High housing- and construction costs is a fact in Sweden today. Prices on building materials more rapidly than producer price index for industrial goods. Prices tend to rise during market boom but does not adapt during diminishing demand. The effects of fading demand can rather be deduced through discounts and quotations. During 1992-1998 when the Swedish construction sector found it self in severe crisis the prices of construction materials kept rising more rapidly than PPI for industrial merchandise.

The hybrid larch (Larix x eurolepis Henry) is a fast growing tree species and was introduced in Sweden for about 50 years ago. The high growth and expected resistance to diseases are probably the main reasons of introducing the tree species into the Swedish forests. The purpose of this thesis was to document the production of hybrid larch planted in the Snogeholm landscape laboratory and to compare the production in the pure hybrid larch stand with the mixture together with pedunculate oak (Quercus robur). The data collection in Snogeholm since the establishment has been carried out by the Swedish University of Agricultural Science (SLU). The fieldwork for the thesis was carried out in 3 stands, containing hybrid larch, pedunculate oak and a mixture of hybrid larch and pedunculate oak, in order to be able to compare the total stand production of the areas. The results show that the total production of hybrid larch in the mixed stand only is 35 % compared with the total production of hybrid larch in the pure stand. Therefore, the hypothesis that the total production of hybrid larch is equal to the planted mixture with pedunculate oak was rejected. The other hypothesis that the total production of a 2 hectare large stand containing a mixture of hybrid larch and pedunculate oak would be greater than the total production of two pure stands of 1 hectare containing hybrid larch and oak each was also rejected. In the studied case the total production was 45 % greater if hybrid larch and pedunculate oak was planted in pure stands. The results from the case-study only indicate that the total production of hybrid larch and oak under the investigated conditions can be higher when planting the two species in pure stands compared with a mixture of the two species.

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.

The global wood pellet market has seen a rapid growth after the adoption of the Kyoto protocol and the renewable energy incentives created within the European Union. The global consumption of wood pellets reached 13,5 million tonnes in 2010 and several experts estimate the consumption to be between 35-50 million tonnes by 2020. These forescasts raise the questions which regions that can supply this vast amount of wood pellets and what the conditions are for producing it. This study evaluates the conditions for wood pellet production and export from British Columbia, on Canada?s west coast, focusing on existing industry structure, raw material supply and the distribution chain.

In the last decade, member states of the European Union have adopted a range of measures to decrease the dependency on fossil fuels. This has led to an increased use of biomass in heat and power production. In some countries, the lack of forest resource has led to large scale power producers importing their biomass needs. Due to high energy content and homogeneity, wood pellets have become an internationally traded commodity used for large scale power production. The Baltic States have emerged as one of the largest wood pellet exporting regions in Europe.

Since the 1980s, companies have taken a larger interest in quality and it´s economic impact within the company. Having the knowledge that it´s not quality that costs money, but it´s rather the lack of quality. The work immerses itself in the field of cost of poor quality and the development of key performance indicators.The thesis is performed at Bufab Holding in Värnamo. Bufab Holding is a trading company which mainly buys and sells C-parts. C-parts include fasteners, other small metal-, rubber- or plastic parts such as wires, springs and electronic fasteners.The aim of this thesis was to make a survey of the cost of poor quality and to find key performance indicators (KPI) for cost of poor quality that can be continuously monitored.

This graduation work is a result of implementing Lean Production using OEE and SMED at Enics Sweden AB in Malmö. Enics doesn?t have an established improvement concept and therefore should this work serve as an introduction to possibly start with Lean Production. A result in this report is that an OEE value has been identified within a common order at Enics. Other results are that an implementation of a Lean-board has been implemented and furthermore, within SMED, a flag that indicates changeover..

When a company in the manufactory industry makes costly investments, it's important that these are used as much as possible. The company in this case claims that their invested robot cell, with CNC machine isn't used enough. The questions here are: How can we improve the use of the robot cell? Which products are appropriate for the production in the robot cell? As a method to come to a conclusion, an analysis has been made over the manufactured products. And also interviews with machine operators and the production management.

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.

In Sweden, the demand for bio energy has increased in recent years due to the current energy and climate debate. In 2008, the energy supply of Sweden was 612 TWh, biofuels accounted for 123 TWh of these. Stumps have been highlighted as a potential fuel in recent years and the Swedish Forest Agency expects a technically and biologically feasible potential of 20.7 TWh annually between 2010 and 2019. The idea of utilize stumps is not new. During the 19th century stumps were used for tar production and during the 70?s and 80?s attempts were made to use stumps in the pulp industry.

The aim of this study is to review the commercial quail production for eggs and meat in the world. Another aim is to review the potential for increased production. Globally the quail production is very small, except in China where it is the second largest poultry industry. The production globally is small despite the quail's rapid growth, early sexual maturity and its high feed efficiency. The quail is also used as a laboratory animal and can be reared to be released in hunting areas.

When planning new wind farms, the cost for the internal electrical grid is estimated to account for 8-9 % of the total investment cost. On top of that, the cost for accumulated reduced income over several years (due to electrical losses), has to be added. The economic lifespan is relatively long (about 20 years) which means that an error in the loss calculation could lead to a bad decision basis. The accumulated reduced incomes due to electrical losses can be higher than the initial investment cost for the internal electrical grid.Today, Statkraft Sweden is using a template number when estimating the electrical losses in a wind farm. The actual losses are probably lower than the template number which could lead to an unnecessary high loss cost when planning a new wind farm.The aim of this M.Sc.

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to identify problems that may occur in the execution of a civil engineering project and suggest measures to reduce the risk of errors. The study was conducted in cooperation with a civil engineering company in the Gothenburg area. During two weeks in February 2012, a field study took place on two construction sites where disruption and problems that took more than 15 minutes to correct were noted. During the field study we identified 39 such occurrences in the projects and then these were classified into different categories according to their cause.The two largest categories were "Design" and "Planning", which accounted for half of the errors that were discovered.In the study results were evaluated to decide whether it was possible to detect discrepancies at an earlier stage. The cost to fix an error in the design stage may be significantly less than to correct the problem in production.According to the evaluation, 55% of the errors could have been detected earlier if there was a greater degree of observation for such issues by everyone involved in the project.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the different substrates that enter the digestion on Sundet wastewater treatment plant for production of biogas.This work have done an analysis of data about the biogasproduction from January 2012 to feburari 2013, this showed that the food substrates has a greater gas production than internal sludge.Through laboratory test the VS, TS and COD values for all the substrates used in the biogas production could be determinded. But the COD-method was less optimal for analysis of fat and food, therefore it optimized the method for fat but due to time constraints, this could not be done on the food substrates..

The purpose of this report is to compile and examine the cost of renovation of moisture-damaged bathrooms, to derive a target price. The target price can then be used by insurance companies to estimate the ultimate cost of future bathroom renovations.       The method is based on the compilation and comparison of the cost of repairs of previous water damage in bathrooms. The calculations compiled based on repair estimates for different insurance losses from one of the leading insurance companies in Sweden.       The result shows the average price per square meter of floor area for different sizes of bathrooms. The average price is the basis for the estimate of future renovation costs of bathrooms. The results further show that the bathroom finishes, area and the distance between the entrepreneur and the location of the renovation have great impact on the final repairing cost.