The manufacturing industry is currently in a short-term downturn while the competition is increasing. The result of this is that companies must find new ways to bring out their products. Traditional competitive strategies, such as low pricing, is not sufficient today as the customer is inquiring something more than just a good product. Higher demands are presented on an accurate, well functional, communication between customer and companies, as this has become an important strategic factor in achieving long-term profitability.The aim of this independent project was to analyze and evaluate the communication process between a company and its sales companies.In order to illustrate this process, a case study was carried out at Alfa Laval, their sales companies and employees at their distribution center in Tumba. In order to see the differences in attitudes between the management, the sales companies and the employees regarding communication and involvement a gap analysis were used.The theoretical part of the study considers theories about business mission, communication, involvement, quality and creating value.The result showed that a smaller gap exists between the sales companies and the management while a slightly larger one exists between the employees and the management.

The aim with this master's thesis is to describe the work process with the graduation film Player, by a composers perspective and given conditions. It provides a detailed insight into how the work was done from the script stage to the end result, scene by scene reflecting about both the musical performance and the collaboration between the director and me as a composer. The work was done during the spring term of 2012 at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts..

Shock absorber units play a key role in establishing the driving dynamics and performance of automobiles. Öhlins Racing has manufactured high-tech automotive shock absorbers for over 30 years. Öhlins Racing?s advanced technology has contributed to over 200 world championships in automobile racing. Öhlin?s manufacturing process has long utilized automated fluid filling equipment during the final shock absorber unit assembly stage. The filling process consists of vacuum pumping the shock absorber unit and subsequent transfer of fluid. Vacuum pumping is necessary to remove residual air from the shock absorber unit prior to initiating the liquid filling stage. The presence of undesirable gases drastically compromises the performance of a shock absorber. The filling degree, defined as the final ratio of air to oil, is determined by the specific filling protocol as well as the specific equipment utilized.The current investigation aims to develop a viable technique to accurately determine residual air content in shock absorber units. If the filling degree can be appropriately quantified for a specific manufacturing process, then the air/oil ratio may be quantitatively related to shock absorber performance. The utilized measurement method must be completely integrated into the manufacturing process to guarantee shock absorber performance specifications according to the manufacturer?s standards. By utilizing the measurement method developed in this work, the manufacturing process, manufacturing equipment and product specifications can all be tailored to provide improved filling conditions.The developed measurement method provides accurate quantification of the filling degree under a wide range of processing conditions. The method establishes the relative quantity of air in the shock absorber unit by performing in-situ compressibility tests. The fill ratio can be controlled and varied by manipulating the vacuum pressure exerted during the filling process. Performance tests, however, indicate no correlation between filling degree and unit performance..

This report is based on a thesis that was carried out during spring 2012. The report covers the development of a preliminary study to Performance Sk8. The purpose of the study is to facilitate and contribute inspiration to Performance Sk8 to run an automation project to bring home their production to Sweden from China. The reason is to gain a greater ability to control quality, produce smaller batches and reduce the cycle time to reduce costs.The goal is that the preliminary study shall meet the requirements and wishes Performance Sk8 and other partners defined. The pre study will contain different cost proposals for the automation of selected process and serve as a basis for procurement of the equipment.The pre study has resulted in some proposed solutions to the various steps required to automate Performance Sk8 ?s production.

One year Master's thesis, Degree of master in Business and Economics, School ofBusiness and Economics at Linnaeus University, Management, 4FE10E SpringSemester 2014.Author: Johanna Björklund and Sarah Gustafsson.Mentor: Magnus Forslund.Title: Lean in the public sector - Potential barriers to a long-term Lean work.Background: Organizational changes are something that is constantly done inorganizations, and in the last decade, there has arisen a plethora of different changemodels. A reorganization that is popular among companies today is Lean. Lean is aconcept that was developed within the Japanese automotive industry, but has evolvedfrom the Japanese shop floor and is now a concept that can be found in, for example,several Swedish municipalities.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to create an understanding of why the conceptLean may have difficulty getting a hold in the in the long term.Methodology: The study was done with a qualitative research approach and through anabductive approach. As we intended to create an understanding, of what potentialbarriers that may affect that a Lean work, in some cases, does not become a long-termcondition, it seemed natural to choose a hermeneutic approach to knowledge. Theempirical data collected via individual unstructured interviews, through a groupinterview, and by non-participant observations.

Modern missiles must meet higher and higher demands. They should be autonomous, have long range and still have a big effect on the target. To maximize effect on target some missiles not only minimize miss distance, but also try to hit with a certain angle; often perpendicular to the surface of the target. In this thesis a method to guide the missile in the terminal phase of its mission where both point of impact as angle of impact are specified. The method consist of two parts.

