Cycle time has a direct influence on number of returnable crates needed and therefore a crucial parameter for cost structure and pricing of the user fec in the pool system.For providing the growing market, number of crates has to increase as well as the utilization of existing crates. To accomplish this aim, cycle time for the whole supply chain has to be fully unravelled and understand.The purpose is to map cycle time and stock movements, to see how, where and when crates are being used in the supply chain. The goal is to make a method of cycle time calculation, together with suggestions of improving the pool system and decrease cycle time.The study has been a combination of qualitative and quantitative research and comprises the three biggest wholesalers in Sweden; ICA, Coop and Axfood. Furthermore have 65 grocery shops, connected to the wholesalers, been investigated and mapped.The study has come to a conclusion that cycle time for an average returnable crate is 19 days. The full-size and half-size crates have a bit longer cycle time, 21-22 days, while Dual Height-crates and shallow haif-size crates have 17-18 days.

Term: Spring term 2007Study objects: Reitan Servicehandel AB, Vi-butikerna, ICA Sverige ABPurpose: The purpose of this study is to analyse how procurement is used as a strategy to achieve better competitive strength, within the retail food industry.Theoretical: The theoretical chapter illustrates different procurement organisations, multiple and single sourcing, brand equity, consumer behaviour and involvement, Efficient Consumer Response including supply chain and category management and finally Demand Chain Management.Method: For the case studies, three food retail companies have been interviewed: Reitan Servicehandel AB, Vi-butikerna and ICA AB. To illustrate how consumer behaviour influences retail food market, several secondary consumer research studies have been analysed.Conclusions: The results indicate that the procurement organisation can achieve a better competitive strength by a centralised organisation, which make it possible to improve conditions of terms when ordering higher purchase volumes. The sourcing strategies can improve a company?s power within the supply chain. All companies within the study had a very good knowledge about consumer behaviour.

Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to study how the hotel chain Radisson SAS works with prolonged customer relations with their business clients, with other words the clients that have business agreements with them.Methods: This study will contain an inductive approach and qualitative methods. The qualitative research method is in the shape of a deep interview with the sales manager of Radisson SAS and qualitative interviews of chosen business clients to the hotel.Results: The results of this investigation show that business clients are controlled by what kind of agreements their company has.The companies sign agreements with hotels and hotel chains that are able to satisfy big parts of their needs, if not all of them.With the help of flexible solutions, a well known brand, and good relations, Radisson SAS has made sure that their business clients have prolonged their agreements.They are a global hotel chain near transports, and business clients feel secure with Radisson SAS..

During the last decades the questions about environment and social ethics, so called Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), have increased in importance. It is in the business world highly important for the corporations to show the public that the company care about these questions. A common approach nowadays is to outsource productions to other countries resulting in that suppliers have a great part of the work with CSR. CSR as a trend is a rather new phenomenon, and therefore interesting to see how the corporations handle these questions and how the approach looks like. The purpose with this study is to show how corporations which are recommended by CSR organizations for their handling regarding these questions approach CSR and how the work look like in the supply chain.

Forestry supply chains are a significant part of the Swedish economy. These supply chains are highly susceptible to storms damage. In late 2013 Sweden was hit by multiple storms. This leads to the possibility to research how supply chains react to the shocks that storms cause. The aim of this thesis is to research the costs that storms increase, the actions that are taken within the forestry supply chain, as well as possible benefactors from storms. This thesis bases on previous work on supply chain mapping and cost theories.

In this study environmental work in the Swedish hotel chain "Scandic" is investigated. Earlier studies point out sustainability and different environmental certificate programs as essential for the housing sector to contribute to sustainable tourism. The purpose and willingness to fulfill such a mission has been investigated by interviewing central actors in the hotel chain. The result shows that there is a desire to be part of environmental certificate programs mainly for the reason to be part of the system and not for the benefit of nature. Sustainable development is understood as being environmentally friendly. Different solutions to adapt and being more environmentally friendly is discussed.

This study is a value chain analysis for timber in East Africa. It was commissioned by Vi Agroforestry, a nongovernmental organisation registered in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania engaged in a rural development program that involves promoting tree planting and enterprise development (Vi Agroforestry, 2012). The purpose of the study was to identify and describe common value chains for timber in the countries where Vi Agroforestry operated. Value chain is a concept and a framework describing how to structure information regarding activities included in satisfying a certain customer need, e.g. procurement, logistics, transactions, production and marketing.

