Sweden experienced a decline in exports of 16 percent in the period after the financial crisis. The decline has created a lot of question marks regarding the traditional exports which has started a process with the aim of finding Sweden?s next cash cow in export.Sweden adopted stringent environmental laws early which positioned them as a strong nation in environmental awareness. The stringent environmental legislation meant that the Swedish companies were required to minimize the environmental impact, which created a demand for eco-efficient products. Despite the early demand for eco-efficient products, the international success of the Swedish cleantech companies has been modest.The government can increase firms international competitiveness by encouraging, supporting and promoting activities on the domestic market.

This thesis contains a usability evaluation of ?Barnplay?, a Swedish video-on-demand service targeted at children. The objective of the study was to identify usability issues in the video service and to develop measures on improving the user interface, with special focus on adaptation to the broad target group of 3-11 year olds.The study was conducted by first mapping established practices in designs of VOD-services targeted at children, followed by interviews and usability tests with children between 2-11 concerning their use of ?Barnplay?. Based on the initial data collection, a prototype was developed and then evaluated by usability testing and A/B-testing.The main conclusion of the study is the need of better individual adjustment of the video content selection to better appeal to different age segments within the target group.

Thinning is the partial removal of trees in a forest stand prior to final harvest. The term can be divided in pre-commercial thinning where little if any volume is removed from the stand and commercial thinning where removals are intended to provide a positive economic result. From a silvicultural point of view, the goal of thinning is to enhance future crop tree quality by removing low-quality stems and providing sufficient space for the accelerated development of retained ones (Huuskonen & Hynynen, 2006). The goals of this study was to see if commercial thinning could positively affect the short and medium term timber supply (MTTS) in the Interior regions of British Columbia (BC), and whether or not Scandinavian forestry practices could be adopted in the BC context. The mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) has created significant forest planning problems in BC. The annual allowable cut (AAC) was raised to capture beetle-killed timber while still merchantable.

The report is part of the university´engineer program within Industrial Organization and Economics with specialization in Logistics and Managment at Jönköping´s university.Skoghall´s mill underlies a large supply chain, which means there should be a lot of areas in need of small improvement measures. This report illustrates a small part of one of these areas and is focused on the loading distribution services in the terminal Vänern.At the moment there´s a very unequal load of the load carriers SECU box and Container at the terminal. Skoghall´s mill has the desire to equalize the high and low load levels of the 2 loading carriers named previously. One of the options to solve the problem is to set a limit of how much the carriers can load per week or per day. The mill also wants it to be investigated if the proposition would influence the customers in any way and if both the company and its customers could handle a lower level of delivery services in case the proposition was to be applied.The goal to be achieved with this thesis is to provide balance to the unequall loading of the 2 load carriers, SECU and Container, and investigate whether or not the Skoghall´s mill´s customers, could manage the lower degree of delivery service that the proposition would imply.For this goal to be achieved, random sample investigations were taken from orders of a customer that is provided with SECU load carriers and the same was made with a Container´s customer.

The energy sector is facing an impending paradigm shift. Today?s technology enables the end-user to generate their own energy locally at home. Furthermore, recently developed storage technologies make it possible to balance energy demand with stored energy and integrate district heating with the local power grid. This means that in the future heat and electric power will interact and energy flows is converted over energy boundaries.

AbstractEssay in Political Science, autumn 2010. ?ALBA ? A regional integration project with good conditions?? Autor: Anna Sjögren. Course: Political Science, C-level, Tutor: Sten Berglund An essential part of the political science research on regional integration has been about why states join economic unions and what forces drive the process of integration. This essay is a case study on the Latin American regional integration project called ALBA.

Poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a group of environmental contaminants that have gained increasing attention due to their potential to bioaccumulate, environmental persistence and potential toxicity. PFASs have been found in surface water, sediment, air, soil, sludge and ice caps globally, as well as in wildlife and humans. Furthermore, PFASs have also been detected in drinking water, leading to raised concerns for human health, since drinking water is one of the most significant sources of PFASs for the general population. Conventional water treatment techniques have shown to be ineffective removing PFASs, highlighting the importance for further research to develop efficient removal techniques. The aim of this study was to investigate the removal efficiency of PFASs in water using two treatment techniques; granular activated carbon (GAC), type Filtrasorb 400®, and anion exchange (AE), type Purolite A-600. Additionally, the effect of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) on removal efficiency was studied.

