This is a heuristic evaluation of Umeå university library?s Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC). It makes use of four of Nielsen?s ten heuristics, flexibility and efficiency to use, match between the system and real world, visibility of system status, and aesthetic and minimalist design. The evaluation was done by having 3 evaluators inspect the interface individually, as per Nielsen?s (1990) recommendation of 3-5 evaluators.

Environment friendly transports are one of the main topics in the industry and society today.Shell organizes an annual university competition called Shell Eco Marathon. The goal is to buildthe car that consumes the least fuel during a race. KTH participated for the first time in 2006.The engine for this competition, DoubleTwo, has been developed within the school. Theprinciple is a two stroke counter piston HCCI engine with variable compression ratio. HCCIstands for homogenous charge compression ignition.

BackgroundThere are different organizational structures and control and it has been proved difficult to find a combination between these that leads to goal congruence and improved efficiency. An organization can be structured according to hierarchical levels and the decision making can be either centralized or decentralized. Organizational control can be classified according to the amount of rules and balanced scorecard can be used to weld together the structure with the control.PurposeThe purpose is to create an understanding of how two types of structures and control in an organization appears and also to investigate how these differ from one another concerning the balanced scorecard as a control system. We will also investigate how the variables goal congruence and efficiency are affected by the implementation of the balanced scorecard.MethodTo answer the purpose of this thesis we have mainly used the qualitative method since we have studied two organizations thoroughly through interviews on different levels of the organization. The study also has some quantitative elements since we wanted to get a more truthful picture of the organizations.

With an IT outsourcing project there are many factors affecting how efficiency andquality develop in the outsourced activity. The Purpose of this study is to identifythese factors through a case study in a global company that is dissatisfied with theefficiency and quality of their outsourced helpdesk. For data collection methodsinterviews and observations were used. Interviews were conducted with people fromdifferent parts of the company in three different countries, all somehow involved inthe outsourced system. The observations were made with the outsourced company tosee how the employees work and fill information gaps that the interviews could notcover.

This paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using different benchmarking models to measure and compare the efficiency of Swedish gas distributors. It also discusses to which extent the results of a benchmarking study should influence the revenue-cap which will be implemented in the gas distribution sector in Sweden from year 2011. The discussion is based on arguments from both theory and practical applications of benchmarking. The results suggest that benchmarking Swedish gas distributors against distributors in another country using a parametric model is most favorable, but the reliability will be increased if non-parametric models are used also. Partial and total productivity measures could be used to confirm results of other benchmarking analyses.

Stockholms vattenskärning AB in Kungsängen has through the acquisition of a company begun to design and produce aircraft heaters whose origin is early 1970s which follows a high inefficiency in terms of energy consumption and size.The aircraft heater, which is sold worldwide, serves its purpose for customer satisfaction and has done so ever since it was developed in the 70s.Stockholms vattenskärning AB is now investigating the possibility in making the aircraft heaters more efficient, both in terms of energy consumption but also on a more efficient design with the belief that it would lead them to an edge in the market. The aircraft heater consists of several main components whose function altogether is to keep passenger aircrafts warm while they are on the ground.This project has been limited to the further development of the heat exchanger package which accounts for the conversion of the hot medium to the fresh air being carried in to the aircraft cabin. Work has been divided into different phases in order to create a better understanding of the project range and to make it easier to divide the various elements in the time available, 10 weeks. These phases are literature review, situation analysis, concept generation, CAD, concept comparison and writing reports.After the initial literature review was made, a fundamental theory was written which is essential in understanding the remaining parts of the project.With the theoretical part as support, measurements and calculations were made on the current heat exchange package in a situation analysis to ensure its operation and efficiency.In the concept generation phase, the collected facts from the literature review was used as the basis for creating a matrix. The purpose of the matrix was to indicate the two most suitable types of heat exchangers to develop four new concepts out of.In the CAD phase the four concepts was drawn up and then described with text and images.The last phase is the concept comparison where a concept selection matrix is used to function as a decision basis for further production at Stockholms vattenskärning AB. The four concepts have been developed based on the current heat exchanger and is gradually changed into a design of a cross-flow heat exchanger constructed out of stainless sections. The purpose of this is to have gradual upgrading of the heat exchanger as an option, in order not to saturate the market..

The goal of this paper is to find out how solar cells can improve energy efficiency on-board M/S Sydfart. The paper is based on a number of energy measurements on board the M/S Sydfart. The solar surface is calculated by measuring the available space for installing solar panels. Global radiation data is taken from STRÅNG's database, the data is then used to calculate the theoretical power produced by the solar cells. Energy efficiency is analysed in two ways.

