Return handling is often regarded as a slow and complex process. Studies have shown that it is not unusual for a return to cost up to nine times as much as a standard outbound delivery. An efficient return handling process is therefore essential to all competitive companies dealing with logistics. This report investigates, analyzes and gives suggestions on development with the purpose to improve the return handling process at LensLogistics AB in Kista, north of Stockholm, Sweden. The study has been conducted from a deliberately practical point of view in order to suggest improvement suggestions possible to implement and thereby change the entire return handling process.

What is e-leadership and how can it be framed in a distance context? How can work motivation be understood as a correlated theme? In prior leadership research and theory it has been taken for granted that leadership occurs in a face-to-face environment, so how to study leadership in a remote context? According to recent research, e-leadership defines this leader-member relation in this new arena, and a central focus of this research has been on communication. Communication is a central theme in the remote setting because it is the only interaction arena which allows leadership to be seen and understood. By conducting a case study in a multi media organization with distance working journalists as focus group this essay aims to bring a deeper understanding of how e-leadership works and how it effects work motivation. The field of media organizations is interesting to study as distance work is not an unusual working environment for journalists, and research has indicated that work motivation needs for these highly specified creative workers are somewhat differentiated from other, for example industrial workers, which implies that motivation theories urges an update.

Laser for material processing possesses a number of advantages which mean that it has been and will be an important component for a wide range of industries' future development. Cutting materials processing is the dominant use of laser technology and has revolutionized the manufacturing industry. The aim of this thesis is to describe the principles of metal cutting by laser, how laser cutting is applied in practice and to identify how Swedish companies are using laser cutting. For the theoretical and technical description of laser cutting literature studies are the primary source of information. The empirical basis for the mapping of the Swedish industry for laser cutting is grounded on a survey; this includes Swedish companies that use laser cutting in their production.

Background: Change factors have appeared in advertising and customer understanding has grown among companies, which have led to important competitive advantages. Advertising agencies are not the only ones benefiting from this expertise anymore, but companies are starting to thus take clients from advertising agencies. They are also taking intermediaries, such as production, over more and more jobs from advertising agencies. This has led to an even tougher competition in the market and that advertising agencies are losing their jobs. The increased competition in the market, has also led many companies choosing to change its advertising agency, to think in new and changing strategies in the enterprise.

Several technical solutions are ready to step forward as the new generation of propellant, and this report aims to explore the possibility of commercializing fuel cell cars. The report is based on current research and data from today's technology and engineering solutions that are estimated to be commercially realized before 2020.A mapping of today?s different fuel cell options has shown that the most suitable fuel cell option is the Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell, which uses hydrogen as fuel. The report is focusing on a techno-economic well-to-wheel analysis of hydrogen and the energy balance and costs in a system perspective. The basis for this analysis consists of two centralized methods of production, steam methane reforming (SMR), and alkaline water electrolysis.

The ISO 9000-series is a set of quality standards created by the International Organization for Standardization. The series is intended to provide guidance to companies in the process of deploying an effective quality management system. The series includes the requirements standard ISO 9001. This standard contains requirements on how a quality management system should be designed and how companies generally must work with quality issues. When a quality management system is introduced, if wanted, a quality certification can be implemented.

This project investigates the cooperation between architect and engineer. The context of the investigation is the design of buildings for a sustainable society. The goal of the project is to further the development of the sustainable built society by increasing the knowledge of the interdisciplinary cooperation between these two fields. The focus is a close cooperation already from the start of a project. By involving both fields in the early design stages it is thought that the knowledge and skills of each field is better utilized.

AimThe aim with this essay has been to investigate how preschools profiling in motor activity training, work to stimulate motor development of children. In order to study this, the main focus for the research has been on the following queries:What characterize motor activity training at the preschools studied?What is the purpose with the motor activity training of preschools which were studied?How do the preschools describe the affect that motor activity training has on children?How do the preschools look at the need for motor activity training?MethodFour in-depth interviews were conducted with representatives of the chosen preschools profiling in motor activity. My selection was based on a strategic sample and this was made by an internet mapping of preschool activities in the districts of Stockholm, and information from the service guide of the town of Stockholm. Then e-mail was sent to ten contact persons at preschool units, and ten preschools were contacted directly by phone.

