Abstract The Act of Education outlines that good quality in schools and preschools, focusing on continuous improvement, promote children?s learning and this in turn is on of the most important factors for child and youth welfare.This thesis was based on the authors´ pre-understanding that there are opportunities to improvement in the quality of preschools. The focus was on studying how analyses can provide a base for quality work, and the purpose of this study was to identify and describe the analytical methods that can be used in the process of continual improvement for quality development in preschools.A qualitative study was conducted in two preschools that have received quality awards. It was conducted through interviews with the preschool principals and through studies of various documents.In the comparative analysis of theory and empirical data, it was made clear that there was a regular analysing process going on at the investigated preschools and an emphasize of reflection could also be identified. Keywords: Quality development, preschool, analytical methods, processes, reflection .

The purpose of this study was to evaluate if verbal encouragement had any influence on handstrength measurements. Twenty subjects participated in the study, all women between the age of 20 and 62 years. A standardisation of testing conditions and verbal encouragement were designed. Three measurements were conducted during two days using T.K.K 5401 Grip D. First there was a trial set, and then Test 1 (without verbal encouragement) and Test 2 (with verbal encouragement) were conducted.

AbstractThis work was assigned by a technological company that manufactures gas detectors in which the sensor signal is processed using digital filters. These filters have been developed by a consultancy firm which converted previously used analog filters to digital filters. The purpose of this work has been to analyse inadequate, and sometimes erroneous, documentation from the project in order to provide the company with know-how and tools for further improvement of their products. The work has been done using the simulation software COMSOL which was bought solely for the project. Analysis showed serious flaws as well as pure errors in the consultant?s documentation.

This study concerns mapping and analysing two different Supply Chains at Setra Group. Setra Group is Sweden?s biggest producer of solid wood and is primarily owned by Sveaskog, Mellanskog and LRF. The Company consist of twelve sawmills, five planning mills and an organisation for distribution of building material. This study maps one chain for Swedish Glulam standard beam and one chain for solid pine flooring on export to Japan. The glulam chain is based on spruce as raw material and includes all actors between sawmill and the Swedish building material retailers.

The development of productivity in the construction industry has long been at a steady state compared to the manufacturing industry. Studies have shown that, amongst other things, waste on construction sites can reach up to one third of the total production cost. This has been observed from different aspects, and change is forthcoming.This thesis aims to provide a foundation for an increased productivity at production sites of building bridges. It is primarily based on a field study at Skanska, at a bridge construction site near Grängesberg. Via continuous interviews with the whole production crew, construction workers and management, information on interference and possibilities of improvement at the work site has been documented.

The thesis has investigated how Sandvik Coromant could implement the SMED principle on one of their grinders groups and what improvements it would lead to. The aim of the thesis is to identify the current situation and investigate how their setup times would be affected by SMED. The work initiated with a literature analysis about the SMED principles and then proceeded with an analysis of the current situation where the activity was time mapped. The analysis consisted of time trials of the process that the thesis would include. The time studies revealed opportunities for structural improvements to create environment for a more structured process.

This Masters thesis work describes a comparison between two different methods for estimation of the down channel (base station to mobile subscriber) in Wide-band Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA). The first estimation method, Optimal Feed-forward Channel Estimation (OFCE), is a conventional method that bases the estimates on data that is known to both sender and receiver, so called pilots. The second method, Decision Directed Channel Estimation (DDCE), is an elaboration of OFCE. It also uses user data for estimation. Simulations show that DDCE, in comparison to OFCE, does not attain an improvement in signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) for high bit error rates (BER).

 There is a lack of research in the field of quality improvement efforts based on profound knowledge in social services. The current situation is therefore a significant knowledge gap in terms of studies of this type of systematic quality work and how it is applied in practice. This study therefore intends to describe Pilbackens quality work and further examine if the profound knowledge is consistent with quality work in microsystems by an analysis of Pilbackens work. The present study has been performed by a qualitative method and the material is collected through semi-structured interviews. In order to analyze the study?s result have profound knowledge and the model microsystems been used.

