Tobias C. Larsson, Professor 

Tobias Larsson is chaired professor in Mechanical Engineering with special emphasis on Product-Service System Innovation.

Tobias C. Larsson, Professor

Tobias C. Larsson
Professor (BSc, MSc, PhD)

Director, Product Development Research Lab
Director, Center for Sustainable Product-Service System Innovation

Department of Mechanical Engineering
School of Engineering
Blekinge Institute of Technology
SE- 371 79 Karlskrona, Sweden

Phone:  Int. +46 (0)455 385525
Cell:   Int. +46 (0)70 5119416
E-mail: tlr@bth.se
Office: J63418

My status

 

SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Tobias C. Larsson tag cloud...

Professor Tobias C. Larsson (TCL), born 1972, got his PhD at Luleå University of Technology in 2001 within the area of simulation driven design within a product development context. The applications were within automotive, and high-speed train sector. Special emphasis was on multi-body dynamics and simulation driven design within a product development context.

The core of today is within Product-Service Systems Innovation where the focus is on developing methods and tools for engineering product development and simulation applications in industrial settings to support development of sustainable product-service systems (PSS) that should create value on the market. PSS puts the focus on the functional aspects of the development and drives the usually separated product and service development teams into a more concurrent way of working to ensure delivery of a life-cycle function. Value modelling and simulation, knowledge management, and innovation performance metrics when developing PSS is of extra interest in the research.

When companies are moving into a situation where they need to develop "greener" products and services in order to be sustainable, engineers involved in product development need to think about more choices all the time, sustainability being one of them. This means that the "engineers desktop" need to be updated with tools and methods to take into account life-cycle factors and sustainability, besides the traditional factors of product performance. The aim is to help research, prototype and implement this updated "engineering toolbox 2.0" for the engineer of the future.

TCL focus product-service system innovation, product development, engineering design and knowledge engineering principles in a design research quest to support the progress towards an "engineered sustainable future".

TCL is currently supervising 12 PhD students and has examined several PhD's (16) and licentiate (17) degrees. He has contributed in over 90 peer-reviewed publications within his research area. TCL has initiated and finalized several research projects. TCL was the main person behind the creation of the Faste Laboratory, a VINN Excellence Centre within product-service systems. He is co-founder of the Design for Wellbeing framework, a joint research project together with Stanford University, USA, and Hosei University, Japan, and have taken part in several European Union projects within aerospace sector (VIVACE 2004-1007, CRESCENDO 2009-2012).

TCL devotes his teaching efforts to product development courses, both via BTH lectures and via lectures on other universities and in industry on national and international level, and by being Programme Director of the Master programme in Sustainable Product-Service System Innovation, MSPI, at BTH.

The mode of work is collaborative where building strong group dynamics processes in the research team collaboration is one cornerstone, building from experiences in team sports Playing ice hockey on semiprofessional level in Karlskrona, Örnsköldsvik, Piteå and Luleå.

Recent Book Contributions

Strategic Responsibilities

Teaching

Research

PSS youtube movie

The movie display the challenges when developing product-service systems (Movie from the TCL research project "THINK - Teams for Heterogeneous Innovation Knowledge", supported by the Foundation for Strategic Research in the ProViking research programme).

With the above background the research is focused on the following aspects:

Product-Service Systems (PSS) & Product Innovation (PI)

  • Methods and tools for PSS development & innovation
  • Value driven PSS design
  • Modelling and simulation of PSS
  • Methods and tools for incremental product development and radical innovation
  • Creative methods for concept ideation and generation
  • Key performance indicators (KPI) for innovation and development work
  • Simulation driven design
  • Web 2.0 technolgies and tools for knowledge sharing in PSS and product innovation (wiki, blogs, folksonomies etc.)
  • Design Automation (Knowledge Based Engineering, Case Based Reasoning, Design Rational Capture etc.)

For more on the research, please visit the Product Development Research Lab.

