This qualitative study involves the implementation of Lean and Kaizen methods in a Swedish service industry. Lean philosophy is based on a method to achieve more with less. In practical terms this means that the use of an organization's resources is improved. The origin of Lean is the Toyota Production System. Now, Kaizen methods give managers and employees a better more efficient system to reach their goals within the organization or company.

The thermal response of a borehole field is often described by non?dimensional response factors called gfunctions.The g?function was firstly generated as a numerical solution based on SBM (Superposition BoreholeModel). An analytical approach, the FLS (Finite Line Source), is also accepted for generating the g?function. In thiswork the potential to numerically produce g?functions is studied for circular borehole fields using the commercialsoftware COMSOL.

At SIA TallOil's pellets factory in Latvia wood shavings and saw dust are dried with flue gases from a gas burner. TallOil wants to replace the gas with a biofuel that is available at the pellet plant. The reason for this is the unstable gas market in Europe in combination with the fact that TallOil wants to improve its profile as supplier of renewable bio fuels. In this project the technical and economical possibilities for a fuel conversion to ether bark powder, wood shavings or wood powder have been investigated. These fuels should be burned in one of the following applications: TPS BioSwirl, VTS Multifuel burner or Saxlunds bio fuel combustion plant Due to the fact that the fuel alternatives available are relatively common except for bark powder, the work has mainly been focused on bark powder.

Every year, Swedish municipalities transfer considerable amounts of profit from public housing companies to the owner municipality. Municipalities are allowed to do this, provided that the money is used to pay for certain purposes. But there are no legal repercussions if they do not comply. Not all municipalities choose to transfer profits. Based on partisan theory, this difference could be explained by the political governance of the municipality.

The aim of this study was to understand how the professional in social work handles the media scrutiny. When the media writes about social services there is seldom anything positive written about it, many social services organizations are instead heavily criticized and scrutinized by the media. When social services organizations are scrutinized by the media there is a crisis at work, and therefore should be handled as a crisis. Therefore, we describe how a crisis management might look like in an organization. The study is qualitative therefore we have interviewed four municipalities in Sweden that have been exposed by the media at a national level.

The purpose of this study is to examine how Viking Line, Tallink Silja and Birka Cruises work with economic and environmental sustainability, and also to see how they work with new environmental legislations. In 2015 a new environmental legislation will be introduced, by the name Sulphur directive. The Sulphur directive entails a reduction in Sulphur dioxide emissions from ships where the emissions cannot exceed 0,1 percent. There are three alternatives to achieve the new environmental legislation, the use of Marine Gas Oil, LNG or scrubbers. All three alternatives will lead to increasing costs for the shipping industry.

This report deals with activities that from a CSR perspective are considered to create a shared value for a medium-sized construction company in Sweden. The CSR definition used in the report is the European Commission?s since it reflects the valuecreating aspects of CSR, in contrast to the traditional philanthropic aspect of CSR.Companies in the building construction industry have difficulties identifying activities that create value in society and in the company. The aim with the project is to, from a CSR perspective, identify and evaluate value creating activities in a building construction company. The activities will be evaluated with respect to competitiveness and how they can be implemented into an organization.

Climate on earth is getting warmer, which effects earth?s energy balance and so forth the ocean and atmospheric circulation.  In many sub-polar regions on the northern hemisphere changes due to warming of the climate can be observed. Some examples that already have been observed are shifts in tree line, towards higher altitudes and latitudes, increased ablation of Swedish glaciers and melting of the permafrost on the Siberian tundra. In Sweden climate change scenarios tell us that it will become warmer and that a higher amount of precipitation in form of rain will be an effect from this. To study climate changes in Sweden, transition zones are useful in order to observe changes in distribution of species and animal populations.

Det finns stor potential i byggbranschen att förbättra produktionsprocessen på en arbetsplats med hjälp av nya planerings- och modelleringsverktyg. En produktionsteknologi som är särskilt intressant att studera är det platsgjutna betongbyggandet. Här utförs många olika, men sammanhängande, moment tätt på varandra och processen styr mycket av andra processer som följer efter detta skede. Det är därför viktigt att kunna planera och kontrollera byggandet med platsgjuten betong med enkla och effektiva planeringsverktyg. En relativt ny modelleringsteknik som har stor potential att förbättra produktionsprocessen är 4D CAD.