This Masters thesis work describes a comparison between two different methods for estimation of the down channel (base station to mobile subscriber) in Wide-band Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA). The first estimation method, Optimal Feed-forward Channel Estimation (OFCE), is a conventional method that bases the estimates on data that is known to both sender and receiver, so called pilots. The second method, Decision Directed Channel Estimation (DDCE), is an elaboration of OFCE. It also uses user data for estimation. Simulations show that DDCE, in comparison to OFCE, does not attain an improvement in signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) for high bit error rates (BER). An improvement is only seen when the BER becomes much lower than what is common in real situations. In conclusion DDCE is complicated, involves many mathematical operations and gives insignificant improvement of SNR when BER takes common values. It is legitimate to question if it is possible to use the method in a real mobile phone system..

Because of an increasing demand from customers and changing external environment, there is a need for continuous improvements, for both manufacturing and service organizations, to meet these demands. Manufacturing organizations have been working systematically with quality improvements for a long time, but it has not been as common for service organizations. Because of that the methods to use for implementation of the systematic improvements have not been designed to fit service organizations, and not either for public organizations. The purpose of this thesis is to explain if and why the Swedish Road Administration?s organizational culture and handling of ideas and deviation support an implementation of continuous improvement management.

As a company it is required to work with strategies to minimize costs such as packaging and logistic costs. The increased market of industrial produced wooden buildings results that the time and the cost which the packaging of prefabricated building elements consume, is experienced to be in greater need of development than before and demands a better solution. The aim with this dissertation was to discover how the development of the handling of the packaging can improve the packaging process. The goal was to present improvement proposals for a simplified and thereby a more efficient production in time and cost perspective.The packaging process which includes packaging, handling, storage and transport were studied. Interviews were made with participants from the market for manufacturers of wooden houses and a case study was made at the company A-hus.

Abstract Title: A messy story ? a case study of Secorocs process flow of DTH-pipes Presentation date: 2010-06-02 Course: Bachelor thesis in businessAuthor: Kristoffer ForsmanAdvisor: Kjell GustafssonKeywords: Management control, process control, lean production, process flow analysisPurpose: The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to develop an overview of the process flow for a specific product, and with the help of this mapping based on a lean production philosophy show possible improvement proposals and how these can lead to a more efficient process flow.Methodology: I have used a case study of Secorocs DTH-pipes and my primary data are gathered through interviews and observations. I have used theoretical framework to establish a process flow analysis. This is to obtain data on process activities and whether they are creating value or not. This leads to a current mapping of the situation in Secoroc on DTH-pipes and then analyzed and suggestions for improvement are developed.Conclusions: That by using the above mentioned mapping of process flow of DTH-pipes, problem areas could be illustrated.

This master thesis was performed at Scania Research & Development. The given mission was to see where the department Systems Development should focus to improve their development work. Thus the purpose was to map the product development processes in which the department works today and within them identify improvements. To fulfil the purpose a theoretical study of relevant terms, such as improvement work, product development and processes, initially was formed. The mapping method used is called "walk trough" and meant to let the people working in the processes be guides in their own process.

The improvement programme Six Sigma has often been surrounded by an air of success since it was introduced in the 1980s. Yet there are cases in which introduction of the Six Sigma improvement programme show far from successful results, even complete implementation failures with no traces of the Six Sigma methodology or any improvements after completion of the introduction. These failures can cause severe damage to organizations through direct monetary loss caused by a negative result of the investment. Indirectly the failure can cause confusion in the organization and loss of employee motivation. The conclusions have been derived based on a qualitative case study at a Swedish telecommunications company.

 AbstractTitle                                      Continuous improvement ? Motivating ICA´s  personnel to    a greater engagement.Problem                                  Getting ICA: s employees involved with continuing improvements.Purpose                                  To motivate ICA: s employees to a higher degree of commitment and    contributing with ideas and embracing approved improvements. Research questions   - How should the employees be properly motivated to contribute with   suggestions for improvement?  - What message and content should improvements send to inspire the   employees? - Witch channels should be used to capture the employee?s attention? - How can best practice be recognized and how can the knowledge be spread  through the organization?Methodology                          Initially a theory study was completed and from the results a case study were  conducted.Conclusion                             Combining success factors for continuing improvements.  To get the      employees feeling appreciated with their work. Results             By combining ten sucessfactors and trying to see the whole picture.                .