVID WILES
PHOTOS MATTIAS BARDÅ
M

FACTS
MikeWalsh
Title: CEO ofTomorrow Ltd., author and
speaker.
Hobbies: Photography.“But I shoot with
film,not digital.”
Favourite website:Wikipedia.
Author of: Futuretainment:Yesterday
theWorld Changed,Now It’sYourTurn.
Websites: www.mike-walsh.com
www.futuretainment.com
www.facebook.com/mikejlwalsh

We will look back and say that this was a
revolutionary shift – that this generation had
their brains reshaped by exposure to technol-
ogy. New research shows that young kids use
the internet as a replacement for short-term
memory. When we were at school, the smart-
est kid was the one who knew the answer to
every question. But when you have a room of
30 kids with smartphones, you could almost
argue that their intelligence is commensurate
with how fast their fingers can type. So this is
a whole new generation of consumers in the
way they discover brands, the way they expect
to be communicated to, the way they commu-
nicate with each other. Older business leaders
still think of the internet as a channel. But the
internet is not a channel. If you were someone
who was born after 1994, the internet is around
you all the time. So all consumers now are
networked across a range of plat-
forms, and that changes the way
they interact.
How should a company,such as
a car manufacturer,react to the
new generation of consumers?
The next generation’s new be-
havioural tendencies are already
impacting every stage of the
product lifecycle. What is driving
these changes is more than any
one simple trend like mobile, the
web or even platforms like social
media. There is an expectation
shared by young consumers today
that their devices – whether they
be phones or cars – should not
exist in a vacuum. Objects should
connect. The car of the future
will not simply just have a clever
iPhone dock and connection with
Facebook – it will be insepa-
rable from the customer’s own
networks.
So how will the consumers of
the future choose their cars?
The real question for young consumers
buying their first car will be not so different
to previous generations but it must be up-
dated to meet 21st century lifestyles. Namely,
how can this new vehicle extend the range of
possibilities for life experience?
Much of what is happening with the inter-
net and social media now is around communi-
cation and marketing.How will the internet
affect products in the future?
One of the biggest trends we are going to
see in the near future is what is being called
‘the Internet of things’. Everyday objects being
equipped with sensors that are then linked
to the internet. There are going to be some
amazing developments as products that are
currently in a sense‘stupid’– because they
are not connected to anything – become more
interlinked.
Where will we see this trend first?
One of the first areas you’re going to see
this is in the energy space. There are huge
investments being made in smart grids and
smart power meters that will, for example,
“The ability to constantly
launch new products,
adapt and offer diverse
variations on customer
needs will triumph over
limited-release, perfectly-
engineered products
with long development
phases.”
Mike Walsh, consumer expert
1
DISTRIBUTED
Consumersin thefuturewillbe tough tocategorize
definitively.Theywillhavemultiplecontradictory
roles–mothers,socialgamers,mobilevirtualworkers–all
separatebut linkedwith threadsofcommon,distributed
identity.
2
AUGMENTED
Tomorrow’sconsumerwillbeaugmented through
mobileanddigital technologies.When theylook
at aproduct,theywillbealsolooking through theeyesof
everyconsumerwhohaseverheldit,withaccess to their
ratings,opinionsandrecommendations.Thiswillradically
redefine thepowerrelationshipbetweenbrandsand
purchasers.
3
GLOBAL
TeenagersinChinaoftenhavemoreincommon
with theircounterpartsinBrazil than theydowith
theirparents.Networkingplatformsarecreatinganew
globalsenseofinterconnectedness that makesamockery
ofoldworlddivisionslikeregionalcoding,movierelease
schedulesandproduct versioning.But paradoxically,na-
tionalandculturalidentitywillcontinue tobeapowerful
buildingblock toglobaluniformity.
trendsforthe
consumerofthe
future,according
toMikeWalsh3
QA MIKE WALSH
CONSUMER EXPERT