With new energy directives in place, the Swedish Social Service (SSS) stands beforethe challenge how to reduce the energy demand in its locales. It is a complex matter,as the locales are rented from various property owners and it becomes a question ofhow to reduce the operational electricity and influence the property owners to workmore with energy efficiency. This thesis takes a balanced research approach in threeparts. Firstly a qualitative part in form of interviews with personnel at the SSS and itsproperty owners, secondly a quantitative part of descriptive nature in form of energystatistics and thirdly a literature review of Energy Management (EM) Supply ChainManagement(SCM), Green Supply Chain Management(GSCM) and EnviromentalPerformance Indicators (EPI). This in order to be able to give normativerecommendations of how the SSS should act to reduce its energy consumption in itslocales and provide new insights on how EM, SCM, GSCM and EPI can be applied ineffect.

Problem. With the Swedish public sectors problem with efficiency in mind, several reforms have beeninitiated during the last decades. These reforms go, in academic contexts, under the name?New public management?. The reforms have resulted in, among other things, an increasedcompetition, privatization and goal-orientation in the public sector.

It is important that organizations today focus on continuous improvements in order to face the growing competition in the world. A company needs a corporate culture that supports and encourages the employees to be creative and innovative in their work. This is necessary for the company if they are striving towards continuous learning and development within their organization.The main purpose of this paper is to investigate how the culture differences between Sweden and China affect Sandvik AB. We will also study how the company manages continuous improvements and what consequences culture differences have on their work.Our paper is a single case study at Sandvik AB in Sweden and China. We have visited Sandvik in Sandviken to conduct a series of interviews with employees of different position within the company and with dissimilar work tasks.

This study has been done in order to map the supply of vegetarian and vegan food products in Sweden for business clients and consumers. A total of 665 food stuffs were found and classified into six categories. The biggest category was meat substitutes with 302 products and the second largest category was sandwich spreads with 150 different products. Within the remaining categories a varied number of products were found; 86 beverages, 64 cooking accessories, 34 milk free ice creams and 29 plant based yogurts. Of the meat substitutes were 28 only available for business clients.

Every year, reports are published that shows how universities fail to meet the demand from companies who are looking to hire students with solid communication skills. At the same time, the importance of communication for effective leadership is constantly increasing. Today, many business schools around the world states that they strive to educate future business leaders and have therefore realized the importance of teaching the skills of communications to its students. The majority of Swedish business schools, however, have not yet made communications an essential part of their curricula. This indicates that most business students in Sweden today, do not receive the toolkit needed to take on leadership roles.

The trend towards increasingly large farming units raises questions regarding how to better monitor production. Larger units make the impact from possible errors more severe, which increases the pressure on management supervision. To cope with management issues, prevent errors and handle increased demands on traceability and documentation, the Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) concept is making its way into various parts of agriculture. In sectors outside agriculture, RTLS are already being used successfully to track and locate items through nodes at different levels of accuracy, such as room level or the relative or absolute position. Empirical data can be received in real time from the nodes.

Different techniques for precision agriculture have been available during the last decade. Some of them are more widely used than others. The main purpose of this thesis was to investigate the different attitudes to precision agriculture that exists among farmers and advisors in Sweden. Eight advisors and sixteen farmers were asked for their opinion of a number of specific techniques for precision agriculture, such as yield-mapping, precision liming, the Yara Nitrogen Sensor and site-specific fertilization with phosphorous and potassium. They were also asked to describe the way in which the counselling in Swedish agriculture is used and also about it's importance for the adaptation of new techniques. The high costs are mentioned to be one of the most important reasons why precision agriculture hasn't been more widely spread. Several farmers refer to their farms as too small to bear the costs that come with the techniques. The individual interest for technique among the potential users plays an important role.