This master thesis was performed at Scania Research & Development. The given mission was to see where the department Systems Development should focus to improve their development work. Thus the purpose was to map the product development processes in which the department works today and within them identify Improvements. To fulfil the purpose a theoretical study of relevant terms, such as Improvement work, product development and processes, initially was formed. The mapping method used is called "walk trough" and meant to let the people working in the processes be guides in their own process.

The Improvement programme Six Sigma has often been surrounded by an air of success since it was introduced in the 1980s. Yet there are cases in which introduction of the Six Sigma Improvement programme show far from successful results, even complete implementation failures with no traces of the Six Sigma methodology or any Improvements after completion of the introduction. These failures can cause severe damage to organizations through direct monetary loss caused by a negative result of the investment. Indirectly the failure can cause confusion in the organization and loss of employee motivation. The conclusions have been derived based on a qualitative case study at a Swedish telecommunications company.

 AbstractTitle                                      Continuous Improvement ? Motivating ICA´s  personnel to    a greater engagement.Problem                                  Getting ICA: s employees involved with continuing Improvements.Purpose                                  To motivate ICA: s employees to a higher degree of commitment and    contributing with ideas and embracing approved Improvements. Research questions   - How should the employees be properly motivated to contribute with   suggestions for Improvement?  - What message and content should Improvements send to inspire the   employees? - Witch channels should be used to capture the employee?s attention? - How can best practice be recognized and how can the knowledge be spread  through the organization?Methodology                          Initially a theory study was completed and from the results a case study were  conducted.Conclusion                             Combining success factors for continuing Improvements.  To get the      employees feeling appreciated with their work. Results             By combining ten sucessfactors and trying to see the whole picture.                .

The study explored how a model for conversation partner trainingworked for family members of people with Parkinson's disease. Participants inthe study were three dyads consisting of persons with PD and their carers. Thepurpose of the study consisted in finding out whether the participantsexperienced a change in communication after the intervention, and in findingout if this potential change could be observed in the conversation. The resultsshowed that 4/6 participants experienced an Improvement in communicationafter the intervention. This Improvement was however not observed in theconversation.

AimThe aim of the present study was to study possible evidence for shock wave therapy on pain and function in patients with plantar fasciitis.Questions1. Does shock wave therapy reduce pain in patients with plantar fasciitis?2. Does shock wave therapy improve function in patients with plantar fasciitis?MethodA systematic review of the literature was performed in the databases PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane and Cinahl.

This project is about investigation and Improvement of a V-plow for the company Swekip. A V- plow is used for snow removal but this product has been found to have deficiencies in its construction, breaking down and not living up to the desired objectives. This is because the product is ordered from a company in China where they have some problems with understanding the purpose of the plow.Initially the existing plow is investigated, all the shortcomings set out and examined, what is wrong and what needs Improvement?When the solutions were done they were evaluated and examined that they actually live up to the desired requirements.This assignment is a pure construction project where the majority is implemented in CAD, where models are developed and FE analyses are carried out. But the project also includes a feasibility study, idea study and hydraulic design.The results are presented in the form of a CAD model and associated drawings that will serve as the manufacturing basis for the new V-plow.

Continuous Improvement is one of five principles in General Motors ? Global Manufacturing System (GM-GMS). GM-GMS has been used by Saab Automobile AB since 2003 and is a central component for realisation of GM?s vision. Internal audits have discovered problems with one of the tools, practical problem solving (PPS), which needs to be improved.

Considering that the current technology is constantly improving, it becomes increasingly important to have an efficient logistics in a company to maintain profitability while achieving a competitive business. Efficient logistics may be accomplished by improving the internal materials handling. In this thesis the internal material handling of steel frames has been studied at a factory in Vaggeryd. The goal of this study is to investigate the problems that exist with the current production flow of products and provide suggestions on how it can be developed to reduce unnecessary handling and movement.The study has a deductive approach where the authors has been using literature studies parallel with empirical analyzes conducted at a company to achieve the purpose of the study. Documentation from the company and interviews with staff and observations form the basis for the data collection carried out.

