Many companies are currently working to optimize and streamline their processes and production lines to achieve higher profitability. In increasingly competitive markets, companies are working to find solutions to increase the value of their production with such a small use of resources as possible. A tool used to accomplish this is the Lean management system. Lean comes from the production system that Toyota has been developing since the early 1900's, The Toyota Production System (TPS). The Lean philosophy helps companies, by working towards continuous improvement in its operations, to achieve higher customer satisfaction, more efficient production and ultimately higher profitability. Many companies are working to implement Lean in their organization. But there are many who fail to implement a complete change towards Lean.

AbstractIn this essay, policy change and learning is studied in the case of the Social Democratic Party and their policy concerning independent schools. Their policy differs clearly from the right-wing parties. Between 1991 and 1994, the right-wing government made substantial reforms concerning independent schools. The question posed in this essay is whether the policy of the Social Democratic Party has changed as a result of these actions, and if they have approached their right-wing counterparts.Using the Advocacy Coalition Framework, defining a policy as a result of the values the actor holds, the question is studied by applying the theory's assumptions of policy-learning across coalitions. The argumentation of the Social Democratic Party, as it is expressed in official text documents before and after the right-wing government, is analysed.

The information society creates new demands on the knowledge making individual; besides being literate one has to be information literate. And in the educational society there is an ongoing change from teaching to learning, the focal point being the active student and life long learning. The aim of this dissertation is to within a context of learning and teaching elucidate the relation between user education and subject education by examining what significance the academic libraries user education has for the development of information literacy within students. Some epistemological theories connected with learning is presented as well as aspects of the information search process and of information literacy. Universities and their libraries view of information literacy and the goal of their user education is being focused on in an empirical study.

This study examined parenting in relation to ADHD. The key point of the study was to let parents who experience an ADHD diagnosis share their view on parenting. The research required a comprehensive literature search, partly to examine earlier research in the particular field but also to gather information on parenting. One focus group interview and three semi structured interviews were used to gather relevant information. Informants were recruited from a project for individuals with neuropsychiatric disabilities.

The aim of this study is to through six interviews, with six experienced, social workers?, in three cities, understand how the child?s position in the Swedish child protective services? enquiries has change, and the factors behind it. The aim is also to compare if the social workers? view of the child?s position in the enquire has change accordingly to Socialstyrelsens intentions of BBIC. The theoretical approaches that was used is the new institutionalism, the Shier?s pathways to participation and the term discretion.

The aim of the study was to install a biogas system consisting of three tubular polyethylene biogas digesters at a rural household in Malawi and to evaluate the constructed biogas system with regards to relevant system parameters. The purpose was to evaluate if the technology is a possible solution to reduce deforestation and support Malawi in climate change mitigation and adaptation. The study was carried out in the southern part of Malawi in cooperation with the University of Malawi. Locally available materials were used to construct and install the system. Three different feed materials, cow, goat and a mix of cow and goat manure, were used in order to determine which one was best suited to utilise as a digester substrate. After the installation, measurements of temperature, pH, biogas production, biogas composition and system functionality were made. The results of the study show that a biogas system with tubular polyethylene biogas digesters can be successfully installed at a rural household and that the most suitable feed material is a mix of cow and goat manure.

The development in photogrammetry has created possibilities for new methods in aerial images acquisition. Remotely-controlled imaging from an unmanned helium zeppelin is a new and relatively unexplored acquisition. The purpose with this degree project is to evaluate the accuracy of this kind of low-height photographing system, a task given from the consultant company WSP, in Sweden. Landbadet in Uddevalla municipality was chosen as a test field for the zeppelin. Seventeen images distributed over three strips were acquired from the flying height of 80 m.

The aim of this study was to investigate factors that ex-criminals believe have been of importance to them when they decided to leave a lifestyle of criminality behind. The study was based on eight semi-structured interviews with informants who had committed various forms of crime. Common to all informants is that they are now members in the Swedish association KRIS (In English: CRIS, Criminals Return Into Society), living a life without crime. The stories of the informants have been analyzed on the theoretical basis of social ties, the exit process, role loss, motivation and the life course perspective. Our study showed that the informants have been affected and motivated by various life events that could be identified and pin-pointed during the interviews.

Most of the people in today's society have at least some knowledge about Alzheimer's disease to some extent. When a person with Alzheimer's disease is being taken care of at home, the relatives have to change their own priorities and readapt themselves to the existing situation. The primary aim of this study is to describe how the relatives experience their own situation in life. The secondary aim of this study is to describe how the relatives understand their own relation with the health care authorities concerning the help and support issues. The authors have realized this study using the analytic inductive method and have interviewed four informants using a semi structured interview guide.

Many questions are still left unanswered regarding the period c. 450-700 AD, when hordes of Anglo-Saxon migrants landed on the British Isles and by doing so made the starting point in the foundation of England. Who were these Germanic tribes? The theories of how the migration proceeded are today many. The two major theories today concerns whether it was a question of a mass migration or a gradual migration proceeded by smaller groups of military elite.

The advancements in digital technology and its availability contribute to the transfer of companycentricproduct development and value creation to networks or communities. It also changes the basisfor creation of customer relationships as described in previous research on Customer relationshipmanagement (CRM). The purpose of this case study was to gain an understanding of how companieslike our case study object Memoto who developed a physical product which gets added-value fromdigital product-related services looks upon product-centered communities as a way of buildingcustomer relationships. How Memoto looks upon incentives for participation in product-centeredcommunities was also examined.Our research indicated that firms in the start-up phase (which Memoto was when this study wasconducted) initially want to have more control over the process of innovation and hence have directcontact with end-customers. The reason for this is because they see a need to define the basis forfurther innovation work.

In the past years the traditional donors of development assistance have been increasingly aware of changes in the donor landscape. This as emerging economies like China and India has undergone a transition from recieving aid to becoming emerging donors. By identifying and comparing ideas, beliefs and interests pursued using foreign aid between so called emerging and traditional donors, the greater purpose of this thesis is to take a closer look at the alleged changes in the world order. The starting point is Goldstein & Keohanes framework of the impact of ideas and interests in foreign policy and the one of K.J Holsti about institutions as markers metrics of change. The results show that there is no vast difference in interests but a detectable difference in the ideas behind foreign aid.

This hermeneutic case study examines how and why an insurance company?s output has been affected by a CEO-succession. The authors pay specific attention to three activities; changes in personnel and organization structure, handling of media and change in customer focus. It is shown that the CEO was able to influence the company?s activities and this discretion was primarily created through her relational capacity.

This hermeneutic case study examines how and why an insurance company?s output has been affected by a CEO-succession. The authors pay specific attention to three activities; changes in personnel and organization structure, handling of media and change in customer focus. It is shown that the CEO was able to influence the company?s activities and this discretion was primarily created through her relational capacity.

The purpose of this bachelor degree thesis is to analyze technical issues associated with an implementation of a low sloping trash rack with narrow spacing. A hydropower plant in Umea?lven was used as a case study. The basis for the study was a model where trash racks were dimensioned for inclinations between 25 and 45 degrees. Corresponding head loss, durability and water speed through the rack were then determined for each inclination.