It is becoming increasingly important for companies to meet customer demands due to intense competition in today's global market, that forcing companies to improve their offerings and become better at managing their supply chain (Shen et al., 2006).  Long lead times can be reduced by using different methods and strategies shows various researches. Lead times occur in the planning, production, inventories and handling of products (Treville et al., 2003).The aim of the study is to develop a method to analyze the factors that affect the length of internal delivery lead time in manufacturing companies. The method also included suggestions for reducing delivery lead-time to internal customers.The main factors that influenced the length of the on delivery lead times has summarized to make a selection among the factors that can have the most significant impact. The selected elements will be used as a method to analyze how these areas affect a company?s length on internal delivery lead times.The study shows that the causes of the long delivery lead times was the location of the customer order point, uncertain forecasts, long material and production planning time, and long waits in the production and storage.The delivery lead time, according to this report?s suggested improvements reduced by centralizing CODP and makes more reliable forecasts.

BT is a global company within the lift truck industry. The main office is located in Mjölby. In Europe all sales and service activities are carried out by fully owned sales companies. I North America, BT RAYMOND develop and distribute trucks under a different brand. For the rest of the world BT works together with a distributor network, most of them are fully independent others BT has a small ownership in.

This master?s thesis discusses the term physical theatre from a discourse point of view. It also focuses on aspects of power from a field theory perspective. The main theory used is Pierre Bourdieu?s field theory, and I try to apply this onto critical discourse analysis, mainly taken from Michel Foucault.

It?s known that the drug information patients get at discharge from hospital is often insufficient. Patients? ignorance of which drug they use and how to take them can lead to drug related problems, can cause suffering and heavy expenses.The aim of this study was to shed light on the patients? understanding for drug information, which was given at discharge from hospital. The literature survey was used as a method and based upon a systematic choice of scientific articles, which were found in different databases during the period of April 1 to May 31, 2008.

In Sweden there is an integration policy and a policy for national minorities. The integration policy aims to integrate newly arrived immigrants (nyanlända invandrare), whereas the minority policy aims to maintain and strengthen the rights of the national minorities. The national minorities are though, at times, included into the integration policy, even though they hold a minority status in Sweden. This paper aims to, through discourse analysis, investigate the research question: ?how is the content of integration referred to, when it is related to immigrants, contra when it is related to national minorities?.

Hyperthyroidism has become the most commonly diagnosed endocrine disorder in cats. The recommended treatment of choice in the literature is administration of radioactive iodine. This treatment has been available at a few veterinary clinics in Sweden since 1999. Forty-six cats treated with a standard dose (80 MBq) of radioactive iodine (131I) at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in the period 2000-2004 were followed for a median of 13 months (range 3-42 months) by means of a retrospective cohort study design. Tables predicting time of survival after treatment were made. At final follow-up thirty-nine cats (85%) were euthyroid, six cats (13%) remained hyperthyroid and one cat (2%) was hypothyroid.

The purpose of this thesis was to study the importance of an artist?s personal brand from a record company and artist management perspective. We also aimed to investigate how these companies work to create and maintain an artist?s personal brand. The study conducted was a case study based on interviews with staff members of a major record company, Universal Music AB, and an artist management, United Stage Management Group AB.

The purpose of this essay is to examine whether and how labor consultants, job coaches, guidance counselors promote the possibility of self-realization of the clients they encounter in their work. By analyzing, based on the theoretical framework, six semi-structured interviews of people having the chosen professions answer the questions "Do counselors promote client's opportunities for self-realization in their work?" and "If so: how is this practiced?". In the theoretical framework three important concepts are addressed: "identity", "recognition" and "self-realization". These are explained with the help of works by including Emma Engdahl, Anthony Giddens, Axel Honneth and Allison Weir.

