Executive SummaryThis final thesis has examined the effects of an increased centralization and better coord­in­ation of the distribution logistics at ABB in Västerås. The company is today strongly decent­ralized and there is a minimum of collaboration between the 20 business units. This is why the questions were raised; how could the business units coordinate outbound logistic activities and what effects would that provide. The obj­ect­ive of this final thesis is to provide basic data for a future decision-making which desc­r­ibe these effects.The report has mapped out the factors that are important to ABB in an evaluation of their logistic activities and how the outbound logistics work today. The four factors are cost efficiency, delivery service, environmental impact and logistics capability.

There are various arguments for using total mixed rations (TMR) or not. Cows can easily become fat and thus poorly utilize the feed while it can be stated that TMR also has a positive effect on cows? health and wellbeing as the rumen environment is more constant than when separate feeding is applied. Studies do show that that especially low yielding cows kept in groups get fatter when fed TMR. The overfeeding implicates higher feeding Costs. This study included 10 herds where 5 had TMR and 5 hade separate feeding of forage and concentrates.

The effects from a planned wind farm on the grid utility Gävle Energis electrical grid have been studied. The wind farm is planned to be built in the forest 15 km north of Gävle and will have 23 turbines with rated power from 2 to 2.5 MW, resulting in a total installed power between 46 MW and 57.5 MW. The grid connection will be made at 70 kV. The aim of the analysis was to determine what effects the wind farm would have on the power grid in the form of electrical disturbances (flicker etc.), need for new investment and raised operational cost. To allow the connection of the wind farm technical solutions (new lines, power stations and grid reinforcements) have been constructed.

NCC ROADS Sweden east is a part of the NCC Corporation. The company mainly produces aggregates, asphalt and concrete. They have taken the environmental issues seriously and been working with that since the middle of the nineties. When manufacturing asphalt large a quantity of fossil energy is needed. The company is now about to make further progresses by manufacturing environmental friendly asphalt (?green asphalt?) with using bio-energy.

The construction industry in Sweden has in the past 50 years had a low progress in efficiency. With a greater competition from construction firms from other countries, it is necessary to maintain the profit for Swedish construction firms. This is possible with a higher feedback of experience. This diploma work thesis examines how the two construction companies NCC and Skanska in Uppsala, Sweden handle experience feedback from previous projects and the extent to which the experience is spread and used in future projects. In this work, we examined directorial documents to see how employees shall work with feedback.

The case study we conducted describes market for transmission of terrestrial digital TV. The purpose of this study is to find out what hinders potential entrants from entering the market as well as to discuss possible competitive strategies for potential entrants. Our conclusion is that even though the market for transmission of terrestrial digital TV can be viewed as attractive due to its fast growth, there are barriers to entry that block companies we identified as potential entrants from entering the market. The industry experience of the current market players (Teracom and Boxer) along with their knowledge of the consumers and the fact that Teracom is a multi-business company are some of the factors to be taken into consideration. Switching Costs is the most important barrier to entry for the industry.

Seabased Industry AB develops system for extracting electrical energy from ocean waves with a Wave Energy Converter (WEC). The components is bought from subcontractors and then assembled into wave energy converters, buoys and marine substations by Seabased. In the future Seabased will produce more of the components themselves to reduce Costs and to have better control over tolerances. The production line will also include the painting of the WECs and substations, which is performed in a painting line.The purpose of this thesis work is to study what is required to build a painting line, regarding the types of stations, transporting types and the space needed. This will result in layouts for the painting line.To receive the necessary information about production theory and corrosion and surface treatment, literature concerning this area has been studied.

The purpose of this masters thesis is to examine how managers in public libraries are managing financial cuts. Questions posed are: What strategies are used by the library manager to handle the cuts and how are the strategies being worked out? What are the consequences of the cuts? How do the managers use their library plans in the work with the cuts and how do the plans change as a consequence of the cuts? Library managers in eleven communities are interviewed about their financial cuts in 2003 and/or 2004. The result shows that cuts are made in different ways. The study analysed the managers statements with a model about strategies created by Oulton.

The technical development is advancing at high speed and now the turn has come for the traditional paper to digitalize into the so called e-paper. The newspaper industry has started to investigate the future possibilities of publishing the traditional newspapers on e-paper. Today?s newspapers are mostly financed by advertisement incomes, which makes the advertisers important players, who must be taken into consideration at an introduction of the e-paper. Since the e-paper does not exist as a finished product in the market today, in this essay we look into what kind of functions or services that can attract advertisers to the e-paper on the basis of the experiences made with the breakthrough of the web-newspapers.

