The project explores the possibilities of using additive manufacturing (3d-printing) to build architecture. Through a combination of theoretical research and practical experiments a building system has been developed which has the capabilities to create houses with great geometric flexibilities to a affordable price today. The construction system Perimeter is demonstrated in a pavilion situated at Norra Djurgården in Stockholm. .

AbstractAccording to research made by Statistics Sweden on the members of the labor union IF Metall the number of reported musculoskeletal disorders for employees working under the collective bargaining agreement for the automotive industry has almost doubled since 2003. During 2004- 2006 and 2008 male assembly workers were the occupational group with the highest amount of reported work related disorders in Sweden. To prevent musculoskeletal disorders is according to Rose and Orrenius important both for the individual, the society and the industry by reducing economic and personal costs. The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze how the Manufacturing industry is affected by musculoskeletal disorders that occur when working with line assembly and how companies can prevent them. The report aims to provide the reader with an understanding of what musculoskeletal disorders are, to which extent they occur in assembly, how companies are directed by laws and regulations and how they affect the Swedish Manufacturing industry and their employees.

This report presents thesis of Liisa Kokkonen in collaboration with Muovikilpi Oy.The project?s goal is to find a new construction for an existing lamp made of acrylic. Form and design retains and the manufacturing occurs at Muovikilpi Oy. The project contains the new construction and manufacturing of the lamp and also a proposition for a set with floor and wall lamp.  The paper gives an outline of acrylic as material and how it reacts with light.

As a result of global competition, companies within the automotive industry are required to improve their production systems to achieve sustainable and competitive production. To attain operational excellence, companies have adopted concepts like lean and World Class Manufacturing (WCM).In order to deliver, companies need to increase the availability and reliability of production equipment. This demands focus on both operational and strategic maintenance, and efficient equipment acquisition and management. The main objective of this thesis is to identify processes and success factors that are necessary for improved maintenance performance. By conducting a case study and by performing a literature review, the following has been studied: 1) how companies within the automotive industry work with maintenance and maintenance strategies, 2) implementation of maintenance strategies, and 3) new acquisition and spare parts management for maintenance. The results show that basic maintenance concepts and related terms are well defined in the literature.

Tourism is often being viewed as one of the worlds largest sectors and a great contribution to growth and development. There is a large motivation amongst developing countries to promote themselves as a tourist destination, since they expect the tourism to generate economic growth. The government of Thailand has been promoting tourism since 1960, and the number of foreign visitors has increased from 100 000 back then to 13.5 million in 2006. The purpose of this paper was to investigate weather the increasing tourism industry in Thailand has pulled resources away from other sectors of the economy towards the tourism sector, and in that way harming Thailand?s international competitiveness and causing deindustrialization.

This thesis serves to examine how manufacturing SMEs consider outsourcing. Furthermore, we aim to identify the main characteristics and patterns for these types of companies that can explain their rationale in such a decision. The chosen method for this thesis is abduction and selected research approach is multiple case studies. Seven case studies have been conducted at EAB AB, Esbe AB, Hörle Automatic AB, Pelly Industri AB, SGV Industrier AB, Swede-Wheel AB and Wulkan AB. Our findings have illustrated that although traditional outsourcing theory provides a good platform for explaining the rationale behind outsourcing decisions in SMEs, we have identified additional considerations that SMEs, operating as 2, 3 or 4-tier suppliers towards OEM-corporations, make.

In this paper we have studied possible future uses for Additive Manufacturing (commonly referred to as 3D-printing) in Space. More specifically we have sought to establish how Additive Manufacturing can be used to construct structures on the Moon. Our studies have shown that Additive Manufacturing has great potential for establishing colonies on not only the Moon, but perhaps even further away from our home planet. With Contour Crafting-technology in combination with ISRU (In Situ Resource Utilization) we could, with material already present in the sediment layers of the Moon, construct advanced structures without having to transfer any extra material from Earth. This would lower the costs of establishing a colony on the Moon to such extents that it could actually be fiscally possible..

Background - Swedish trade and industry primarily involves small corporations, including small manufacturing corporations. Currently, most costing models that are used are based on studies accomplished at large corporations. This conveys to the fact that product costing that occurs at small manufacturing corporations is based on all complexities that large corporations bring, which rarely match with small corporations. It occurs that small manufacturing corporations unconsciously rely on incorrect information that has been calculated based on great corporations? product costing.

Our starting point has been to examine how a project manager without knowledge of the industry is able to plan a project. And also which difficulties that may arise. A qualitative study was conducted at project managers who worked in the construction industry and events industry. Seven interviews were conducted, four in the construction sector and three in the events industry. Respondents are active as project manager in Värmland and Närkes counties.