Since the year 2005 listed companies are supposed to use international accounting standards when they set up their group accountancy. One thing that has changed with the new standards is the accounting of goodwill and long-lived intangible assets. Earlier companies were supposed to write of their goodwill during the years they had expected the extra profit to arise. According to the new regulation, an impairment test shall be done annually, as well as when there is an indication of decreased value. According to IAS 36 point 134, the company shall provide information in their accountancy about the impairment test.The aim of this study is to find out if some companies may be willing to reveal less information in their accountancy, and if there are any factors that affect this.

Many? luxury? companies? within? the? fashion? industry? today? choose? to? extend? their? brands downwards? in? order? to? reach? new? customer? segments? and? hence? increase? their? profitability.? A? brand? extension? strategy? that? leverages? the? core? values? of? the? luxury? brand? is? a ?new ?possibility ?for ?luxury ?brands ?to ?position ?themselves ?towards ?a ?broader ?customer ?base.?? Meanwhile? there? is? a? risk? that? the? extension? dilutes? the? image? of? the? luxury? brand? and? has? a? negative? effect? on? the? company? in? the? long? term.? Thus? a? tradeoff? exists? between? becoming? more? accessible? and? maintaining? the? exclusivity? of? the? luxury? brand.? The? objective? of? this? thesis ?is ?to ?investigate ?how ?luxury ?brands ?that ?perform? downward ?brand ?extensions ?to? reach? new? markets? can? succeed? with? this? strategy? without? diluting? the? brand? image.? This? is? achieved? by? studying? the? perceptions? of? the? new? target? segment? towards? the? extension? of? luxury? brands.? The? results? of? the? study? show? that? the? risk? of? brand? dilution? is? minimized when? the? core? values? of? the? luxury? brand? are? transferred? to? the? brand? extension? while? the extension ?at ?the ?same ?time ?is ?successfully ?targeted ?towards ?the ?specific ?customer? segment..

The majority of managers of public libraries in Sweden also work as librarians on an operative level within the organisation. This thesis discusses how the manager role is affected by his/her specific assignments and multiple tasks. Seven public library managers, who work in districts with around 10 000 25 000 inhabitants, have been interviewed. They reflect upon their experience of leadership and different assignments. The main focus lies on: - leadership - communication - decision making - organisational development The interviews show some positive effects, the manager is present most of the time, has a great knowledge about everyday work and daily routines, and is also able to represent the library successfully in the local community.

The purpose of this essay is to study how parents of children with disabilities young people make their choice of support and service LSS. The study takes its lead from questions designed to determine which interventions parents use for their children. What parents think about today's choice and if satisfactory, or if they have other wishes. It is also about how parents experience the freedom of choice and participation in the selection of interventions. Furthermore how the parent discuss the topic of choice from childhood and parental perspective.

This paper presents empirical evidence on the determinants of interest rate swap spreads in Sweden during the period 1999-2003. The results suggest that the spread between STIBOR and the general collateral repo rate is positively related to shorter maturity swap spreads. The risk premium associated with commercial bonds is positively related to swap spreads of all maturities. A negative relationship is observed between the term structure of interest rates and swap spreads. The short-term interest rate is positively related to spreads with shorter maturities.

This paper intends to examine the knowledge challenges in small IT companies which is going through rapid growth. The movement of information and knowledge is a social and very complex process. The challenge for technology is the social as information and knowledge requires. To believe blindly that technology will solve the problem is what many people think. In order to understand how technology can support information and knowledge management one needs to understand what information and knowledge is.

The purpose of this essay is to describe how probation service officers regard their professional role and their liberty of action within the motivational treatment program, MIK, and the probation organization. To answer the purpose three questions were formulated: 1) Does the probation service organization affect the individual discretion for the probation service officers, and in that case how? 2) Does the motivational treatment program, MIK, influence the probation officers? professionalism and their professional role? 3) What advantages and disadvantages do the probation service officers consider MIK being related to? The method conducted in the study was interviews with five probation service officers in Stockholm. The interviews were combined with a theoretical framework based on themes as organization, professional role, professionalism and motivation. The result showed that probation officers consider themselves to have a relatively high discretion within their work.