The foremost objective of business organizations is to generate value for shareholders and to opt for strategies which optimize it. Hence it is of key concern for business leaders to appreciate how operations best are run to maximize value creation. This study explores how financial theory can reveal the link between one particular business strategy and the corresponding effect on shareholder wealth. The question in focus is whether construction companies can enhance their value creation by implementing shift-work to increase the weekly production rate. The thesis particularly targets apartment block projects in Sweden and has the construction company Peab AB as primary object of study.

A protection helmet for young people (3-7 years) in winter environment has been developed in this thesis. The result is a concept proposal for development at STIGA Sports AB in Eskilstuna. This thesis work has been performed during 20 weeks, for a Master of Science in Product and Process development at Mälardalen University Eskilstuna Sweden in September 2009 to January 2010. The helmet is shown as a CAD model with detailed solutions to the outer shell, interior and adjustability (in sizes 50-56 cm) which are the three focused areas in the development. Also a physical model in scale 1:1 has been developed and is shown in this thesis work.To achieve the best result possible the process started with an analysis of the market and the product.

The aim of this study is to study how sustainability policies are implemented and perceived in the operations of a Swedish fashion company. The fashion industry is affected by strict controls when it comes to transparency and reporting of sustainability efforts. This contributes to a strong focus on sustainability. The theoretical framework revolved around institutional theory where the phenomenas of decoupling and recoupling were central. A qualitative case study was conducted where interviews were the primary source of data.

This report describes the process of developing a user-friendly and responsive archive website. The website is a Hi-fi prototype and was created for the company JG Communications, to serve as an archive for their customers? style guidelines. To create this website I have used HTML5 and CSS3 to make it responsive for various computer screens. I have also used PHP and some JavaScript to make some of the functions and Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to make design elements for the prototype.

The purpose of this study was to look at how clients, in the Swedish criminal justice, experience their involvement in treatment programs. The spotlight in the study was to examine which helpful and unhelpful factors are involved in a treatment process, in the view of individual experiences. The study is based on a qualitative method, with interviews as an instrument for collection of data.The result is summarized in three fields; is it possible to show vulnerable, the therapist and the meaning of the program. The result is based on interviews with six informants; five of them have been partaking in treatment programs in prison and one in the probation office. The study shows that partaking in treatment programs in prison is combined with problems in aspect of the different roles criminals play in prison.

Most of today?s concrete structures that are built on site are mainly constructed in a traditional fashion with a lot of artisanal operations. One step towards industrializing the in-situ construction of concrete is to use prefabricated reinforcement. Through this method there can be a lot of savings when each bar doesn?t have to be placed and fixed separately on site.

This paper presents techniques for speeding up commonly used algorithms forbounding volume (BV) computation, such as the AABB, sphere and k-DOP. Byexploiting the possibilities of parallelismin modern processors, the result exceedsthe expected theoretical result. The methods focus on data-level-parallelism(DLP) using Intel?s SSE instructions, for operations on 4 parallel independentsingle precision floating point values, with a theoretical speed-up factor of 4 ondata throughput. Still, a speed-up between 7?9 are shown in the computation ofAABBs and k-DOPs.

The structure of the thesis is based on opportunities to attract businesses to the region, the need of establishments in the region and benchmarking with establishment strategies of other cluster initiatives. The identified opportunities are the local business relationship with ABB, the prerequisites of life quality in the region and the availability of financial support. Further on has a number of opportunities to be developed been identified; diversification of the existing businesses, an expansion of the cooperation with universities and to simplify the contact with local authorities. Challenges that HVV is facing is: creating a more dynamic labor market, secure long-term labor supply, spread the image of the brand HVV and finally putting HVVs geographic scope. Two of the identified needs of establishments are strategically important: to establish a third-party logistician and commercializing systems for distributed generation and energy storage.

In the year of 2001 the largest known cartel in Swedish history wasexposed to the public and brought to justice. Eight years later, afterseveral trials, the so-called Asphalt Cartel was finally found guilty bythe Swedish Market Court for having been cooperating illegally anddistorting prices.The overall purpose of this paper is to study how the cartel wasmanaged in order to be sustained over time. By applying actornetworktheory I examine what kind of heterogeneous materials thatwere combined for purpose of creating the cartel and how in practicethey were held together.In order to understand how the cartel was sustained I also include ananalysis on why it suddenly fell apart in 2001. However, my studyshows that through the years the cartel repeatedly experiencedcrisis, and therefore constantly fell apart and was recreated throughprocesses of negotiation..

An automatic milking (AM) system should be combined with some form of controlled cow traffic to minimize the time spend on fetching cows to milking and to increase the milking frequency. By restricting the hours spent on pasture per day you optimise the AM system use during pasture period. A reason for this is becuase cows do not return to the stable for milking during night which cause that the milking unit stands empty those hours. In organic production it is required that the cows should be able to graze a certain amount of daily dry matter (DM) intake on the pasture. In the county of Dalarna where the farm is located the yield of the pasture is about 3000 kg DM per grazing season and hectar.This means that the pasture area should be 14,25 hectare to 57 milking cows.

År 2000 presenterade FN den s.k. Brahimi-rapporten. Den efterlyste en ?doktrinomsvängning? för attFN på ett mer effektivt sätt skulle kunna möta framtida utmaningar inom ramen för fredsfrämjandeoperationer. Rapporten redovisade ett antal konkreta förslag till förbättringar.

My aim in this case study has been to create a method for creature design to test this method in a production and evaluate the results. To achieve this I studied and analyzed the methods of three concept artists and illustrators named James Gurney, Neville Page and Iain McCaig. From the analysis of these artist´s methods, combined with my own personal experience, a new method was formed. To test this method a creature was designed based on directives given by a game design group in the process of creating a table top role playing game in a fictitious world. These directives where given for the creature´s role and its living conditions.

IT-system utvecklas idag ofta i globalt distribuerade organisationer. Detta görs för att möta de krav som ställs från omgivningen samt för att finna specialkompetens. En global organisation kan medföra distribuerat arbete, alltså att utvecklingsgrupper sprids över flera platser. Ett problem med detta kan vara att få alla delar av verksamheten att arbeta mot ett gemensamt mål. Koordination ? att hantera beroenden mellan element i komplexa organisationer för att möjliggöra effektivt arbete mot ett gemensamt mål ? blir då en viktig aktivitet.

This thesis concerns an energy audit of a food industry. The company's business consists of boiling and peeling shrimps, and producing mayonnaise-based salads. This type of work involves energy-intensive processes, such as steam generation, compression of air and refrigeration of large spaces. These needs are supplied with electricity. Furthermore, the industry is a major consumer of district heating, particularly for heating the supply air in the ventilation system.

The purpose of this research is to analyze six children?s books from a gender perspective and thereby investigate in what way boys and girls respectively are portrayed in books.My general question is:How are boys and girls portrayed in children?s books?This question has been broken down into four minor questions:What type of clothes are the people wearing? Are people predominantly male or female? Have people specific attributes which are linked to their sex? Are people performing specific actions which are linked to their sex?In my research I have combined quantitative and qualitative methods and my theoretical framework has been gender.This study reveals a change in children's books with respect to how the different genders are portrayed. The progression is towards a more equal portrayal but despite this, patterns typical for the respective genders shine through..