Titel: Value stream mapping in practice ? A case study at Light MyFireAuthors: David Rydman and Tomas ÖnnemarMentor: Veronica Ülgen SvenssonExaminer: Åsa GustafssonBackground: Companies push their prices in today's markets to be competitive, which means that companies need to find ways to reduce costs while maintaining profits. (Cudney, 2009) According to Bergman and Klefsjö 2007, the basic rule of quality improvement says "there is always a way to achieve higher quality at a lower cost". One way is to improve a company's processes to get a more efficient flow and improvements that may cut costs. (Bergman & Klefsjö, 2007) Why it's important to look at the processes are that they often contain waste that can be eliminated.

AbstractIn the fall of 2003 a project was started in the Swedish building sector that is called BASTA (the building sectors’ termination of especially harmful substances). The project is operated by the building companies NCC, Skanska, PEAB and JM, the Swedish Building Industry and the Swedish Environmental Institute IVL. The purpose of the project is to create a common environmental assessment system for the entire building industry and with the help of this system phase out the use of especially harmful properties from building products.In a large sense BASTA works like this; On the BASTA web site there is a database, to which a supplier can register the company and the company’s products. Only those products with a substance content that fulfil the demands of the BASTA system, is to be registered. As it is the supplier himself that carries out the registration of the company and the company’s products to the system, the BASTA-organisation annually controls that the companies that are registered in the database, fulfils BASTA’s demands.Since NCC is one of the companies that operates BASTA, BASTA is probably going to be the environmental assessment system that is recommended for the company in the future.

Background: It has become important to be able to take advantage of employees' ideas for organizations today.  The contributed ideas can be developed into innovations. However, there are difficulties for businesses to take advantage and develop the employee provided ideas. It can lead to a stop in the organizations development.Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to gain a greater understanding of how organizations can take advantage of the employees' ideas and develop them into useful innovations for organizations.Method: The thesis consists of precipitated studies from the three organizations, a manufacturing company, a service company and the municipality of Karlskrona. The paper is based on qualitative research by collecting valuable insights through interviews.Conclusions: In this study, it has been proven that organizations today have a magnified view of the concept of innovation. They have difficulties in implementing the concept in day to day operations.

Webexhibits is a growing but unexplored, cultural phenomenon that indicates a new use of the Internet for cultural communication. In the essay two quantitative methods, logganalysis and websurveys, have been used to study the visitors in 5hus.nu. The purpose is to generate knowledge about webexhibits as a cultural manifestation and medium by studying the experience and actions of its visitors. To achieve the aim the paper explores the methodological questions of how to study webusers. Theories about the exhibition as a medium and the web as a virtual area of exhibits have been used to understand and interpret the results.

Hemp is an ancient cultivated plant that came to Sweden in the 1st to 2nd Century and was particularly interesting for use for food, clothing and building materials. Over time, other applications have been developed for hemp, e.g. in energy and health products. Interesting new uses for hemp continue to be identified and this fascinating plant has incredibly versatile applications.In this project, seed production of industrial hemp in Sweden was studied and evaluated. Five different methods are described, four of which are proven under Swedish conditions.

Thesis Purpose: The purpose of our thesis is to explore different plausible scenarios concerning the future of the Swedish produce industry with regards to branding. Methodology: In order for us to answer the research question and fulfill its purpose, we have utilized a qualitative approach combined with of both an inductive and deductive theoretical approach. Our study is both explorative and speculative. Theoretical Perspective: The theoretical framework of our research is based upon Porters Five Forces and Competitive Advantage combined with Kapferers Brand Identity Prism and his ideas on Brand Innovation. Additionally, we have utilized the Game Theory.

AbstractIn the fall of 2003 a project was started in the Swedish building sector that is called BASTA (the building sectors’ termination of especially harmful substances). The project is operated by the building companies NCC, Skanska, PEAB and JM, the Swedish Building Industry and the Swedish Environmental Institute IVL. The purpose of the project is to create a common environmental assessment system for the entire building industry and with the help of this system phase out the use of especially harmful properties from building products.In a large sense BASTA works like this; On the BASTA web site there is a database, to which a supplier can register the company and the company’s products. Only those products with a substance content that fulfil the demands of the BASTA system, is to be registered. As it is the supplier himself that carries out the registration of the company and the company’s products to the system, the BASTA-organisation annually controls that the companies that are registered in the database, fulfils BASTA’s demands.Since NCC is one of the companies that operates BASTA, BASTA is probably going to be the environmental assessment system that is recommended for the company in the future.