More efficient energy consumption is essential to secure a sustainable future, not least within the building and real estate sector which answers for approximately 40 % of the EU countries total energy consumption. One part of EU: s work to reduce the energy consumption is the directive on energy performance of buildings which among other things have lead to stricter demands on energy performance in new and renovated buildings.One of the difficulties with making buildings more energy effective is that it often demands big investments and although it results in lower operating costs the extent of these savings and therefore also the repayment time can be difficult to decide beforehand. To make it interesting for property owners and also tenants to invest in energy efficient buildings powerful incentives are needed. Favorable loans to energy efficiency projects are one example of governmental instruments that have been tested in other European countries with good results.Reduced operating costs appear to be the main incentive for property owners to make their buildings more energy efficient. The best result of an energy efficiency project is usually achieved by cooperation between property owners and tenants but in order to make that interesting it is important that both parts can profit from the savings.

Many persons with long-term illness experience a decline in their quality of life. Perceived Quality of Life is a subjective term based on prior personal experiences and is highly individual. The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate perceived Quality of Life in persons with Multiple Sclerosis and to get knowledge if physical therapy changes a person?s quality of life. Three women and three men with a range of disability were interviewed in depth.

Construction production always contains different disciplines whose priorities andinterests can be very diverse. Good communication and coordination are essential tominimize misunderstandings and achieve good quality in the end result. This makesplanning a central part of the production management. In a world where conditionscan change as often as daily, being well prepared increases the opportunities to stayflexible and decrease negative effects of the changes.This study has been done in association with Skanska Foundations district North inStockholm in order to investigate how visual planning can be used in the productionmanagement to optimize the coordination and the quality.The history of Lean started at Toyota, but the concept are now spread over theworld and are used wide outside of the car industry nowadays. What?s challengingabout Lean in foundation projects is to embrace a long-term perspective and invest insolutions that are profitable in the longer term, instead of solve problems by onlytreating the symptoms.A holistic perspective is crucial in order to truly understand Lean.

Health care costs in relation to GDP are escalating all over Europe and the Swedish health care industry is not an exception. Between 30 and 50 percent of resources used in health care are considered waste, in the sense that they don't contribute to increased health. This illustrates the big need for hospitals to become more efficient which is why many hospitals today are trying to move towards a process-oriented organization. This paper therefore aims to identify the elements necessary for this type of organizational change, the barriers encountered when moving from a functional to process oriented hospital as well as how to overcome them. The case study was conducted at Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset and shows the importance of not just transmitting a sense of urgency but also communicating that the upcoming change is long term.

The aim with this master's thesis is to describe the work process with the graduation film Player, by a composers perspective and given conditions. It provides a detailed insight into how the work was done from the script stage to the end result, scene by scene reflecting about both the musical performance and the collaboration between the director and me as a composer. The work was done during the spring term of 2012 at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts..

Vocational rehabilitation is an ongoing issue that directly or indirectly affects everyone at a workplace. In recent years, laws and rules have changed. The 1st July 2008 changes were made in the General Insurance Act (SFS 1962:381). These changes have meant that there is now a so-called rehabilitation chain.  The rehabilitation chain contains time frames for when sick people will have their ability to work tested against their normal work or to other jobs. If a person is considered having enough capacity to be able to work he or she will lose their entitlement to sick pay.The aim of our study is to investigate managers? perceptions of the new rehabilitation chain, with a focus on vocational rehabilitation of long-term sick to get them back to work.The method used was qualitative and data collection was done through nine semi-structured interviews.

This Master of Science thesis project handles issues around managing data from the digital tachographsystem. European legislation states that companies must download the data of the digital tachograph systemand store it for at least one year for control purposes. The system stores data on the vehicle unit located inthe driving compartment and on smart cards personal for each driver.Acquiring data from the previous analogue tachograph was done instantaneously since the data wasphysically printed to a circular paper chart when driving. To acquire data from the digital system one mustperform a download from the vehicle unit and later transfer it to some form of backup solution for longterm storage. Data must also be downloaded from the driver smart cards.Download of data from the vehicle unit is the most time consuming task and may take up to 30minutes pervehicle.

A performance measurement system can be used as a means to evaluate past performances and to communicate prioritizations. It has also been proposed that a performance measurement system can serve as a method to execute strategies, guide in operational decisions and constitute a tool for making the organization more efficient. Yet one may question if such a system will ever reach this capacity if operating managers do not utilize it as a management tool, but rather treat it as a mere report in the bunch. This paper explores how middle managers in fact apply performance measures and what obstacles there are to integrating them in the management of subunits. Furthermore it serves to investigate whether these managers experience a conflict between how they are expected to use the measures and what they deem possible to adopt.

This study is about Wikipedia which defines itself as a free online encyclopaedia. Our chief interest lies in the debate and the controversy which has arisen around Wikipedia. After reading critical articles concerning Wikipedia we found that the debate for most parts had one identifiable theme namely the question whether Wikipedia is an encyclo-paedia or not.Encyclopaedia as a term and a phenomenon has a long tradition. Wikipedia, despite calling itself an encyclopaedia, functions differently in comparison to more traditional encyclopaedias. These traditional views involve encyclopaedic structure, its organiza-tion and its functions.