The purpose of the rebuild of Notnäs AB timber sorting line is to renew the existing drive and turning ends of the transport chain, which has become old. This means that Notnäs AB have problems to get new parts if the gearbox and chain are worn out. They also require that the rebuild should have a maintenance schedule for the new spare parts that will be used in the rebuild. Maintenance workers placed great emphasis on that in a rebuild it shall be a service-friendly design. The maintenance schedule used in Notnäs AB in the current situation is from Statoil and the report uses SKF formulas and recommendations in order to obtain a lubricating schedule.

Logistics and supply chain management in the construction sector is an area with great potential for improvements. Today, a lot of the workers time is spent on non-value adding activities. Research has shown that waste is a large proportion of the total production cost in building projects today.The purpose of this report is to analyze problems concerning logistics in the construction sector. Two of Skanska?s construction projects in Uppsala have been analyzed to identify problems.

Bakgrunden till detta arbete är att Bioenergi i Luleå AB måste tillmötesgå kundkraven för att behålla sina marknadsandelar och ha möjlighet att utöka dessa. På senare tid har de stora kunderna börjat efterfråga bränslepellets som är certifierad enligt Forest Stewardship Council, FSC. Examensarbetets syfte var att hjälpa Bioenergi med framtagandet av en Forest Stewardship Council Chain of Custody certification. I den inledande kartläggningen användes i huvudsak intervjuer och observationer för att studera de anställda och tillverkningen. För att identifiera aktiviteter och brister i Bioenergis system studerades även interndokumentation och relevant litteratur.

The Swedish Textile industry has since the beginning of the 70-ties moved their production to countries with cheap labour further and further away. The production in the Baltic countries and Asia has become reality for many Swedish manufacturing companies. With today?s technology the communication with remote countries has ceased to be a problem. The difficulties have instead turned out to be more focused on transportation of goods and just in time deliveries to Sweden.

Through wing pattern, posture and movement, a harmless moth of the family Brenthia imitates an eight-eyed jumping spider. When an octopus of the species Thaumoctopus mimicus sense danger it can alter its appearance to that of a venomous sea snake. They are both drawing attention to themselves. Nevertheless, and because of this, they are protected. The mechanism is called mimicry.

In vitro-test för upptäckt och behandling av tumör eller mikrometastaser har de senaste 30 åren gjort stora framsteg tack vare immunokemi och nya framgångsrika cellodlings- tekniker som bättre reproducerar celltillväxt i tre dimensioner (3D) och det omgivande stromat (multicellulär tumörsfäroidodling). TS1-218 scFv (single chain variable fragment) är en monoklonal antikropp som har affinitet till ett protein tillhörande cytoskelettet (cytokeratin). Av TS1-218 har skapats olika varianter (en dimer TS1-2182 och en mutant HE1-Q) med syftet att öka affinitet och retentionstid på platsen för dess verkan. I det här projektet försökte vi att testa och jämföra egenskaper hos alla 3 joderade antikropparna genom att inkubera odlade Hela Hep 2 tumörcellssfäroider med dessa antikroppar. Alla tre antikroppsvarianter visade god förmåga att penetrera sfäroider och att binda deras epitop i cytokeratin 8.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the driving forces and barriers which may exist at the implementation of green supply chain management (GSCM) within public organizations. Suggestions that may increase or reduce driving forces and barriers to public activities will also be provided, where such is found. The background of the study is that the public sector is such a major customer for many companies / providers, which makes the sector able to highly affect its suppliers. This essay is based on literature studies. The results showed that GSCM is a relatively unexplored area, especially applied on the public sector.

In this study environmental work in the Swedish hotel chain "Scandic" is investigated. Earlier studies point out sustainability and different environmental certificate programs as essential for the housing sector to contribute to sustainable tourism. The purpose and willingness to fulfill such a mission has been investigated by interviewing central actors in the hotel chain. The result shows that there is a desire to be part of environmental certificate programs mainly for the reason to be part of the system and not for the benefit of nature. Sustainable development is understood as being environmentally friendly. Different solutions to adapt and being more environmentally friendly is discussed.