This report deals with activities that from a CSR perspective are considered to create a shared value for a medium-sized construction company in Sweden. The CSR definition used in the report is the European Commission?s since it reflects the valuecreating aspects of CSR, in contrast to the traditional philanthropic aspect of CSR.Companies in the building construction industry have difficulties identifying activities that create value in society and in the company. The aim with the project is to, from a CSR perspective, identify and evaluate value creating activities in a building construction company. The activities will be evaluated with respect to competitiveness and how they can be implemented into an organization.

The quality of meals is included in the constant improvement of each preschool. The study is carried out on behalf of the City of Malmö and Environmental Management and focuses on this quality work. By compiling a checklist of meal quality and by identifying what the meal quality means for persons working with the meal (managers, cooks, educators and parents), it is our wish that this will be a help in their quality work. To inspire the composition various organizations working methods and ways to manage, evaluate and make use of different models and tools to improve the dining quality, has been studied. In the literature, the work has received confirmation of theories that emerged during the analysis work of what a meal is and how quality can be measured. The results show that food quality is described as a complex concept consisting of different parts, where the food, atmosphere, service, together form the meal quality. The semi-structured interviews and the inquiry form, have given an indication of the preschool work with quality in the meal activities and it shows that on a wide range and large differences.

This degree project is based on my personal relation and engagement to the small-scaled cultural landscape. My viewpoint is the village Torpa in Östergötland. My observations of the changes and development together with the stories of the village people has lead me to the questioning about the future prospects of the small-scaled cultural landscape. The rationalization of the society and our urban culture has lead to big changes in the cultural landscape and the people have reduced to a small crowd. Fewer and fewer hands are managing the small-scaled cultural landscape and fewer and fewer young people have connection to this kind of landscape and its management.

 There is an ongoing reorganization within media industries today as they adapt to new and changing demands - the environment is changing fast and the organizations with it. The development of new technology is contributing to new forms of media distribution in the present media industry. The structure of media organizations is getting flatter and the co-workers are getting a new and bigger role. All this is bringing new challenges for the leaders of the organization. Caught in the middle of these new structures is the middle manager who now is facing different demands from all sides.

Bakgrund: Ekonomistyrning inkluderar alla verktyg, system, regler, praxis, värderingar och övriga aktiviteter som chefer använder för att försäkra sig om att de anställdas beteenden och beslut är förenliga med organisationens mål och strategier. En typ av styrsystem som har använts länge är målstyrning, där mål används som ett medel för att förbättra prestationen. Målstyrning kan användas på alla nivåer i en organisation, en viktig nivå är första linjens chefer eftersom de är en kritisk länk mellan högre chefer och de anställda. Trots detta är det relativt okänt hur första linjens chefer uppfattar målstyrning som styrmedel.Syfte: Syftet med vår studie är att beskriva och förklara relationen mellan första linjens chefers uppfattning av målstyrning och deras prestation. Avsikten är även att skapa en modell som visar parametrar som påverkar första linjens chefers uppfattning av målstyrningen.Tillvägagångssätt: Denna studie har genomförts genom en fallstudie av ett enda fall.

The structural rationalization of the agricultural sector in Sweden has led to many expansive, professional companies orientated towards growth. The agricultural sector is a very capital-intense sector and is characterized by the need for large sums of capital in form of buildings, inventory and arable land. The capital need is especially large for companies who have an ambition of growth and development of the company in the near future. The study is built upon six cases that all can be categorized as large agricultural farms with a turnover exceeding 20 million Swedish crowns. The companies are located in the middle and in the south of Sweden and are in the sector of primary production with focus on dairy-, pork-, egg-, chicken-, beef-, vegetables- and grain production as well as in the business of refining milk towards consumers. The study aims to identify the motives and driving forces that lies behind the growth of a farm-based company. The agricultural companies' motive for growth is studied based on which factors that influence the ambition to grow and to what extent these factors accord to the picture given by earlier research of small companies outside the agricultural sector.