Arvika Smide is a supplier to the automotive industry with a focus on advanced drop forgings including powertrain and bearings. The great experience and high quality is Arvika Smide?s speciality. Today's competition in the industries puts high demands on the efficiency where each company has a quest for perfection.Arvika Smide has been through the thesis of Karlstad University, called for a situation analysis of aftertreatment whose effectiveness has not been fully desirable. The department includes the production steps blasting, quality control and packaging.The thesis contains the results from the situation analysis and comparisons of the calculations for selected reference period Q4 2009th.

Vården i Sverige har sedan länge kännetecknas av långa vårdköer och bristande resurser. Allt fler sjukhus och vårdcentraler däribland Brahehälsan, Hälsocentralen Akka, Akutmottagningen på Länssjukhuset i Kalmar samt Diagnostiskt centrum på Länssjukhuset i Kalmar väljer att möta dessa problem med hjälp av ?Lean Healthcare?. Denna nya modell och den filosofi den bygger på bidrar till ett nytt arbetssätt som är tänkt att medföra effektivisering av sjukvården. Är effektivisering av sjukvården det verkliga motivet eller finns det bakomliggande motiv för att införa ?Lean Healthcare?? Vid allt förändringsarbete är det viktigt att ha med sig medarbetarna.

Our purpose with this qualitative study is to investigate how teachers experience their work situation, using Karasek and Theorell?s demand-, control- and support model. The study is based upon ten semi-structured interviews with gymnasium teachers. The interviews were transcribed and coded with three different themes; demand, control and support. We analyzed the results with Karasek and Theorell?s mentioned model.

Ett nytt produktionskoncept på Saab Automobile AB ? Lean Automation ? är under implementering och utveckling. Inriktningen är att utveckla automationslösningar som stödjer principer och arbetsätt inom Lean Produktion. En gemensam nämnare är automation som byggs upp av enkel, standardiserad och modulariserad utrustning och som kan omkonfigureras av egen personal.Två pilotinstallationer har gjorts under 2010: Transport med enkel AGV (Lean AGV) samt Lean Automation Robot Cell (LARC). Dessa komponenter ingår i denna studie som inriktar sig på förändringar i det totala produktionssystemet med sikte på en konstant hög produktivitetsnivå även vid frekventa förändringar i volym och produktinnehåll.Studien pekar på vikten av att samla produktionspersonalen för att underlätta balansering, men även för att skapa en visuell process där fel snabbt kan upptäckas och åtgärdas.

In 2005, Outokumpu began to implement its system of continuous improvement, OK> 1, at Avesta Jernverk. OK> 1 has not generated sufficient results on plant KPI:s. The purpose of this study is to identify the understanding,  participation and commitment regarding to OK> 1, and to suggest some actions to make OK> 1 more successful with emphasis on these three aspects. The thesis shall also determine whether there are any differences in the attitude towards OK>1 between Blue Collars and White Collars.The study consisted of a survey, and interviews. The output from these methods were processed and analyzed and finally resulted in a SWOT ? analysis and suggested actions for improving the understanding, participation and commitment towards OK>1.

Bakgrund: I takt med att konsumenters preferenser har förändrats, har företag fått överge massproduktion till förmån för produktionssystem som bättre avspeglar konsumenternas ökade krav på flexibilitet. Ett sätt för att överbrygga denna utmaning är att implementera lean production. Även om detta sätt att producera på har tydliga fördelar för dagens företag, verkar lean production även kunna medföra problem i avseende på att kombinera med den befintliga, i många fall, traditionella styrningen i företaget. En del av styrningen som verkar vara speciellt svår att kombinera med implementeringen av lean production rör mätningen av produktionen. Vid en närmare granskning visar det sig att det råder vissa motsättningar mellan traditionell mätning och lean production som kan påverka företagets beslutsfattande negativt.

Corporate responsibility is a popular phenomenon of today. The interest for the subject is extensive and means for implementing corporate responsibility strategies within organizations are demanded. There are studies showing how management control systems can be used in order to implement general strategies into organizations. Still, management control systems designed for the implementation of corporate responsibility strategies, in particular, are not provided by the current academia. The aim of this paper is to contribute to studies within management control systems by studying the management control system specifically designed to implement corporate responsibility strategies.

