An increasing number of automotive supplier companies are investing in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in order to gain cost advantages. This has happened in a rapid pace since many of these countries did not have any foreign direct investments (FDI) at the turn of the century. The problem now is for how long these countries will be able to maintain the low costs. One purpose was to create a model of country advantages for automotive supplier companies when relocating further production to CEE. This dissertation was written in cooperation with the Trelleborg Group.

The cost of construction projects have increased during the past few years. Different actors in the construction industry work together to advocate various measures to mitigate these cost increases. One of these measures is to try to improve the efficiency in the phase of production. By striving for a kind of standardization with a constant quest for improvement, the productivity can increase while the costs of production fall.For this thesis has a case study been conducted at the construction company JM AB which is seeking this. They call the approach structured production and have implemented various measures to achieve a more productive output.Based on information from reconciliations, the cost and the spent hours of craftsmen have been analyzed at the company where the case study took place.

The relatively poor economy in European dairy farming might be improved from efficient feeding systems and dietary management. Increasing herd sizes and transition to loose housing systems in Sweden, increases the possibilities for other feeding systems than separate feeding that is the traditional feeding system in Sweden. Other possible feeding systems are partial mixed ration (PMR) and total mixed ration (TMR), where the TMR system sometimes is associated with overfeeding and thereby increased environmental impact and high feed cost. Diets providing nutrients above or below animal requirements are considered as unbalanced, which in turn are associated with reductions in health, fertility and milk production. On the other hand, a balanced feed ration improves feed efficiency, nitrogen utilization and profitability.

VBG Produkter AB is a process-orientated company that develops, manufactures and markets trailer couplings with belonging coupling equipment, protection equipment against skidding and stands for wagon-bridge for heavy vehicles. The company feels that their set-up time in production for couplings is not at an acceptable level. Due to high demands of customer oriented production the intermediate stock level of included products within the assembly of couplings has gradually increased which has resulted in high inventory holding costs. VBG Produkter applies Kanban in their production, therefore it is important to produce exactly the necessary amount and avoid overproduction. The objective of this project is to suggest appropriate solutions so that VBG Produkter is able to reduce their set-up time in assembly of couplings, by identifying internal and external set-up time for the chosen process bushing cell.

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.

If Sweden want to be able to compete internationally with its production capacity,it is important to work actively with production development and production ofresource-and time-efficient. This report is a bachelor thesis of 15 hp conducted atthe University of Halmstad. Using the principles of continuous improvement andLean Production, the author developed a concept for HAGS Aneby AB to changeto the customer order driven assembly of spring toys.First of all, the theories of Lean Production, logistics and ergonomics are used tobuild and present a theoretical framework for further examination. Then, toachieve the target, the current assembly process is analyzed to develop some firstconceptual ideas for improvement. In order to develop the best advice, theconcepts are evaluated against the company?s requirementsThe developed action plan gives recommendations on how the company shouldrestructure their assembly process and the organization of the related departmentin order to produce spring toys in a more time efficient and lean way.

This report is about logistic efficiency in companies without own production. The authors have interviewed employees working at two companies, Telias store in Skärholmen and Orion Diagnostica AB. The purpose of the report is to find out which logistic functions the two companies are using to create efficiency.Today?s markets are more global. Different parts of a product can be made in different parts of the world.

Commissioned for this report is Ramboll, Bridge and Tunnel Unit in Stockholm. Theidea throughout the work has been to primarily help bridge designers compilingadvice and instructions on how fatigue verification for railway bridges in reinforcedconcrete shall be performed under the new rules, the Eurocodes.After the introduction of the Eurocodes in 2011 has major problems emerged amongdesigners around Sweden. In some areas, it differs in the calculation rules comparedwith rules from the Swedish Transport Administration and the National Board ofHousing, Building and Planning calculation. Fatigue verification is one area where thenew calculation rules are different from the past.A large part of the report has been to interpret and find the relevant information inthe Eurocodes concerning fatigue. When questions or doubts have surfaced, this hasbeen discussed with Elisabeth Helsing at the Swedish Transport Administration andbridge designers at Ramboll.The result is a report where the structure is organized in the way that the bridgedesigners can move from cover to cover and realize that fatigue verification in realityfollows the same order as the report's sections.