Syfte: Syftet är att undersöka följderna av konkurrensutsättningen på apoteksmarknaden ur ett logistiskt flödesperspektiv.Metod: Abduktiv ansats och en kvalitativ datainsamlingsmetod i form av semistrukturerade och ostrukturerade intervjuer.Teori: Logistiska målmixen, Du Pont-schemat, 80?20-regeln, byta lager mot information, logistik som konkurrensmedel Marknadsteorier, konsumenttrygghet, drivkrafter för innovation, Porters fem krafterResultat: De största volymerna av receptbelagda läkemedel går, likt under monopol-tiden, fortfarande via de största distributörerna Tamro och Oriola. Apoteks-aktörerna tycks överlag vilja gå mot lägre kapitalbindning, med något högre logistikkostnader och servicegrad. Främst vill aktörerna styra varuförsörj-ningen i egen regi för att anpassa den till de egna affärsmodellerna. Service-graden tycks inte ha försämrats sedan omregleringen.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how the ongoing controversy surrounding the Internet, the phenomena of digitalization and file sharing will affect the music industry in the form of the ?big five? labels. Furthermore the thesis aims to present a recipe of strategies for the companies? survival by studying their situation through a theoretical perspective in conjunction with a comparative analysis with industries facing the digitalization challenge. The theoretical contribution lies in the strategic perspective at an industry level.

Through a thorough analysis of the current situation, we have highlighted differences inworking methods for the various workshops and drew up proposals for improvements incombination with a practical work description that can be implemented in the company..

AB Smådelar är ett företag som tar hållbarhet på allvar. Man har nyligen presenterat sin första hållbarhetsredovisning och vill inför framtiden förbättra sig ytterligare avseende logistiken mot underleverantörerna. Då det finns ett fokus på hållbarhet vill AB Smådelar inte att de logistiska förbättringarna ska påverka Triple bottom line negativt, varför en modell har konstruerats för att kunna testa förbättringsförslagens inverkan före implementering. Studien är kvalitativ med abduktiv ansats och har utgångspunkt i semistrukturerade intervjuer. Syftet är att göra en nulägesanalys för att hitta förbättringsområden och föreslå åtgärder som kan effektivisera logistiken med samtidig positiv effekt på både ekonomisk, miljömässig och social hållbarhet. Syftet är också att ta fram en enkel matrismodell för att strukturera och testa de planerade logistiska förändringarnas effekt över hela Triple bottom line. Utifrån nulägesbeskrivningen har grundläggande strategi för logistiskt arbete avhandlats, liksom Paretos princip, totalkostnadsmodellen, komplexiteter och balanced scorecard.

The competition for Norway spruce pulp wood in Central Sweden increases, forcing the supply-structure of Holmen to face two important challenges. Firstly, it is of the outmost strategically importance to secure the long-term supply of Norway spruce pulp wood to the industries. Secondly, Holmen desires to increase the obtainable volume of Norway spruce pulp wood. This would enable the company to choose volumes in the lower price-segments and thereby decrease the dependency of costly marginal volumes. As this work shows, one part in managing these challenges could be to lower the quality standards concerning root rot (Heterobasidium annosum). Facts presented in the work shows that: 1. Technically, the TMP-industry of Braviken can handle a much more rotted pulp wood than that used today, although the cost of refinement increases.

SammanfattningSyfte- Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka utmaningar som finns inom inköpsprocessen i företag med en kundorderdriven tillverkning och hur dessa utmaningar kan hanteras för att uppnå ökad effektivitet.Metod och genomförande ? För att uppfylla syftet har en fallstudie på Lidan Marine i Lidköping utförts. Genom observationer och intervjuer på fallföretaget har empiri samlats in för att parallellt analyserats med studiens teoretiska ramverk. Utifrån en analys har sedan studiens resultat utformats.Bakgrund ? Ett företag med en kundorderdriven tillverkning kännetecknas av otillgängliga buffertar och lager som kan fånga upp variationer och brister i materialflödet.

Kostnaden för nyproduktion av hus i Sverige har ökat markant under de senaste åren. Byggföretag har svårt att hålla både projektens löptid och kostnader nere, vilket resulterat i ett ökat marknadspris och ett växande missnöje bland slutkunder. De ökade kostnaderna beror enligt forskning på vanligt förekommande slöseri i form av såväl material som arbetskraft. I försöken att eliminera slöseri har många företag anpassat sin verksamhet efter Lean Thinking, ett system som härstammar från den japanska bilindustrin, bestående av verktyg och metoder med huvudsyfte att identifiera och eliminera slöseri. Ur detta har även nya former av byggnation fångat marknadens intresse.

Lichens are adapted to bright and sparse forests on oligotrophic ground. Due to a slow growth rate and high light demand lichens will suffer from competition in eutrophic environments. Therefore, lichens have disappeared from managed forests where the forest industry has increased the productivity. A reduced abundance of lichens will affect both biodiversity of the forest and the reindeer winter graze lands. It is important to understand how and for how long fertilization affects the abundance and diversity of lichens in order to protect lichen rich ecosystems. We have registered the biomass and number of lichen species in eight plots (four nitrogen rich and four nitrogen deficient) and compared fertilized Sami settlements with their oligotrophic surroundings in the nature reserves of Tjeggelvas.