This master thesis reviews advances in detection and diagnosis of static friction (stiction) in control valves. Control valves suffering from stiction results in oscillating control loops which in turn decreases both the process stability and reliability. Perstorp AB sees a necessity to automatically detect stiction in valves before the effects of the malfunctioning valves have become too severe. This thesis presents an introduction to maintenance, control loops and how stiction in valves can affect performance of control loops.A selection of methods presented in the literature are introduced and examined using normal operating data from the site in Perstorp. Common for all selected methods is their intuitive ideas and that they are based on normal operating data and minimum amount of process knowledge.

There is consensus in research, policy, business and many other areas around the benefits of creativity. Previous research shows that creativity is only spurred under certain conditions. Usually creativity is not associated with concepts such as control, deadline or cost effectiveness. Companies, by contrast, have the need for control and management of their operations, which implies that the two processes can be difficult to reconcile. A company that wants a high creativity while maintaining control and management is forced into a series of organizational compromises.

Konceptet Lean har sitt ursprung från industrin men används idag även inom andra sektorer, exempelvis inom vård- och omsorgsarbete. Denna studie behandlar en socialförvaltnings implementering av konceptet som de kallar Ständiga förbättringar. Syftet med studien är att ur ett chefsperspektiv få kunskaper om specifika framgångsfaktorer för implementering och fortsatt arbete med Ständiga förbättringar i enheterna. Studien genomfördes genom intervjuer av enhetschefer som har, eller påbörjat implementeringen av konceptet i sina enheter. Resultatet visar på betydelsen av enhetschefens roll som drivande, förmåga att anpassa arbetssättet till den egna enheten samt synen på Ständiga förbättringar som en ständigt pågående process.

In today's globalized world it is essential to achieve goal congruence within a multinational corporation despite the distances between the headquarters and subsidiaries. A case study has been performed to examine how control of sales units within a Swedish multinational corporation is achieved. Otley's framework has been used in the study to provide an overall picture of the control system where the analysis is based on five areas: key objectives and goal evaluation, strategies and plans, target setting process, incentives and motivation as well as information flows. To complement this framework, theories of convergence and divergence by Busco et al. have been used as well as theories of hierarchical control and self-control by Holmström.

The aim of this study has been to examine the role of control mechanisms when it comes to building relationships in a small business network. In order to reach this goal, we have performed a case study of a Swedish supplier of machines to the engineering industry, which acts as the exclusive representative of a foreign manufacturer on the Swedish market. Main results: A number of control mechanisms, both formal and informal, could be identified in the network. Their specific use, as well as relative importance differ between different actors in the network. In general, the importance of formal control mechanisms decreases as the relationship evolves over time and the importance of informal ones, mainly trust, increases in a corresponding manner..

In todays competitive business climate the concept of ?quality management? is a significant part of daily work for many companies, as they want to achieve high performance quality and delivery success. Within the services sector third-party logistics companies play an increasingly central role when it comes to the goods that are being transported. These companies are presented with continuous challenges to ensure that goods are loaded on trucks efficiently and delivered on time, at the right place and in the right condition. The present case study was conducted in collaboration with Schenker AB and Schenker Åkeri in Jönköping, to help these two company branches serving under the same major corporation to solve a common problem they both encounter, namely the fact that it regularly occurs handling abnormalities in the terminal process that affects overall quality for customers.The study aims to find out how the daily quality control concerning the handling of goods in the terminal process can be improved hopefully resulting in a higher quality in cargo shipments.

The function of budgetary controls is to control the resource allocation within companies. It can also be an instrument for measure and control subordinates and/or business units? performance (Van der Stede 2001). This paper concerns the latter; when the budgetary control function is used to measure and control subordinates performance based on budget. Previous research in this area has not yet accomplished to explain the effects of tight budgetary control which Hartman (2000) considers as the main issue to be concerned about in management accounting research.Previous research has presented contradictory findings regarding tight budgetary control explained by positive effects as well as negative effects during the last decades.

Electromyography (EMG) is a technique that measures muscle activity, whichmeans detecting the electrical signals that travel through the muscle in connectionwith muscle contraction. This project deals with how EMG can be used tocontrol a computer game.The project is centered around the game 'EMG Track Game' which has beenconstructed as part of this work. 'EMG Track Game' is controlled by twoelectrodes fastened on the player. These are attached to two selected musclesand control the motion in one direction each, one up and the other one down.The game is constructed in the purpose of being used in several elds of application.Among these are as entertainment, training equipment and a tool inresearch related to EMG and muscles.To highlight a possible application a study concerning muscle control has beenconducted. It answers the question of whether players score better with theirdominant arm in comparison with their non-dominant one.