Background: The demand for sending letters, in the traditional aspect, has decreased because of electronic sources which have replaced a big part of letter communication. The Postal Service constantly strives for lowering costs and due to the changeable demand, a greater awareness is required regarding recourses and their usage. The previously mentioned measures in combination with commonly occurring quality issues during the collective process at the letter terminal in Alvesta would be improved by applying a lean-perspective to the process. A first step towards saving of time is to apply the ?value stream mapping?-method on the collective process for small and large letters.Purpose: To map the process of collection for small and large letters to be able to identify waste of recourses and furthermore give suggestions on how the Postal Service would be able to reduce the waste of recourses identified.

This essay is about the problematization of uneployment and unemployed in national policy documents of the years 1979 and 2007. The purpose of this essay is to illustrate and analyze the problematization of unemployment as a construction. My overall aim is investigating how the unemployed and unemployment are represented and constructed in the Swedish political debate the years of 1979/80 and 2006/07 by analyzing national policy document. The analysis will consist of questions about the problemrepresentaion made by unemployment and the unemployed, the assumptions behind this problematization and what kind of impact it could generate for the unemployed.  In this way, the study aims to investigate the changes that may have occurred in how unemployment is problematized in the Swedish policy documents and highlight citizenship conditions on the basis of labor market policy.

Purpose ? The purpose of this thesis is to develop a total cost model for container transports and create a tool that calculates a suitable transport quantity from an economic view, which fulfills the demands on delivery service. To achieve this purpose the following questions will be answered:Which costs are affected by the decision between the two transport alternatives LCL and FCL?   How does the decision of sending product LCL or FCL influence the delivery service?  How can a tool be constructed to simplify the decision-making process regarding the choice of sending products LCL or FCL?  Method ? A total cost model was developed. This model is supported from existing literature.

The construction and real estate industry represents a significant part of Sweden's total impact on the environment and mainly affects the following national environmental objectives: reduced climate impact, a good built environment and a non-toxic environment. By establishing internal rules, companies within the industry can reduce their environmental impact. SMT (AB Sandvik Materials Technology), a part of the industrial group Sandvik AB, has set a target that during 2014 develop a guiding document with special consider to the environmental impact during construction of office buildings, that they establish at the Swedish regional capital Sandviken, for both internal and external tenants. This study therefore aims to clarify which environmental aspects that the construction and real estate sector mainly are responsible for, and therefore should be part of a guiding document for a company for establishing office buildings, and to present arguments regarding the use of such a document. The study is based on literature studies and personal contact with other companies, in the form of e-mail conversations and a telephone interview.

This qualitative study involves the implementation of Lean and Kaizen methods in a Swedish service industry. Lean philosophy is based on a method to achieve more with less. In practical terms this means that the use of an organization's resources is improved. The origin of Lean is the Toyota Production System. Now, Kaizen methods give managers and employees a better more efficient system to reach their goals within the organization or company.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att utveckla ett underlag till en marknadsplan för klädbutiken Fico Store som ska ligga till grund för ett försök att öka konsumtionsnivån hos de befintliga kunderna, som infattas av både stamkunder och sällankunder.Metod: Vi har valt att använda oss av både en kvalitativ metod i form av en intervju samt en kvantitativ metod i form av en enkät. De har tillsammans redovisats i empirikapitlet i form av text och diagram efter att materialet kodats och bearbetats. Analyser har gjorts löpande i empirikapitlet och i strategikapitlet där empiri har ställts emot teori.Resultat & slutsats: Tydlig positionering och arbete med kundrelationer är av största vikt för en mindre fristående butik. Vår studie visar också att det är svårt att rikta sig mot en viss kundgrupp då samma kläder kan falla många i smaken oavsett ålder. Val av sortiment påverkar i hög grad hur butikens positionering uppfattas.

This exploratory thesis uses qualitative research to investigate how digital music is beeing packaged. The main study consists of 11 deep interviews with key representatives of the digital music industry in Sweden. These are (record companies) EMI, SonyBMG, Universal, Warner, (DSP) InProdicon, (mobile operators) 3, TeliaSonera and (cell phone producer) SonyEricsson. Packaging is a concept of marketing that has specific implications depending on which good or service that is being packaged. Packaging occurs at different levels in the production chain.