District heating covers around 80 % of the heating demand in apartment buildings and 10 % in single-family homes in Sweden. In the year 2010 the total input of energy to the Swedish district heating grids was about 70 TWh, which corresponds to 11 % of the total energy input to the whole energy system in the country. Through the combined production of heat and power the CHP-plants often reaches an efficiency of 90 % from energy in the fuel to produced heat and power. In order to keep the efficiency high it is important for the owners of the plant to have good knowledge about the plants performance at different operation points. Strängnäs Energi AB initiated this diploma work together with FVB Sverige ab in order to come up with a program for short term planning of the production of heat and power at the company´s CHP-plant.The work consists of three main parts.

The development of productivity in the construction industry has long been at a steady state compared to the manufacturing industry. Studies have shown that, amongst other things, waste on construction sites can reach up to one third of the total production cost. This has been observed from different aspects, and change is forthcoming.This thesis aims to provide a foundation for an increased productivity at production sites of building bridges. It is primarily based on a field study at Skanska, at a bridge construction site near Grängesberg. Via continuous interviews with the whole production crew, construction workers and management, information on interference and possibilities of improvement at the work site has been documented.

The aim of this report is to analyse the use of the capacity at the CNC (computer numerical control) cutters and show how the level of set up time for these cutters at Stålöv AB. This assignment is concrete whereas there are no subjective questions to this matter and there are only cold figures presented.Production economy is getting more important as the competition hardens and there are several different ways to increase productivity and efficiency in a company. In order to increase productivity and efficiency work studies are used to, through an analysis, find developments in methods that result in improved work methods and to establish the time that are used. Increased production of different parts and customer driven production in combination with increased demands on rationalisation of capital have led to an enlarged interest for shorter set up times in the production.To point out the use of capacity and the set up time of the cutters at Stålöv AB we used frequency studies. Frequency studies are work measure methods based on random observations on predetermined events to calculate the relative occurrence of these events.

Biogas is a renewable fuel that can be extracted from anaerobic digestion of many differentsubstrates, for example biological household waste. An alternative handling of the waste is tomix it with other wastes and incinerate it in a combined heat and power (CHP) plant. Thisstudy uses life cycle assessment to investigate which type of waste handling that is betterfrom an environmental point of view, anaerobic digestion with biogas production orincineration. The results are based on a case study of a biogas production plant owned by thecompany Ragn-Sells in Vänersborg. The alternative is incineration at a CHP plant inGothenburg.

District heating covers around 80 % of the heating demand in apartment buildings and 10 % in single-family homes in Sweden. In the year 2010 the total input of energy to the Swedish district heating grids was about 70 TWh, which corresponds to 11 % of the total energy input to the whole energy system in the country. Through the combined production of heat and power the CHP-plants often reaches an efficiency of 90 % from energy in the fuel to produced heat and power. In order to keep the efficiency high it is important for the owners of the plant to have good knowledge about the plants performance at different operation points. Strängnäs Energi AB initiated this diploma work together with FVB Sverige ab in order to come up with a program for short term planning of the production of heat and power at the company´s CHP-plant.The work consists of three main parts.

The development of productivity in the construction industry has long been at a steady state compared to the manufacturing industry. Studies have shown that, amongst other things, waste on construction sites can reach up to one third of the total production cost. This has been observed from different aspects, and change is forthcoming.This thesis aims to provide a foundation for an increased productivity at production sites of building bridges. It is primarily based on a field study at Skanska, at a bridge construction site near Grängesberg. Via continuous interviews with the whole production crew, construction workers and management, information on interference and possibilities of improvement at the work site has been documented.

The economic prerequisite to many farmers in Sweden after the EU membership and the new agriculture policy has generated large demands on the farm management. Until year 2004 you got a grant based on what you had produced and not on consumer demand. In 2005 a new economic aid (Mid Term Revue) was introduced and the conditions has changed again. Due to this I have chosen to do a cost-benefit analysis on a case, to investigate if the present production is sustainable in the future. My conclusion is that the profitability is acceptable even if the farm has a high debt. But to make the production more profitable the products produced should be refined as much as possible at the farm, to get maximum economic return.