throttle down your air conditioner at peak
periods if you want to save money on your
bill. Most of our household appliances will
be equipped with small wireless chips that
will allow them to monitor not only energy
use, but to actually start to really understand
usage patterns for appliances. Standalone
GPS units will soon be close to dead because
almost every smartphone not only has a GPS
but will be increasingly used as a control
device for the rest of the technology in the
car. Your phone will unlock your car and it
will become the biometric key to your entire
network of devices.
Many Western companies are taking the
products they sell in Europe or the US,reduc-
ing their functionality,and then selling them
in the developing world.Is that the right
approach?
This is a very contentious question. Often
the things that Western companies take out
of products are the ones that those markets
actually want. Chinese consumers, for exam-
ple, are increasingly affluent and they actually
want often higher specs and are prepared to
pay for them. In a lot of these emerging mar-
kets we are seeing a lot of innovation. There is
a wonderful trend in China – shanzhai, which
means bandit technology. Mobile phones
which started off as copies started to exceed
their original specification, and I think that
within five years some of these companies
will start to develop premium brands them-
selves. This is what happened to Japan after
the war. They started making cheap stuff and
then quickly moved up the food chain.
In your opinion, why has a company like
Apple been able to attract the consumers of
today?
In my view, Apple has excelled at one
very important capability – simplifying the
complexity of technological change into very
simple customer propositions. To achieve
this they sacrificed features, functionality,
user freedoms and even product options, but
in doing so they were able to take previously
confusing product categories like tablets,
smartphones, MP3 players, set top boxes,
and reassure consumers that changing their
behaviour to incorporate the new technology
was both worthwhile and exciting.
You have said that companies should act
like viruses – constantly releasing and testing
new products and ideas to keep ahead of dis-
traction and indifference among consumers.
Please expand.
We respect Apple for its highly engi-
neered, perfectly designed iPhones. Each
year, consumers wait eagerly for the new
model – but despite its wide appeal, it is
not a phone that necessarily suits everyone.
Compare that to what is happening right
now with the Android platform. There is an
explosive diversity of phones being built us-
ing Android, from $40 low-cost units right
up to a top-of-the-line $20,000 Tag Heuer
Link device, all running on the same operat-
ing system.
What can companies learn from this?
In the future I believe the ability to con-
stantly launch new products, adapt and offer
diverse variations on customer needs will
triumph over limited-release, perfectly-
engineered products with long development
phases. 1

WhenSiemenswascommissionedtoupgradetheturbine
plantatForsmarknuclearpowerplant,theychoseto
enlist thehelpofSemconindocumentingtheprocess.
A challengingprojectwherenothingcouldgowrongand
wheredelayswerenotanoption.
TEXTHANNAH HÄGGSTRÖM JENNY PALM PHOTOS ALEXMARTIN NICKE JOHANSSON

F
ORSMARKS NUCLEAR power plant,
beautifully situated on the
Uppland coast about 20 km
north of Öregrund, is one of
the largest producers of elec-
tricity in Sweden. According to
Vattenfall, the largest share-
holder, its reactors generate
enough electricity each year to
supply Greater Stockholm three times over.
One in every six kilowatt-hours consumed in
Sweden comes from here.
But despite this high capacity there is con-
tinuous improvement and modernization work.
Amongst other things, Vattenfall has invested
over SEK 5 billion in increasing plant efficiency.
This is where Siemens comes in, as one of
the things they were asked to deliver was four
new high-pressure turbines in connection
with the decision to upgrade Forsmark.
“Here at Forsmark, turbines are of course
the core business. That means we have a
client who knows at least as much about tur-
bines as us, which means a good climate for
cooperation,”says Lars-Göran Karlsson, pro-
ject manager for Siemens at Forsmark.
HAVING A NUCLEAR power plant as a customer
places great demands on both safety – demon-
strated by the Japanese disaster – and docu-
mentation procedures. When Joakim Holm
qvist, documentation manager at Siemens,
examined the type of documentation needed
for the work upgrading the turbines, it be-
came clear that the job required more than
one person. So they turned to Semcon and
Denny Salomonsson, who has extensive expe-
rience in similar assignments.
Together they began to put together a de-
livery structure and planned how a database
would look. It was about finding the correct
structure for the entire process, from design to
manufacturing and installation documentation.
The project had specific traceability require-
ments, due to regulatory requirements and the
sensitive nature of the nuclear industry.
And even if Forsmark reactors 1 and 2 are
identical in many cases, it doesn’t mean that
Ad quis enis et quam esed eum
natemporerum audisciis nis sus
dolenime ne nobit volum vid
milland igentisit quam quatiam
STIFFCHECKS
ATFORSMARK

