Due to a constantly increasing competitive pressure it is of great importance to constantly strive for improvements in order to gain competitive advantages. Lean Production is a concept that has been introduced with the aim to minimize waste and increase profitability. The purpose of this report is therefore to investigate how to perform effective planning according to the principles of Lean Production, in companys with customer exclusive products, through a case study at Sandvik Mining and Construction (SMC), and to investigate how SMC kan improve their planning of drifting rods at the production unit in Sandviken.The study started by creating a theoretical framework, to describe the subject planning and planning based on Lean Production. This frame work constituted the base for the case study which took place at Sandvik Mining and Construction, and also for the model and planning tool that has been introduced.The result of the study is partly a general model with factors that contribute to a more effective planning. These factors has beed identifed as SMED, which focuses on reducing set up times and in the end to facilitate the planning.

This thesis describes redesign and adaption of a products housing. In order to make it more economical to produce at a lower production volume. The thesis is based upon a prototype that a previous student developed for injection moulding. The goal is to find alternative manufacturing methods, but also to identify parameters that affect the cost of the injection moulding tool.The housing must be tough in order to protect the circuit board inside. But at the same time it must allow sound, light an electrical communication to pass through.

This paper examines and analyzes effects of the introduction of a new management control system tool within a Swedish public health organization, the Södra Älvsborg hospital, and its possible effect on organizational change. The new management control system tool, known as the SÄS-model, has been widely criticized for being too costly and with too small positive effects to be shown. Our approach has with that as a background been to examine whether the implementation of the SÄS-model and its balanced scorecard has been able to result in effects regarding organizational change. We have through a case study aimed to analyze how a management control system, much alike one that is typically used within foremost private organizations, can promote organizational change. Our results suggest that the implementation of the SÄS-model and the balanced scorecard has given the organization clearer visions and goals.

This thesis aims to examine the conditions for entrepreneurship in Taiwan by the occurrence of cultural phenomenon guanxi. Based on the concept of familiness and guanxi, the family is central in this study of family business. Traditional descriptions of the Asian culture claim that guanxi is vital in the business context. Though, recent studies indicate that significance of guanxi seems to be changing. Therefore the purpose of this thesis is to create an understanding of the importance and relevance of guanxi in the context of Taiwanese family business.By travelling to Kaohsiung, Taiwan to interview six managers of Taiwanese family firms this study?s empirical material was gathered for further processing based on a qualitative approach.

The aim of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of howsocial contacts can serve as information sources for pregnantwomen. Furthermore, we wanted to examine how women?scontext influences their information seeking and the barriers thatcan occur during information seeking. The theoretical frameworkis founded on Tom Wilson's model of information needs as contextdependent, and Pamela J. McKenzie's model of informationpractices in accounts of everyday-life information seeking.

The goal of this project was to together with Cochlear Bone Anchored Solutions AB develop a new cleaning tool for their Baha?systems. Cochlear BAS AB is a daughter company to Cochlear Limited based in Sydney, Australia. Cochlear BAS AB is situated in Gothenburg and with its 150 employees develop and manufacture the Baha?system.

The Public vs. private movement has over the past decades identified numerous significant differences between public and private organizations. The observed differences covers almost every field in administrative economics ranging from organizational structure, management accounting, goal-setting and in the past few years even leadership. Strangely, in the majority of these studies little or no regards are given to organizational characteristics or fundamental differences between compared organizations and if these organizations really are comparable when studying the effect of sector.The aim of this study is to compare leadership in relatively similar organizations from both the public and private sector and so clarify if earlier identified differences in leadership styles still surface when leaders working with approximately the same thing in a similar work context are studied.A sample of 348 Swedish principals was drawn from both municipal and private elementary schools. The respondents answered a web-based survey based on the CPE-model resulting in leadership styles mapped according to three orientations: change, production and employee.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to investigate how trained social workers experience information in their daily work. The thesis focussed on three major questions: - What type of information and information sources are mostly used by the trained social workers? - What kind of information barriers are described by the participants? - How can the patterns of information seeking and information use be understood on the basis of the trained social workers professional and social context? Semi-structured interviews were carried out with trained social workers working with child welfare enquiries. My theoretical framework consists of user and context oriented theories about classifications of information, information barriers and models of information sources. My conclusions are that trained social workers working with risk assessment in child protection services, need to use different kinds of information in their daily work, such as problem information, domain information and problem-solving information.

North Korea is considered to be the most autocratic dictatorship in the world today. Its citizens are denied their most basic human rights and North Koreas ambition to pursue nuclear weapons is looked upon with great fear from the international community and the US in particular. Some experts say that the threat from North Korea is far greater than the one possessed by Saddam Hussein. Although North Korea seems to inhabit all the necessary criteria for an US military intervention the United States has openly declared its diplomatic ambitions with the state. Why?With the use of realist and social construction theory this study will bring clarity to why the United States prefers diplomacy instead of a military intervention.

