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As the speed of change is increasing, it’s of great importance that manufacturing companies strive to achieve not only incremental improvements, but also radical improvements within their production systems. Thus, more research has to be focused on how to realize radical improvement. In accordance, the objective of the licentiate thesis is to, through theoretical and empirical work, increase the understanding about radical improvement in production and identify what elements need to be considered when designing support on how to implement radical improvement in industrial production. Throughout the research process these issues has been addressed through theoretical and empirical studies. Three studies have been conducted in total, of which two are mainly of theoretical character and one of empirical character. Besides, a state-of-the-art theoretical review has been carried out as well, further framing the findings.

The research results imply that radical improvement in production is a teamwork process that embraces the facilitation of creativity and innovation. The research further implies that there are a number of issues to consider when creating industry-applicable support on how to realize radical improvement in industrial production. For instance, what level of innovation is striven for must be decided, creativity must be facilitated throughout, the opposing cultures of incremental and radical innovation must be managed, and there is a need to apply a holistic perspective, thus embracing not only productivity results but organizational learning as well.

As further work, creating industry-applicable support on how to realize radical improvement in industrial production is advocated, focusing not only on meeting the issues addressed above, but also how to make the support industry-applicable.