Niklas Friedler, Doctoral student, Lecturer


Niklas Friedler is a PhD student and lecturer at Mälardalen University. He is responsible for several courses at MDH. Belonging to the research group - Innovation and Product Realization at the University. He received his M.Sc. in 2000 within production systems at Linköping University and has a background as product developer at Volvo Construction Equipment. Project manager and product manager at ABB Robotics.

The purpose of my research is to facilitate the implementation of automated equipment in the manufacturing industry. The process of developing automation in industry is often time consuming, costly, and is experienced as difficult to manage. This project will adopt a lean perspective and LPD (lean product development) principles to the automation development processes. The objective is to develop support to the process of developing automation in industry and hence contribute to: Sustainable automation solutions well adopted to current and future needs. Shorter and less resource demanding development processes. Less costly automation equipment and higher return of investments. This will be achieved by the development of efficient, effective and standardized routines and ways of working in the automation development process. Related to a lean perspective on automation development, the project is based on three research areas and topics;

WP1: The improvement and levelling of the process of planning, developing and acquiring

automation.

WP2: The development of an automation strategy model supporting automation decisions and

projects.

WP3: The standardization and specification of relevant IT-support in the development of automation.

The result is an automation handbook for developing automation, including a standardized process

for specification of requirements, a structured and supported holistic development process, and a model and process for developing an automation strategy. In order to support this handbook,

fundamental scientific knowledge will be established on automation development processes (structures, stakeholders, interfaces, decision criteria, enabling elements, competence etc).