Recent studies show that manufacturing companies to a larger extent use historical cost accounting in their internal accounts, at the expense of calculated costs. The explanation behind this is claimed to be that firms are subject to careful scrutiny by the stock market. Consequently, top management stresses the need of evaluating all parts of the firm from external accounting. However, lower management levels express a general concern that the incentive to invest in machines will decrease. This master thesis aims to investigate whether or not there is an objective reason behind this concern.

The subject of this bachelors degree project is an interior layout for road ambulances.Landstinget Västernorrland (LVN) wanted a layout concept that would be used to com- municate their design intentions to the ambulance producers during their purchase process.Designing ambulance interiors is an extremely complex process since there so many fac- tors to take into consideration. It ?s not just about taking the equipment and place it where there is space left in the cabin. You have to start with the user in focus and the tasks that are to be performed in the ambulance environment.It ishard to find design solutions that will fit 100% of the ambulance personnel?s working routines for 100% of the tasks.

This thesis is based on an assignment from a unit within an international group manufacturing industrial products. The purpose of the thesis is to analyze and suggest ways to improve the cost accounting system in use at the unit. The main source of empirical data has been interviews with employees. The theoretical framework is based on a comparison between traditional/standard costing and activity-based costing (ABC). The cost accounting system in use is described in detail and classified as a traditional/standard cost accounting system.

Construction companies in Sweden have for recent years seen an increase in the numbers ofwarranty complaints associated with the market of resident buildings and the cost for this hasbeen measured to over 1.2 billion SEK per year. Working with poor quality cost as a way ofcreating insight about defects within the company?s processes is a method developed and usedby the manufacturing industry for decades, but have not yet reached the construction industry.This study has been performed in collaboration with a Swedish construction company, wherethe author has been stationed at the aftersales division for residential buildings. Owing tocircumstances, this published report has been made anonymous regarding the company whowill further on be namedthe Company. The Company is aware that warranty claims producegreat costs and has requested a way of putting cost and cause to specific claims in order ofreceiving a more specific cost view and to make the reuse of knowledge more efficient.

Cost allocation ? a study of how Swedish energy companies allocate costs between electricity and district heating in a combined heat and power plant District heating is today the most utilized alternative for heating in Sweden. In a combined heat and power plant (CHP) electricity and heat are cogenerated. The environmental and economic advantages with this kind of production are high. A problem in a CHP-plant is to allocate costs between electricity and heat since both products are generated in the same process.

This degree project has been carried out in cooperation with Gedevelop in Helsingborg.Gedevelop has developed a camera that can calculate the weight of a liquid glass mass.Because of the density and viscosity changes in the glass, the weight information issometimes incorrect given. Glass industry is today addressing the problem by an operatorperforming a manual weighing of a few bottles which, in turn, calibrates the camera system.The project aimed to develop an automated system to control the weighing of glass bottles forglass industries. This system must be so flexible that it can be easily mounted on plants withdifferent production equipment around the world.The project includes design and construction of equipment that meets the requirementsformulated together with Gedevelop. Work has been done both in Halmstad and Helsingborgand has included both calculations and review of the theory to understand the forces thatinfluence the design of different construction parts. A prototype was produced that meets theoperating requirements for the design and can be used in testing features.

Detta examensarbete har utförts i samarbete med Svedala Compaction Equipment AB. Examensarbetets primära mål var att reducera höjden på ROPS tillhörande asfaltvält CC 422. En sänkning medför ett friare vägval och billigare transporter. Hittills har vägvalet påverkats av broar, viadukter och andra hinder. Med hjälp av riktlinjer från Svedala Compaction Equipment AB och Fredy Olssons modell för integrerad produktutveckling togs kriterier fram, vilka användes vid bedömning av olika lösningsförslag. Utvärderingen resulterade i att två av de tio ursprungliga förslagen gick vidare till nästa steg i produktutvecklingsprocessen - primärkonstruktion. Primärkonstruktionen inleddes med vidareutveckling av de två principförslagen.

Wavecraft AB develops medical equipment for heating of organic synthesises. The heating is done with microwaves, which improves the process in both speed and accuracy compared to the more traditional methods where heating elements are used. This report discusses the developement of an automatic lid mechanism for one of Wavecraft's product prototypes. The company assumes that the final product will be integrated by customers into fully automated systems, and the upgrade from a manually to an automatically controlled lid is therefore an important step in the product's developement process.The first stage och the project was an idea generation process. The ideas generated here were organized into five different concepts of which the best one was selected through the use of a concept matrix.