the documentation can be identical. The
reactors have two separate ways of operating
and must be treated accordingly. All the work
done on Forsmark 2, for example, is unique to
this reactor.
THE TASK WAS MADE more challenging by the
fact that many of the subcontractors were
from different countries. Denny Salomons-
son therefore went on tour of Europe, where
he visited all the subcontractors to create a
uniform working method.
“Working on this, you have to have a ’heli-
copter’perspective. You have to be able to
see the entire documentation process, which
runs to four or five years. In many projects the
documentation is produced when the product
is complete, but then we would have been too
far behind,”says Salomonsson.
Lars-Göran Karlsson, Siemens Project
Manager at Forsmark, agrees with Salomons-
son: there are many challenges.
“If you work with nuclear power, nothing
can be done at short notice. It can take up to
two months to have all personnel working
onsite inspected and approved,”says Karlsson.
“It’s a challenging project, but we have sev
eral very good consulting firms that we work
with and have great confidence in. Semcon is
one of these. They quickly understood their
roles, knew what needed to be done and have
brought a lot of expertise to the project,”says
Karlsson.
THE DAY AFTER the reactor was shut down,
when the high radiation level of the steam
had subsided, work in the turbine hall could
start. During the turbine installation, Semcon
had an additional task to carry out. They were
responsible for checking and ensuring qual-
ity in the documentation process, which they
have designed themselves, is correct. Parts of
this work have been led by Hans Ulfsparre, an
engineer at Semcon.
“The biggest challenge was to have fluency
Ad quis enis et quam esed eum
natemporerum audisciis nis sus
dolenime ne nobit volum vid
milland igentisit quam quatiam

Hans Ulfsparre
Title:Quality Control
Office: Semcon,Uppsala,Sweden
through the whole process. There were many
people involved, and it was crucial that every-
one understood the importance of being clear
and accurate and quickly passed the documen-
tation along the chain,”he says.
EVERYTHING AT A nuclear power station is
regulated down to the smallest detail. There
is a framework within the Swedish Radia-
tion Safety Authority, which decides Swed-
ish regulatory requirements and also looks at
international regulations. This contains all of
the checks to be made and the materials to be
approved. Put simply, Semcon’s task was to
ensure that the requirements for the upgraded
system also met the Radiation Safety Author-
ity’s requirements.
“Everything was coordinated and run by
us. To give you some examples, we ensured
that the right materials were installed, that
all installation inspection checks were com-
pleted and that the drawings were updated
and approved after installation,”Ulfsparre
says.
There was considerable work to be done,
and work was carried out around the clock,
seven days a week. Delays were not an option.
Therefore there was a tremendous demand for
the right preparations to be made. The weeks
before closure were devoted to planning and
training for a variety of possible scenarios,
among other things.
“If, for example, a design changed, we had
to quickly and easily find the right location
and replace it. Since we have 300–400 files of
material we needed to have created the right
structure beforehand to be able to work effec-
tively,”says Holmqvist.
DESPITE MANY CHALLENGES, now the upgrade
work is almost finished, and there is now only
certain final documentation left to do.
”We’ve had an intense and successful jour-
ney, during which we’ve developed a way of
working that we are proud of,”says Ulfsparre. 1
“Semcon quickly understood
their roles, knew what needed
to be done and have brought a
lot of expertise to the project.”
Lars-Göran Karlsson, Project Manager, Siemens
Joakim Holmqvist
Title: Documentation Manager,Forsmark
Office:Siemens,Finspång,Sweden
Lars-Göran Karlsson
Title: Project Manager,Forsmark
Office: Siemens,Finspång,Sweden
Denny Salomonsson
Title: Document Manager

THE SOLUTIONHOW SEMCON SOLVED THE CUSTOMER’S PROBLEM
THE ASSIGNMENT: Ascom, an international provider
of business-critical communication solutions, wanted
to develop a new bedside handset for hospital patients.
Semcon’s assignment was to design the handset and deliver
form-specific CAD data directly into the Ascom system.
THE SOLUTION: By studying how patients use and perceive
their handsets a Semcon working group presented four
different handsets, customized for different audiences with
varying needs. The handset was designed so that children,
adults and the elderly could understand it. In addition, they
made it robust, easy to grip and easy to clean. Semcon’s
focused team included industrial designers, ergonomists
and surface designers.
THE RESULT: Ascom’s new patient handsets are
ergonomic, user-friendly, easy to adapt to customer needs
and can be relied on at all times.
TEXT JONAS FRANZÉN PICTURES SEMCON
Ahandsetfor
allsituations