The multicultural society of today where individuals have varied cultures and languages is different to the homogeneous society of the past, and sets new demands upon the school. The school library can play an important role when it comes to the integration and the acceptance of students with a different mother tongue. Provision and access to literature in the student?s mother tongue is seen as a strong indicator of a school that promotes a multicultural environment, and it?s also linked to the student?s feelings of identity and self-confidence. Their knowledge in their mothers tongue is crucial to the acquisition of a second language, and learning in extension.The purpose of this bachelor is to examine how school librarians work with multilingual students in junior high school, and what they consider to be their roles in this context.Confirming previous research, mediation of information and promotion of reading was a central task to the school librarians we interviewed.

It?s a fact that the climate is affected by the vehicle that runs on the worlds roads. But theconstruction of the road itself is rarely thought of as a climate threat. Svevia and the Swedish roadadministration have opposite views of how the construction of roads should be carried thru. It?sthe difference between those two construction methods that is the base in our thesis.The amount of energy use or the emissions are not analyzed for neither the Swedish roadadministrations nor Svevias construction models.

Beyond the binary borders of sex -A LITTERATURE STUDY ABOUT TRANSGENDER THEORY AND ITS POSSIBLE CONTRIBUTION TO A SOCIAL WORK CONTEXT. GERGANA TOSEVA KARIN SELIN A thesis in Social work studies (15 credits) at Malmö University, Hälsa och Samhälle 2012. The discussion about sex and gender is always prominent in a social work context. Our purpose and questions are hence based on the discussion on transgender theory and the way of thinking about the non-binary, and how it relates to the nearby theories. The method of the essay consists of a semi systematic literature overview with the focus on discussing transgender theory in relation to other theories and perspectives, such as modernism, post modernism, feminism and queer theory. We answer the following questions: 1. Is it possible to go beyond or exceed the binary of sex and if so, how do we see it in the material we examined? 2. In what way are the existing theories of sex / gender in the binary? 3. Can one featuring a female embodied subject be of assistance to transgender people's search for an embodied subject? We consider it possible to move beyond the binary by using ?fuzzy logic?(Nagoshi & Brzuzy 2010, Tauchert 2002) which is a way of staying in the binary but expanding the term and work in the grey areas instead.

The aim of this master's thesis is to present an introduction to semiological analysis of web based material, which is a hypothesis that combines the theoretical framework of classical Saussurean semiology, visual social semiotics as was developed by Günther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen, and Roland Barthes's notion of 'Myths'. Furthermore, a new tool called 'pseudo-signifier', constructed solely for the thesis, is also used in conjunction with the semiological analysis. The hypothesis is tested in a case study involving the web portal of a Swedish commune, Gothenburg (goteborg.se). A complete semiological analysis is performed on the case. The case study revealed numerous findings of interest, among others that images and texts on the web portal were sometimes used in a contradicting manner, and often in a way that symbollically excluded citizens from the portal, a fact which could be uncovered when studying underlying myths that permeated the web portal.

With an increased empowerment of the users, and a dependence on outside critics, one wonders what kind of role the librarians have in a context where qualitative literature is discussed. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between librarians private and professional views on qualitative fiction, in order to be able to discuss their role as quality intermediaries in a user oriented context.The method used, is the qualitative, semistructured interview. This author interviewed seven librarians from three different libraries in Sweden. The theoretical emphasis partly relies on the ten words of qualitative value that Inger Elam and Bengt Brülde discusses in their respective texts, partly on David Garvins quality assessment theory, which defines several quality categories divided between an absolute and a relative quality view.Through the comparison between the private and the professional quality view, examined with the two theoretical approaches, the analysis of the interview material shows that there lies a complexity in the librarians professional role. On the one hand, they are dependent of both the users and the critics judgements about the qualitative aspect in the work with purchasing new literature to the library.

The main object of this diploma work thesis is about how computer programs can bea tool to use for work on stormwater investigations. The advantage of using acomputer program compared with calculations made by hand is evaluated anddiscussed. The computer programs that have been used for studies and a sequence oftesting of the possibilities are Autodesks Storm and Sanitary Analysis and DHIs MikeUrban.Focus on sustainable development now permeates the building industry. As a resultstormwater investigations have been conducted in an increasing extent the recentyears. Stormwater is water produced due to precipitation, such as rain and snowmelt.Stormwater investigations normally contain descriptions of existing land use, plannedland use and suggestions of measures and technical solutions for the future disposal ofstormwater.The initial part of the thesis consisted of literature studies on stormwater andstormwater investigations to understand the science.