The increasing road traffic in Sweden will require investments in the infrastructure that the tax withdrawal of today will not allow according to a new government report, SOU 2006:33. An existing willingness to pay for those investments has therefore become an alternative to increases in taxation to be able to cover the costs. A proposal to let the willingness to pay, alternatively increases in taxation that act proportional, decide how a cost is distributed can be said to be related, but not fully correspond, with different theories of justice described by Robert Nozick and John Rawls. It can therefore be interesting to see how the two different theories of justice are edified and how they distribute a joint cost. The aim of the first part of the thesis is to present and criticize Rawls' and Nozick's theories of justice in a common formulated economic model.

The aim with this study was to investigate the effects a change of manufacturing process would have on the mechanical properties of drill bits made of a WC/Co composite used for stone cutting. The method used today is sintering, where the material is heated in a conventional sintering oven. The other method was microwave sintering, where the material is heated by radiation in the microwave region. Also an investigation of the manufacturing cost were made.The main difference between the two heating methods is that the conventional way is a rather slow process and the microwave method is very fast. The material is also heated homogeniously in the method with mirowaves, aposed to the case with the conventional sintering where the material is heated from the outside in.This makes the material harder and more wear resistent.

The public sector in Sweden outsources its core business to a very large extent, whileinsisting on running its IT operations internally in a traditional way. IT as a service ingeneral and cloud computing in particular has become incredibly popular in recentyears, offering cost efficiency and greater ability for the business to concentrate on itscore activities, which is why it should be a promising alternative to the traditional wayof running IT internally. To achieve an understanding of why IT as a service has yetto take off in the public sector, a study of its use of IT/IS, what the effect of IT as aservice is, and the opportunities and challenges that cloud computing represents, isnecessary.The study, which was conducted using a qualitative hermeneutic approach, was initiatedby a literature review, followed by six in-depth interviews with five respondents,all of which hold many years of experience in the area. The outcome of the interviewsindicated that IT as a service should represent a promising and feasible way of reachinghigher levels of cost control, and a greater focus on core activities. Furthermore,the results indicated that Swedish legislation along with a high level of businesscomplexitymight be reasons for the low amount of IT as a service in the public sector.Through careful analysis and examination of the business? current situation, as well ascomprehensive knowledge of Swedish legislation with regards to the implications ofLagen om offentlig upphandling, the public sector can avoid IT as a service becomingmore expensive and more complicated than necessary, and achieve cost efficiencyalong with a greater focus on its core activities through it.Future research could examine the possibility of a framework for the integration ofcloud services within the public sector?s IT/IS environment, and whether there is aspecific size of a cloud implementation at which it?s more cost efficient to go withtraditional IT operations..

This thesis analyses the prerequisites, profitability and competitiveness of eucalyptus plantation on the Iberian Peninsula and in Brazil. The thesis has a macro perspective and analyses a typical hectare of eucalyptus in each studied region. A survey methodology was used as a strategy to cover a broad perspective using expert respondents. The regions studied on the Iberian Peninsula were the ones found suitable for eucalyptus plantations from an economic point of view. The studied regions were Huelva in the South West of Spain, Galicia in the North West of Spain and Portugal.

AbstractThe dependency of fossil fuels in the transport sector causes large emissions of carbondioxide. This problem can we reduce by using vehicle gas from digested solid manure and leftover of pasture. I have studied the potential for this in the county of Västernorrland. Thepurpose is to investigate how much vehicle gas that can be extracted.One central, large scale digestion and upgrade plant should be placed in Härnösand. Theamount of pasture and manure that is economical and practical available is enough to produce2,7-3,5 millions Nm3 vehicle gas.

The purpose of this essay is to examine the impact on children playing at a preschool yard that is designed with traditional playground equipment, and a nature-like yard without traditional playground equipment. How these respective environments influence children?s play, which other factors in the external environment that affect the game and whether the theories in the literature correspond with the results were important questions for the essay. To answer these questions a case study was applied onto two specific preschool centers, both located in Malmö. Through literature studies, inventories, observations and interviews with staff and children, a picture become clear of how the children use the yard and how their play is affected by the design of it.

The purpose with this work is to investigate the cost to produce piglet in a case study company. The starting point is going to be the agriwise (www.agriwise.org) calculation which I am going to change and adapt to the case study company. To day the pig market is bad but we have probably reached the bottom. The market has started to rise. It is no business to produce piglets today.