The purpose of this study is from a case study develop a model that aims to cost effectively improve productivity in a manufacturing production process. The study highlights the importance of having knowledge about customer needs and using a holistic process perspective when improving productivity to identify the relations between the process stations and by this find problems that cause waste and losses in productivity. Tools and methods used to make production more efficient such as single minute exchange of die, spaghetti diagram, 5s and master production schedule is presented an applied in the model to see how these effect costs, productivity etc.Maintenance effects on quality and productivity in a manufacturing company will as well be covered in this thesis. The results and conclusions finally reveals how the process improvement tools, maintenance and production planning for example effects each other and why it is important to establish an attitude in the company where continuous process improvement should be emphasized..

The district heating load is seasonally dependent, with a low load during periods of high ambient temperature. Thermal energy storage (TES) has the potential to shift heating loads from winter to summer, thus reducing cost and environmental impact of District Heat production. In this study, a concept of high temperature borehole thermal energy storage (HT-BTES) together with a pellet heating plant for temperature boost, is presented and evaluated by its technical limitations, its ability to supply heat, its function within the district heating system, as well as its environmental impact and economic viability in Gothenburg, Sweden, a city with access to high quantities of waste heat.The concept has proven potentially environmentally friendly and potentially profitable if its design is balanced to achieve a good enough supply temperature from the HT-BTES. The size of the heat storage, the distance between boreholes and low borehole thermal resistance are key parameters to achieve high temperature. Profitability increases if a location with lower temperature demand, as well as risk of future shortage of supply, can be met.

Östgöta Brandstodsbolag started its insurance business in 1841 and is today a part of Länsförsäkringsgruppen, which consists of 24 independent and locally anchored county insurance companies. The local concept is a condition for the county insurance (länsförsäkring) idea, which means that the 24 county insurance companies cooperate freely. Länsförsäkringar is the market leader within property and liability insurances in Sweden and has a market share of 30.5%. The largest, and most well known, insurance companies in Sweden, apart from Länsförsäkringar, are If, Trygg-Hansa and Folksam. This essay treats with Östgöta Brandstodsbolag, which is one of Sweden's largest county insurance companies. The company is active in the county of Östergötland where it has the dominant market shares within home, detached houses, car and farming.

Since some years Linköping has invested in biogas production, mainly from offal's, residuals from food industry and manure. The municipality goes for biogas in the local traffic and in all transportation. It is also possible for private car owners to run their cars on biogas. The purpose of this essay is to perform a cost-benefit analysis and examine if the project has been beneficial from a social point of view. The effects have been identified, measured and monetarily valued. The essay is limited to include the year of 2006 only.

Radio Frequency Identification, RFID, is a convenient way to enable contactless identification which does not require any physical nor optical contact. As with any radio-based communication the signal can be intercepted, thus making the technology vulnerable to several kinds of attacks. Interception of communication is not the only threat. Since RFID tags might contain personal information or information that will grant the owner access to secure areas, skimming and spoofing attacks are also major threats against this technology. In this thesis report,  the perspective of an adversary is portrayed in an RFID-enabled environment by presenting where RFID is used and how it could be abused.

This exam report has been developed in association with Strangbetong AB, Sweden.The natural gravel that is being used as fine aggregate for concrete production today is an ending natural recourse and the Swedish government has decided to strongly reduce the extraction from the year of 2020. The only reasonable replacement is aggregates from crushed rocks but this material has other properties than natural aggregates. The concrete manufacturers now have to learn how to use these new fine aggregates in a cost effective way in order to ensure the quality of their concrete production.In this project, crushed aggregates and combination of crushed and natural aggregates have been tested with existing formulas for fresh concrete. The two parameters yield stress and plastic viscosity have been measured which gives a good description of the workability of the fresh concrete. Different methods to make measurements on the dry fine aggregates, has also been tested, to find out if there is any correlations between these parameters and the parameters from the measurement on the fresh concrete..

This MSc thesis is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the need for information from forest campartments selected for clear cutting, in connection with planning in an integrated forest- and sawmill enterprise. A review of literature is followed by a case stud y, where present conditions in a Swedish forest company are compared with current research in the area. The seeond part consists of a simulation stud y, which aims at camparing the accuracy of inventory estimates using different methods. The estimates are delivery forecasts, covering one month consumptian of timber in a large sawmill.