This essay discusses people's perception of what is important for their well-being where they live. The main aim has been to find out what factors in the outdoor environments of the city are appreciated and why they are valued positively. A comparison has been made between Uppsala in Sweden and Tarapoto in Peru to see if, and in that case what, differences can be found in the values of people. I chose to carry out a survey study that got a response rate of 57 persons in Tarapoto and 63 in Uppsala. The results show that there are some common basic values, but on the whole the outdoor environments are valued differently in the two cities. In short, the Peruvians value functionality, cleanliness, small distances to family and service, while the Swedes value a central location and short distances to friends apart from functionality and good service opportunities. Conceivable reasons for this might be for example different cultural prerequisits, material standard and climate. .

Purpose: The study aims to, from a companys point of view, describe how strategic work with customer loyalty is done.Conclusion: Another possible way to try to create loyalty is to exceed the expectations whether the customer is a member of the loyalty program or not. A strong brand with a good reputation can also contribute to a stronger loyalty. Reward systems gradually reward the customers since they first need to collect points, or in this case miles, to be able to use them later on. The staff is often educated in service to be able to interact with the customer in a professional manner. One way to interact with the members of the loyalty program is through profiles on the internet.

Höga byggkostnader, kvalitetsproblem, dyra kostnader för omprojektering och låg lönsamhet för entreprenörer är exempel på problem inom byggbranschen. Statistik pekar på att byggkostnaderna för att producera byggnader har stigit kraftigt under de senaste åren. Byggnadsentreprenörer har börjat utveckla alternativa metoder för att genomföra kostnadseffektiva projekt. Denna studie kan delas upp i två delar, en teoretisk och en empirisk del. Den teoretiska delen utgörs av litteraturstudier för att få djupare kunskap och förståelse om Lean konceptet. Den andra delen avser en empirisk studie.

Urban agriculture is a current topic and this study examines the possibility of cultivating on balconies in the city. The study was performed at Uppsala University and examines, from a structural engineering perspective, how different existing balcony/terrace structures are affected by cultivation. A cultivation balcony defined in the study as a balcony/terrace which is specifically designed for cultivation. Three units of study have been selected according to this criterion. Four factors were examined, these were loads, moisture/water, economy and cultivation.

Injuries and sick-leave is a common feature for reinforcement workers today. This is mainlydue to the fact that reinforcement work is done in an exposed environment with many stressfactors and highly repetitive work. These operations are often carried out in unsuitableworking positions, these positions creates a major burden on the bones and joints and causesmicro- damages on muscles. With repetitive work these injuries are not given time to healproperly and will gradually become worse.The body will not be able to handle the stress of working in a work environment such as thisand musculoskeletal disorders can be a result of this. The injury will make itself known aspain in the musculoskeletal system and causes reduced movability; the injured worker willtherefore not be able to perform the same work tasks as before.

There is a new beverage container on the market, a bottle made out of pure aluminum as a replacement for the traditional container made out of glass. This new container has the potential to reduce both cost and pollution during transportation, the lighter and stronger construction has every advantage compared to the old one in glass. The new container has every possibility to make it on the market. Some of the biggest brands within the soft drink market already use these bottles in countries without any recycling demands like: Coca-Cola, Heineken and Pepsi. The only thing stopping these brands from the Swedish market is the lack of a functional return system, there is only one company that uses the bottle in Sweden today and they take care of their own used bottles.

The essay's aim is to explain how responsibility distribution between private and public bodies, primarily within three important service areas, can be visualised in light of the fact that they have experienced different forms of readjustment. We have chosen to study this by looking at the restoration work taking place after the hurricane Gudrun swept across southern Sweden on January 8-9, 2005; and we have chosen to concentrate on the service areas of electricity- and telephone supply, and public transport. The responsibility distribution has been depicted by carrying out qualitative interviews with employees within both private and public bodies included in the restoration work. The conclusion produced is that there were obscurities in the formal responsibility distribution between private and public actors taking place in conjunction with the hurricane restoration work.In a deeper analysis, the result can be explained by a ?several hands? problem arising since the number of actors has increased as the public sphere has adopted leadership forms influenced by the private business sector.

This study has been executed at the Public Employment Office, an institution that has beensubject for much debate during the last couple of years. The government has instructed theLabour Market Board to change the Public Employment Office toward a more effectiveorganization. This study examines one of the Public Employment Offices that are included in apilot project that aims to improve and develop work methods with the objective to become amore service minded organization. From this starting point we have investigated which effect thisorganizational change has had on the employee within this organization and within the pilotproject. In addition we investigate whether attitudes of the unemployed has an effect on thestaff´s work situation.