The aim of this study was to design short interventions based on the literature study, which will change the pupils? posture on mathematics and connections between problem-solving in mathematics and everyday life. An experimental group of 17 pupils in fifth grade participated in the study and were educated in everyday mathematics 20 minutes a day during four weeks. The intervention was measured in a pre- and after questionnaire, in order to control the design and discover possible changes in the pupils? posture on mathematics and connections between problems and everyday life.

There are different ways of developing a second language. The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate whether and possibly how music, focused on singing, can improve the development of Swedish as a second language. Through interviews with three vocal teachers, from three different schools in Sweden, and observations of one of the vocal teachers, information about how they work and think about the subject has been collected. The vocal teachers teach groups of second language learners by singing songs made especially for second language learning. The vocal teachers consider singing beneficial in the development of the pronunciation and Improvement of the prosody, which affects the students? capacity to sound like a native Swedish speaker.

This report tries to discuss the concept of social sustainability; what it means and how residential development can be made more socially sustainable. This is done by interviewing several and various representatives in JM AB, the municipality of Uppsala and residents of Åriket to explore how JM AB as a housing developer and the municipality are working with issues regarding social sustainability and what the residents in one of the new housing projects themselves think of these issues. The result of these interviews will be compared and analyzed with the prospect of finding common variables and hopefully ways of Improvement.This will result in our own recommendations of areas of Improvement either by broad initiatives or specific actions to increase the social sustainability. Areas such as meeting places, sustainable functions and joint efforts between different parties. During the work on the report we come in contact with several other areas of interest that we are not able to process ourselves and therefore recommend them for future studies..

The importance of good information security and safety grows larger and larger for each day in the information society of today. This concerns citizens, companies and public authorities. At the Swedish Transport Administration, the operation of an information security and safety process has evolved over the years to guarantee that the public authority can be trusted by its citizens, cooperating companies and other public authorities. This responsibility has been assigned to the Information Security and Safety Department (Informationssa?kerhetsavdelningen, ITsa?).In this thesis the aim is to review to what extent ITsa? achieves any business benefits for the Swedish Transport Administration, and to analyze, streamline and come up with solutions to improve their workflow.

A large proportion of businesses around the world is today ISO 9001 certified and is consequently conducting internal audits on a regular basis. It has however not been possible to conclude that internal audits always add value to the organisation, despite the large utilisation of this tool. Some authors, e.g. Alic & Rusjan (2010) and Wealleans (2000), mean that there are possibilities that internal audits may be used as a value-adding Improvement tool. This has led to the emergence of this master?s thesis.The purpose of the case study was therefore formulated to examine how internal quality audits can be made more effective and used as an Improvement tool.

There are different ways of developing a second language. The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate whether and possibly how music, focused on singing, can improve the development of Swedish as a second language. Through interviews with three vocal teachers, from three different schools in Sweden, and observations of one of the vocal teachers, information about how they work and think about the subject has been collected. The vocal teachers teach groups of second language learners by singing songs made especially for second language learning. The vocal teachers consider singing beneficial in the development of the pronunciation and Improvement of the prosody, which affects the students? capacity to sound like a native Swedish speaker.

The aim of this Master of Science Thesis is to develop guidelines and Improvementsuggestions of RiNOVA Traffic AB?s dynamic speed bump. The project started with athorough pre study of the design and its function to find out how passing vehiclesaffects the dynamic speed bump. The majority part of the pre study was to createnecessary mathematical models to explain the arisen forces and strains.The results of the mathematical models gave necessary information about the designregarding weaknesses and flaws. The most critical ones where those which interferedwith the design?s performance and reliability, and therefore needed to be corrected.These problems where more thorough analysed and discussed with experts before thefinal guidelines and Improvement suggestions where developed.The parts of the design that had to be redesigned were the extension springs and thebearing that enables the dynamic properties.