The purpose of this study was to build a database for point-bearing piles in dense noncohesive soil, predominantly moraine. Further, the database was analysed and areas with difficult geotechnical conditions was identified.The database includes for point-bearing piles driven to refusal in moraine. Piles with mainly shaft friction have been excluded. Only concrete piles have been included. Geographically the database covers almost all geotechnical conditions of Sweden.

The number of elderly in Sweden is increasing due to improved living conditions and better medical care. It is important that society adapts to the increase and begins to work preventively to reduce the costs of the increase. An important aspect is the elderly accommodation, the cost of health care in specific accommodation is almost twice as high as those for ordinary housing. Therefore, it is important that we availability adapt dwelling to allow older people to live in ordinary housing for as long as they wish, instead of moving to assisted living before they need it. If we can fulfil the elder?s needs with home care instead, society can save a lot of money.In this report, three different forms of housing has undergone accessibility increases and been inventoried and analysed.

The purpose of this essay is to evaluate stock index bonds return to risk ratio in order to investigate to which degree an investor in a stock index bond take part of the underlying index return and what the investor must pay for the security of not losing his funds. In order to carry out this evaluation an average return per year and the Sharpe ratio will be calculated and a mean- standard deviation analysis will be made. All investigated stock index bonds are based on a Swedish underlying asset.The results show that the stock index bonds haven?t generated a higher risk adjusted return than its underlying asset. The stock index bonds took part of 57 % of the underlying assets return, and the loss of 10 percentage points per year for the stock index bonds compared to its underlying asset can be seen as the cost for the guarantee a stock index bond gives..

This report is based on a thesis that was carried out during spring 2012. The report covers the development of a preliminary study to Performance Sk8. The purpose of the study is to facilitate and contribute inspiration to Performance Sk8 to run an automation project to bring home their production to Sweden from China. The reason is to gain a greater ability to control quality, produce smaller batches and reduce the cycle time to reduce costs.The goal is that the preliminary study shall meet the requirements and wishes Performance Sk8 and other partners defined. The pre study will contain different cost proposals for the automation of selected process and serve as a basis for procurement of the equipment.The pre study has resulted in some proposed solutions to the various steps required to automate Performance Sk8 ?s production.

Radio Frequency Identification, RFID, is a convenient way to enable contactless identification which does not require any physical nor optical contact. As with any radio-based communication the signal can be intercepted, thus making the technology vulnerable to several kinds of attacks. Interception of communication is not the only threat. Since RFID tags might contain personal information or information that will grant the owner access to secure areas, skimming and spoofing attacks are also major threats against this technology. In this thesis report,  the perspective of an adversary is portrayed in an RFID-enabled environment by presenting where RFID is used and how it could be abused.

This Master thesis was written for Lantmännen Agroetanol in Norrköping concerning the layout of their finished goods inventory and unloading of feed after introducing a new product mix. Lantmännen Agroetanol has two production lines which produces feed. Both lines lead to six silos, used as inventory of finished goods. The feed from the two production lines differ in terms of quality, where as Lantmännen Agroetanol wants to separate their finished inventory in order to charge a higher price, by selling the better product as a premium. With two different feed products the yearly revenue is expected to increase which motivates a research about the current capabilities and necessary changes to be made in the factory.

Brands are the instruments corporates use to create and communicate brands reputation. Within the different industries for consumer products intangible assets such as brands are known to have great importance for corporate prosperities. When consumers experiences a specific brand symbolizes best possible value for money, the corporate behind it has managed to create a unique competitive advantage that should be to its full potential. Strong brands can pose the difference between winning or loosing on the market. Due to this brands should be considered as cost-effective instruments since they help create financial advantages such as consumer loyalty.

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is a technology that utilizes the temperaturedifference in oceans between the warm surface water and the cold water at 1000 m depthto produce electricity. The purpose of this report is to investigate if OTEC with its synergiescould become a commercially feasible energy solution for a small island. A literature reviewis conducted to explore the different OTEC technologies and to what extent the threesynergies; fresh water, air conditioning and aquaculture, could be used. In order to calculatethe profitability of these synergies there is also a study conducted on the conventionalmethods and cost of fresh water production, aquaculture and air conditioning. A model is setup using a scenario of a small tropical Island with population of 100 000 people.