The aim of this report was to investigate the economy of passive houses. The work was focused on economy in total and on the economy of different components such as windows, insulation, heat exchanger and the air tightness of the climate shell. No attention was paid on the comfort factor or to the impacts on the environment.Two houses, aspiring to be passive were chosen; A big one and a small one. Hence, comparisons considering the size of the building have been possible to do as well.The comparisons were made by calculating ?break even? between two concepts; passive and BBR- concept.

The aim of this study was to analyze the assessment of the primary school, from the teacher?s perspective. There has been an ongoing discussion regarding assessment and about the purposes of assessment for a long time. But there is a paucity of research on what teachers believe about. This study examined primary teachers? beliefs on major purposes of assessment.Assessment is the process of gathering and interpreting information about students? learning.

Success in treatment with platinum-based chemotherapy against different types of cancer tumors is limited by side-effects such as hearing loss which can have a large impact on the individual`s quality of life. It is of great importance to continue with studies that address this complex of problems.Objective: The aim of this literature review is to investigate the impact of platinum-based chemotherapy on hearing in children and adolescents treated for different types of cancer.Method: A descriptive review of literature was made based on sources from 15 different studies on the impact of platinum-based chemotherapy on hearing in the target group.Results: The survey of the studies shows that platinum-based chemotherapy causes incidence of hearing loss by differing degree in the target group. Dosage of a platinum-based substance appeared to be the most significant factor. Treatment with both cisplatin and carboplatin was more ototoxic than treatment with only one of these. Greater risk for hearing loss was to a higher degree observed in younger children.

Wind and wind damage has become a hot subject because of the storm ?Gudrun? in January 2005. The main purpose of this study was to establish how the land owners attitude toward preventive wind damage actions was changing immediately after they had been struck by a storm. The result of the study was built on interviews. In springtime 2005 a total number of 20 private land owners were interviewed. Ten of the landowners lived in the province of Småland and ten in the province of Värmland.

This master thesis examines sport habits among young people and a view of their future in sports. Research has shown that the majority of youth leave sport clubs during adolescence. The thesis questions were: How physically active are young people? Which sports do they practice? Regarding their future in sports, what kind of aspirations do the young people have? Are there any barriers that could complicate their involvement in these activities? These questions were examined by analyzing if there were any differences between boys and girls, youth in different grades and youth with Swedish or foreign backgrounds. Pierre Bourdieu´s theoretical framework about sports and economic capital has been used as a research framework.

AbstractTitle: Is it easy to make the right decision? An essay about how the profiled senior level schools communicate with their future pupils and their parents. (Lätt att göra rätt val? En uppsats om den profilerade högstadieskolans kommunikation med blivande elever och deras föräldrar.)Author: Erika CassmanAim: My hypothesis is that parental influence is higher when the students are going to a detached school than when the students are going to a school with a profiled program because in the profiled program they are going to study a course that they love and is chosen by themselves. The aim of this essay is therefore to find out if this thesis is right or wrong.

Companies? ability to differentiate themselves from their competitors becomes increasingly difficult when standardized technical solutions are used, which means that the employees become the most important resource. Many workplaces consist of a mix of employees with different backgrounds and of different ages, which highlight the generational perspective. Previous research has long focused on different generational drivers and of motivation at work, but there has been few studies in which the transfer of knowledge between generations have been examined. With that as a background, a qualitative interview study was conducted at a major IT company to investigate how employees legitimize knowledge and how it affects the transfer of knowledge between generations.

This master thesis was conducted during the spring of 2014 at Atlas Copco Rock Drills AB in Örebro. The purpose of the thesis was to develop a simulation model of the rotation system for a hydraulic rock drill. In the future, the model will be used to investigate the phenomena called ?jerky rotation?. In order to validate the simulation model a test bench was designed and tests were made.