BUTTONS
Thebuttonsaregradedaccording toim-
portance.At the topand thereforemost
accessibleis thealarmbutton,whichisalso
tactileso that it ispossible tofindin thedark.
Abacklit ringprovidesadditionalguidance
andvisualfeedbackwhenactivated.Abutton
withanexclamationmarkhasbeenaddedfor
non-urgent cases,thusavoidingover-useof
thealarmbutton.
ERGONOMICS
Theformisdesigned tofit bothachild
andanadult’shand.Furthermore,it
isdesignedinsuchamanner that it
canbegrippedwhenhangingupside
down.Oneof themost commonplaces
for thehandset ishangingby thecord
over thebed,so that theunit endsup
beingupsidedown.Theroundshape
around thealarmbuttonmakesit easy
tofindit evenin thedark.
SILICON KEYPAD
Thewholehandset iswaterproofandeasy to
clean.Thesiliconkeypadisavailableinfour
versions,withdifferent numbersofbuttons,
so that patientscanhavehandset suitable
for theirneeds.Thefact that only thefront
needs tobechangedfacilitatesproduction
andflexibility.
SERVICE FLAP
Acommoncauseofdamage to
handsetshappenswhenpatientsuse
thehandset topull themselvesup
inbedwhenit ishangingover their
head.Asmallflapon thebackwith
astrainrelievermakes thehandset’s
flexeasy toreplace.
RUBBER FOOT
Apatient handset isindangerofslipping
downifplacedona tablebecause theflex’s
gravitycanpullit down.Arubberfoot on
thebottomof thehandset increasesfriction
with the tablesurfaceandreduces therisk
of thehandset fallingoff.Thisfoot alsohides
thescrewsof theserviceflap.

ANTIBIOTICS OF
THE FUTURE
With new types of antibiotics,the
Norwegian company Lytix Biopharma
is hoping to solve a serious problem
in healthcare today – multi-resistant
bacteria.Semcon has helped the
company with the clinical testing of
a nasal gel that may prove to be the
antibiotic of the future.
TEXT GITTAN CEDERVALL PHOTOS VEGARD GISKEHAUG PETER WESTRUP

This was how the father of penicillin, Alex-
ander Fleming, commented on the random
discovery that genuinely came to revolution-
ize modern medicine. Penicillin, and later
other antibiotics, has saved millions of lives
for more than half a century.
The use and popularity of antibiotics, how-
ever, comes at a price, one which Fleming was
already aware of and warned about. That price
is resistance, and there are obvious problems
within healthcare with multi-resistant bacte-
ria – i.e. bacteria that have become resistant
to many or even most antibiotics. Put simply,
there will soon be nothing that attacks bac-
teria.
The Norwegian pharmaceutical company
Lytix Biopharma believes, however, that it has
found a solution to the problem. A solution
that it is hoped will lead to the next great leap
forward in the fight against bacteria.
“Our drug even acts against multi-resistant
bacteria and doesn’t have the same resistance
problem as other antibiotics,”says Hedda
Wold, project manager for infectious diseases
at Lytix Biopharma in Oslo.
MRSA – Methicillin-resistant Staphylococ-
cus aureus – is a variant of the bacterium
Staphylococcus aureus which has developed
resistance to conventional antibiotics. MRSA
is everywhere in society and is one of the
bacterial types that are currently spreading in
hospitals the world over. Both patients and
staff may be asymptomatic carriers of MRSA,
often in the nose or the skin. Patients who
undergo surgery or have a weakened immune
system can become infected and suffer from
infections that are difficult to treat.
Lytix Biopharma has developed a gel that
can be used to kill MRSA bacteria in the nose
or in the skin. The gel has been tested clin
ically on healthy subjects who are carriers of
the bacterium. The results of a clinical‘phase
II’trial, which ended in late 2011, are very
promising.
“The study treated 24 healthy bacterial car-
riers with gel inside their nostrils three times
a day for three days. The thought is that such
treatment prior to surgery will reduce the risk
of infection during an operation,”says Wold,
who was responsible for the clinical trial.
TO HELP HER, Wold had a team of clinical trials
specialists from Semcon. Clinical drugs trials
are certainly a new area of expertise for Sem-
con, but a close-knit and experienced team of
eight experts came to the company through
the acquisition of the consulting business
Stricent in the spring of 2011.
“We have worked together for several years
and are all specialists in what we do. A moni-
tor, for example, works in the clinic, supervis-
ing and ensuring the quality of the results,
one person is responsible for data collection,
another for contact with authorities and one
1 2
3
HOW LYTIX ANTIBIOTICS WORK
The peptide LTX-109 attaches
to the cell membrane.
The bacterial cell ruptures and dies.This effect
is very fast.The cell has no time to defend itself
and build up resistance.
Traditional antibiotics act from inside the
bacterial cell.This works less well because the
cell then has more time to build up resistance.
Cell membrane
Peptide
Bacterial cell
The chemical structure of the
Peptide LTX-109 molecule
“When I woke up
just after dawn on
September 28, 1928,
I certainly didn’t
plan to revolutionize
all medicine by
discovering the world’s
first antibiotic.”