At a manufacturing company, due to the competition the price is reducedtowards the manufacturing cost. Therefore it is important to maintain control ofones costs and keep calculations up-to-date.This thesis deals with cost accounting at a aluminium-processing company. The report focuses on calculating machine cost per hour since the manufacturing costs are the major part of the total product cost.Managers on the company believe that the costs they use in calculations todayneither is up-to-date nor advantageous in a market aspect and due to that their calculations need to be revised. The machines cost per hour is a major part in the manufacturing calculation. The company wants to provide a competitive price that also covers their costs.

The thesis investigates if it is possible to replace several pumpimpellers with one controllable pumpimpeller, with a economical and a manufacturing analisys aspect. The studied pumpimpeller is mounted on a midrange wastewaterpump, N3127MT.In the thesis a contemplated manufacturing process is evaluated for a concept that are supposed to act as a controllable pumpimpeller. The pumpimpeller are studied in a manufacturing and flow matter and are presented in the thesis.The manufacturing cost is also estimated, and this has been compared to the storage cost and other costs that the existing pumpimpeller generates.The thesis also shows that the concept has minor losses in cutting quality aswell as the effiency comparing to the existing pumpimpeller.The concept also raises the manufacturing cost and this increasing cost makes the presented concept to expensive to carry through.An investigation of the costs that the existing pumpimpeller produces has also been done, and this shows that there is not that much expenses to earn regarding to for example the storage cost. The storage cost includes information from Flygt?s central storagecenter in Lindas, Sweden and Metz, France, and also an inventory about the pumpimpellers located at Flygt?s different distributors worldwide.The thesis shows that a controllable pumpimpeller will generally increase the cost for the pumpimpeller and the performance of the pumpimpeller will decrease..

The telecom and the IT-industry are converging, which creates new possibilities and threats for both existing mobile handset vendors and new entrants originating from the IT-industry. The purpose of this thesis is to explain how IT-players? entrance in the mobile handset industry affects the industry in regards of key success factors and value chain structure. This study has used dynamic theories to describe the mobile handset industry. The theories have helped us in understanding the characteristics and drivers of the industry and thereafter to identify the key success factors.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the correlation between the price of electric power and investments within the Swedish basic industry. Using regression analysis, the authors test for correlation between the electricity prices and the basic industry, defined as the pulp and paper industry, the mining industry, the steel and metal industry and the basic chemical industry. Moreover, five variables found in the literature on investment decisions are being used as a means of comparison. The results suggest that the electricity price affects the investment decisions within the basic chemical industry as well as the steel and metal industry. On a more abstract level, this thesis contributes to the understanding of one of the properties of the Swedish GDP..

The Main problem: How small-sized manufacturing companies can create and sustain a stable position in the industry, which leads to profitability.Purpose: The purpose with this essay is to compare two small-sized manufacturing companies, Datek Industrielektronik AB and AB Micatrone to study which strategical resources each company possesses. At the same time analyse if the strategical resources are to be consider as sustainable competitive advantage.Method: A case study has been implemented in two small-sized manufacturing companies. The collected primary data derives from semi-structured interviews.Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework is based on The Resource-based view where the independent variables are the VRIO-model, resource tree and external resources. The dependable variable is sustainable competitive advantage.Empirical foundation: The empirical foundation is based on the compilation of the few conducted interviews with Datek and Micatrone.Results & Conclusion: Datek and Micatrone show both similarities and differences in what creates their sustainable competitive advantage. The management of both companies creates according to the VRIO-model sustainable competitive advantage.

Background: Resources that are hard to put a value on and cannot be classified as assets in the balance sheet as well as the development towards the information society has led to an increasing need and use for voluntary information in the annual reports. The increase of voluntary information can foremost be seen in the field of human resources.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe the development of voluntary information about human resources in the annual report of a number of Swedish quoted companies. The purpose is also to see if there is a difference in the development between manufacturing companies and service companies.Method: Six manufacturing companies and six service companies were chosen from the Stockholm exchange A-list. Using both a qualitative and quantitative research method the annual reports of the chosencompanies were studied for the years 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, and 2003. A model consisting of seven categories; health, diversity, recruitment, staff turnover and comfort, benefits and motivation, education and competence development, was developed to clarify were the development took place.Conclusions: After finishing the study one can tell that the amount of voluntary information about human resources in the annual report has increased even though the percentage share of the total annual report only has increased appreciably for manufacturing companies.