This thesis aims to investigate what requirements companies have in order to achieve a successful legislative compliance control. The implementation of an environmental management system can help the company to structure their business and succeed with their environmental legislative compliance.Both small and medium sized businesses perceive that it is difficult and time consuming because the legislation can be difficult to interpret if you do not have the required knowledge. There are many companies that hire help in the form of consultants who audit their compliance, but this leads to a risk that the company will be exposed when the knowledge does not remain in the company if the consultant would cancel the cooperation. There are not so many tools today for businesses to obtain good legal compliance. The methods used are usually checklists included in the control program, and it Costs a lot of resources to do everything needed.This study strives to deliver the expressed needs of the businesses.

I detta examensarbete har en tillförlitlighetsmetod tagits fram som väger samman kostnadspåverkande faktorer för investeringar och underhåll i eldistributionssystem med kostnader förknippade med avbrott. Syftet med metoden är att möjliggöra för nätplanerare och projektörer att jämföra olika investeringsalternativ för att kunna kostnadseffektivisera investeringarna i eldistributionssystem. Med tillförlitlighetsanalys kan den förväntade avbrottstiden i systemets uttagspunkter beräknas. Kopplas en kostnad till den förväntade avbrottstiden i uttagspunkterna kan den förväntade avbrottskostnaden för distributionssystemet beräknas. Syftet med simuleringarna har varit att undersöka om det går att minimera den totala kostnaden, investeringskostnader samt förväntade avbrottskostnad, genom slumpvisa investeringar i systemets ledningssektioner. Simuleringarna har genomförts på ett fiktivt mindre system.

 Genotyping can be used to link genetic variation among individuals to certain diseases or conditions. Some known disorders and states that are dependent on single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) are lactose intolerance, venous thrombosis, hereditary hemochromatosis and the difference in sensibility among people to metabolise drugs.In this project a new kit, TaqManÒ Sample-to-SNP KitÔ for extraction of DNA and preparation of the extract for genotyping with real-time PCR and allelic discrimination, was evaluated. QIAamp® DNA Blood Biorobot® MDx Kit was used as the reference method.The purpose of the comparison was to find a method that makes DNA extraction from blood samples cheaper and faster, but with the same reliability as the reference procedure.The results of the evaluation showed a complete agreement of the genotype results between the methods tested, which means that the new method was as reliable as the reference method. The Costs of reagents and material would be reduced with 52% if the new method is adopted, that alone would result in a cost reduction of 144 000SEK a year with a sample volume of 650 samples/month. The time for DNA extraction would also be reduced with the new procedure. .

The purpose of this essay is to investigate the policy proposal The right to Challenge (utmaningsrätt) and the political motivation that has been used to implement it, as well as the result of it. The focus is on a case study of the implementing in Örebro municipality. Moreover, a comparative study is done to investegate the differences and similarities between Örebro and other municipalities that have chosen to implement The right to Challenge.The main question in this essay is How did Örebro?s municipality implement it and what was the result? There is also four minor questions: How was The right to Challenge motivated and what hopes did the politicans have for it? What has The right to Challenge so far contributed with in Örebro municipality? What do the entreprenures think about their oppertunity to challenge the municipality? What similarities and differences exists between Örebro and other municipalities that have chosen to implement The right to Challenge?The results that are presented in this essay generate conclusions that the implementing of The right to Challenge was motivated with arguments that it will result in increased diversity, improved efficiency, and reduced Costs. This has however not been the case since very few challenges have been submitted, most likely due to a lack of promotion.

The workplace is for many associated with joy and commitment, for others it is associated with fatigue, inadequacy and cynicism that is explained as the three dimensions of burnout. A general view of burnout is that it is an individual problem that many companies ignore, because a preventive task does not generate immediate profits. This has been a growing problem for years. Burnout Costs not only money but also time and knowledge. Unfortunately, the popular belief is that "If it ain?t broke, don?t fix it." Organizations that think this way are sacrificing future benefits for short-term gains.

In a time of economic turmoil and financial crisis profitability matters rise higher and higher on company agendas. Many companies are pressured to find profitability to avoid layoffs or even bankruptcy. Profitability essentially depends on the margin on the product or service sold and the Costs associated with selling these products or services and hence these areas are of vital importance if companies are to improve profitability. Previous research has focused, for the most part, on product profitability while customer profitability has received less attention. This study is based on a case study of a Swedish publishing house and aims to investigate how the company?s Cost-to-Serve varies between its distribution channels.