of the team compiles the final report. There is
also a statistician in each project group,”says
Maria Persson, project manager and clinical
testing manager at Semcon.
A proprietary system for electronic data
collection, Trial-on-Line, offers clear advan-
tages over the manually-completed forms
that are traditionally used in clinical studies.
Saving time and less paperwork, however, is
not the most important aspect.
“The main advantage with electronic data
collection is that everyone involved in the
study can get a real-time picture of how the
work is progressing. It gives a better overview
for everyone involved. In addition, the quality
of the collected data is more effectively guar-
anteed, as any issues are straightened out on
a continual basis instead of being addressed
at the end of the study. Another advantage
is that preparation of the final report can be
simplified,”says Eva Linné-Larsson, medical
writer at Semcon, who was responsible for
the study report.
GETTING HEALTHY subjects of working age to
take part voluntarily in a clinical trial is not
always easy. The testing of Lytix Biopharma’s
nasal gel lasted for nine weeks, during which
time participants made over ten visits to the
hospital in Malmö in southern Sweden where
the study was carried out. Some of the visits
were quickly over with, but on three occa-
sions participants had to be prepared to stay
at the clinic for up to six hours.
“Even with a certain amount of financial
compensation, it is quite a lot to ask of people
who have jobs and maybe even a family to
look after,”says Persson.
Support for the study was, however, better
than we dared hope for, in large part thanks to
a slightly innovative initiative.
“We cast our net wide, inviting people to
several information evenings during 2010.
Those who were interested could then also
provide a sample to see if they were carriers of
MRSA. In this way we eventually assembled a
group of suitable candidates,”says Persson.
The Malmö study, conducted to study the
safety, tolerability and efficiency of the nasal
gel in the treatment of healthy carriers of both
MRSA and MSSA – i.e. methicillin-resistant
as well as methicillin-susceptible staphylo-
cocci – produced good results. However, a
Phase II study is just one small step towards
a finished drug. Additional Phase II studies
with a focus on bacteria both in the nose and
the skin need to be carried out before the gel
can move to clinical trials in the more ex-
tensive Phase III tests. The drug will only be
marketed if these also show good results.
“A market launch is at least three years
away, probably more. We have not yet decided
how to proceed or what indications we should
focus on,”says Wold.
LYTIX BIOPHARMA was founded in 2003 by two
scientists – Øystein Rekdal and John Sigurd
Svendsen – working at the world’s most
northerly university, in Tromsø in north-
ern Norway. The company still conducts its
research and development in Tromsø, while
work on clinical studies, marketing and ad-
ministrative tasks is carried out at the office
in Oslo, where Hedda Wold works.
“The entire company has fewer than 20
employees and only a dozen of these are full-
time,”she says.
The active ingredient in Lytix Biopharma’s
nasal gel is called LTX-109, and the gel has
been given the trade name Lytixar. LTX-109
is a broad-spectrum drug, which not only
kills bacteria but also viruses and a number of
other microorganisms such as fungi.
“LTX-109 is a synthetic molecule, which is
HeddaWold
Title: Project Manager,infectious diseases
Office: Lytix Biopharma,Oslo,Norway

Time to market is crucial (Future by Semcon #1 2012)

Time to market is crucial (Future by Semcon #1 2012)

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