In today?s computerized society more and more companies choose to utilize new applications that can ease the way of handling the information. For many of us is imperative that the process as efficient as possible if one takes in consideration the size of savings that this new application can bring.The developer of the evaluated system is SYSteam AB Huskvarna and they are the ones that gave us this assignment. The application that we evaluate is SCM (Secure Connection Manager). It is already used today by big companies such as Telia and Ericsson to search for errors in telephone servers placed all over the country.

With the globalization, companies in the West chose to shift production to developing countries to cut down costs. This had a major impact when child labor and very poor working conditions in these factories were discovered and led many companies to take responsibility for their suppliers and the employees by adopting voluntary so-called Codes of Conduct.There is a subtle balance to enforce improvement of working conditions for employees at suppliers´ factories and to keep costs down. On the one hand, companies would like to conduct extensive audits at their suppliers to ensure code of conduct compliance and thus protect their legitimacy. On the other hand, audits are expensive so companies would like to minimize audits to keep costs down. Companies thus have to strike a delicate balance in relation to how many and what suppliers they choose to audit.

Title: Management control of facility efficiency in municipalities - A case study of Halmstad municipalityLevel: BachelorSeminar date: 2012-05-31Authors: Markus Nilsson & Sara MattssonAdvisor: Sven-Ola CarlssonKey words: Control management in municipality, facility efficiency, management by objectives, internal rents and incentivesBackground: The public sector owns and manages a large property portfolio and in the municipalities, the properties are always a big cost item. Because of the outside world changes and the public interest, the properties should be used as efficiently as possible.Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how control management of facilities looks like a municipality. The paper also seeks to explain how employees work to make the facilities more efficient in a municipality.Methodology: The authors use a qualitative method with open interviews.Theoretical perspectives: The choice of theory was made with the field of management control and facility efficiency in mind. The theory therefore includes management by objectives, internal rents and reward systems, motivation and communication within organizations.Empirical foundation: The organization has undergone a reorganization 2010/2011. There are no clear incentives to reduce facility costs.

Acrylamide (AM) is a commonly used monomer in the manufacture of polyacrylamide. In addition, AM has been found in heated foods that are rich in starch. The main dietary sources in Sweden tend to be crisps, French fries, fried potatoes, crisp bread, cookies and coffee. Un-fortunately, dietary intake of AM has in several studies been shown to cause cancer in ro-dents. Consequently, the compound is currently regarded as a potential carcinogen in hu-mans.

Alstom Power i Växjö arbetar med utveckling och försäljning av bland annat elektrofilter tillrökgasreningssystem vid olika typer av miljövårdsanläggningar för t.ex. kraftverksindustrin.Dessa elektrofilter kontrolleras och regleras med hjälp av styrutrustning uppbyggd av ettantal styrenheter som idag kommunicerar via en egentillverkad standard kallad ?Fläktbuss?. Föratt övervaka detta system vill man använda handburna PDA och kommunicera med Fläktbussenvia USB. För att få kommunikationen mellan USB och Fläktbuss att fungera krävs någon form avaktiv konvertering.Detta examensarbete kommer att ta upp så väl problematik och lösningar kring detproblem som finns i samband med denna konvertering..

The purpose of this project is to study Partab's material distribution process, furthermore identify critical problem areas within the company. Further the aim is to provide suggestions to new work procedures regarding material distribution and related processes. Appropriate literature has been used as a support in this process. The main goal of a commercial company is to generate cash flow, and maximize the return on investment. Streamlining material supply and the use of material is a part of this process. Virum and Persson define logistics as: "Logistics is the approach and principles founding the process of planning, development, coordination, organisation, management, and control of material distribution from supplier to user".

This report describes the manufacture and control of a flying platform. The report describes the basic and fundamental theories required to get the platform flying. It touches on subjects such as A/D-conversion. PWM-control and PID-control. The sensors used in the platform are a gyro and an accelerometer.

Energy efficiency has become a very topical issue that has been discussed throughout the European Union for preventing negative environmental impacts that have been associated with the consumption of energy. In the residential sector have mainly municipalities set strict requirements for the reduction of energy consumption while the renewable energy has been asked. Different concepts of low-energy buildings have been developed to reduce the cost of operation and maintenance in existing buildings such as in new ones.This thesis has aimed to minimize the energy cost of a large building which has had low energy consumption features originally. Energy reviews has been initiated in order to be able for showing how the house electricity could be carried out even more efficiently.The work was initiated through a literature study to clearly increase the reliability on the energy subject. Different concepts of low-energy buildings have been treated in connection with its specifications, afterward those have been compared with the obtained results.