PhD Candidates

  • Andre Benaim, Innovation Engineering, BTH/LU
  • Alessandro Bertoni, M.Sc., Product-Service System Value Chain Modelling, LTU.
  • Koteshwar Chirumalla, MSc, Engineering Knowledge Management in PSS Development, LTU.
  • Johan Holmqvist, M.Sc., Knowledge Sharing in Innovative Teams, LTU.
  • Pär Johansson, Tech.Lic., Innovation Engineering, LTU.
  • Malte Jung, M.Sc., Stanford University.
  • Åsa Kastensson, M.Sc., Industrial PhD candidate SAAB Automobile, Innovation Engineering, LTU.
  • Anna Karlsson, M.Sc., Industrial PhD student at Sandvik Coromant, Innovation Engineering, LTU.
  • Massimo Panarotto, M.Sc., Sustainable Product-Service System Innovation, BTH
  • Anthony Thompson, Tech.Lic., Sustainable Product-Service System Innovation, BTH.
  • Peter Thor, M.Sc., Industrial PhD candidate Volvo Aero, Engineering Knowledge Management in Product Development, LTU.
  • Johanna Wallin, M.Sc., Industrial PhD candidate Volvo Aero, Innovation Engineering, LTU.
  • Johan Wenngren, Tech.Lic., Innovation Engineering, LTU.

PhD Courses

  • Product-Service Systems | 7.5 ECTS
  • Product Design and Development | 7.5 ECTS
  • Knowledge Enabled Engineering | 7.5 ECTS
  • Participatory Product Innovation - P2I | 7.5 ECTS
  • Simulation of Vehicle Dynamics | 7.5 ECTS
  • Modelling and Simulation in Product Development | 7.5 ECTS
  • Innovative Technology and Business | 7.5 ECTS

Resources

Memberships

Awards

  • 2011 - Best paper award at the International Conference on Research into Design - ICoRD'11, with the paper "Towards open innovation practices in aerospace industry: challenges and opportunities".
  • Finalist (top 4) in the national ranking "Technology Star 2008", arranged by Dagens Teknik magazine.
  • The Swedish Engineering Design Research and Education Agenda (ENDREA) stipendiate of 2001; Stipend used for visiting research work at Optimal Design Laboratory (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) and Ford Motors, Advanced Engineering (Detroit).
  • The CONEX stipendiate of 2001 for efforts within computer aided product development.
  • Global Top 10 ten on the "The 10 Best Intranet Designs of 2001" by NNGroup and Useit.com for the development of the division intranet.

Publications

Pending publications in italics.
A framework for strategic sustainable development revolving around purpose
  • Sohrabpour, V., D. Hellström, T. Larsson. (2012). Exploring models and software for predicting the corrugated board and box properties, Journal of Packging Science and Technology.
  • Panarotto, M., Å. Ericson, T. Larsson. (2012). Intangibles in design of PSS value proposition, 4th CIRP International Conference on Industrial Product Service Systems, Nov 8-9, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
  • Benaim, A., T. Larsson, J. Elfsberg (2012). Innovation promotion by use of innovation coaches - iCoaches, 4th CIRP International Conference on Industrial Product Service Systems, Nov 8-9, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
  • Nopparat, N., B. Kianian, A.W. Thompson, and T.C. Larsson. (2012). Resource Consumption in Additive Manufacturing with a PSS Approach, 4th CIRP International Conference on Industrial Product Service Systems, Nov 8-9, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
  • Zhang, Y., X. Chen, T. Larsson. (2012). Understanding Cultural Context in Early Design Phase of Product-Service System Development, 4th CIRP International Conference on Industrial Product Service Systems, Nov 8-9, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
  • Panarotto, M., T. Larsson, O. Isaksson, A, Larsson. (2012). Value simulation in conceptual phase of PSS design, TESConf 2012, Nov 5-6, Cranfield, UK. 
  • Larsson, T., O. Isaksson, A. Larsson, Å. Ericson. (2012). Simulation Driven Design for Product-Service Systems. ASME 2012 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences (IDETC) and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (CIE), August 12-15, 2012 in Chicago, IL.  
  • Ericson, Å., T. Larsson, O. Isaksson, A. Larsson (2012). Revisiting the Research Field of Product-Service Systems Development. ASME 2012 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences (IDETC) and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (CIE), August 12-15, 2012 in Chicago, IL.
  • Robèrt, K-H., G. Broman, G. Basile, T. Larsson, T. Collins (2012). A framework for strategic sustainable development revolving around purpose. Planet under pressure conference, March 26-29, 2012, London, UK.
  • Bertoni, M., C. Johansson, A. Larsson, M. Sandberg, H. Nergård, T. Larsson, O. Isaksson. (2012). Knowledge Enabled Engineering, Research in Engineering Design
  • Larsson, A., M. Bertoni, Å. Ericson, K. Chirumalla, T. Larsson, O. Isaksson, D. Randall. (2012). The Rise of Social Product Development. International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations.
  • Tretten, P., A. Gärling, R. Nilsson, T. Larsson (2011). An On-Road Study of Head-Up Display: Preferred Location and Acceptance Levels. Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Conference 2011.
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