Evaluating and choosing suppliers based on price alone, has traditionally been the dominant strategy for supplier selection within the purchasing function. With the origin of the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)-concept in the early 1990s, a new philosophy dawned that promoted the importance of knowing the effects of supplier performance on the buying firm?s internal costs. Since then, scholars have been arguing the case of TCO as a viable model for making purchasing decisions and conducting supplier evaluation. Still, after two decades little is known about its penetration and impact on the practices of buying corporations, leaving the questions of which costs are included in the purchasing organisations? decisions unanswered, and even more importantly why certain costs are considered and others not.

The Swedish agricultural sector is currently experiencing substantial structural changes, where the number of agricultural enterprises continuously decreases and the average farm size increases. In order to maintain competitiveness, it is important to be aware and adapt to changes concerning the surroundings of the company (Johnson et al., 2011). Agricultural commodity prices sharply fluctuate on the global market in recent years, affecting the profitability of farmers. High volatility market requires tools to reduce price variations and increases the need of decision-making (Bouder & Beth, 2003). Farm-based grain handling facilities increases the sale options regarding agricultural commodities; a flexible strategy to get additional compensation for the storing the grain produced on the farm (Edling, 2002; Edwards, 2013).

Since the 1980s, companies have taken a larger interest in quality and it´s economic impact within the company. Having the knowledge that it´s not quality that costs money, but it´s rather the lack of quality. The work immerses itself in the field of cost of poor quality and the development of key performance indicators.The thesis is performed at Bufab Holding in Värnamo. Bufab Holding is a trading company which mainly buys and sells C-parts. C-parts include fasteners, other small metal-, rubber- or plastic parts such as wires, springs and electronic fasteners.The aim of this thesis was to make a survey of the cost of poor quality and to find key performance indicators (KPI) for cost of poor quality that can be continuously monitored.

Background:The concept of transition means a change in a person's life where he or she is forced to adapt. There are different phases in life that results in different adaptations. In this essay, transition is described as the physical and mental journey between the home and an elder care facility. The Aim was to describe elderly people's experiences of transition when moving from their previous home into an elder care facility. The Method used was a literature review.

Purpose There are almost infinite numbers of ways to build dairy farms in Sweden. When building a new free stall barn you have the possibility to affect both working environment and animal welfare for many years to come. The construction costs are influenced by which type of barn that is built and what functions it contains, for example one can predict that automatic milking systems are more expensive to integrate than milking parlours. But what is the real cost of today for the construction of free stall barns with milking centres and how is it affected by construction methods and functions? Is the labour time influenced by the building costs? These are some of the questions this report will try to answer.

The main purpose of this thesis is to analyse the possibilities and problems facing a privatised work injury insurance. This discussion includes the element of premium differentiation. Todays´ Swedish social insurance system is ineffectively formed. The costs have dramatically increased during the 1990´s. The Swedish government is now looking for ways to improve the efficiency of the system.

This report is the result of a thesis carried out at the Department of Innovation, Design and Technology (IDT), at Mälardalen University on behalf of ABB AB Machines.The year was 1988 when ASEA and Brown Boveri formed a joint venture under the name ABB (Asea Brown Boveri).We perform our thesis at the division Discrete Automation and Motion where they primarily develops, manufactures and sells synchronous and asynchronous AC motors and generators.The main purpose of this thesis was initially to write a general packaging instruction, but the priority changed to develop more specific packaging instructions for Rotors, Stator gables, Bearing support and Outer Cover (plates) instead.The work started off to deal with a problem about that the staff had to start its work to grind away rust on the stator gables due to those stored outdoors. The result was mainly an investment in a new gable rack so that the material can be stored inside, as well as a packing instruction as it was originally intended.The problem on the bearing supports were that the staff thought it was demanding and difficult to clean them from the rustproofing they were greased in. If it is not possible to remove all rust protection it can cause the paint to not attach properly. After having compared with similar articles a test were done to order a pair of bearing supports without corrosion inhibitor, which gave good results. This initiative also set in motion a process to do the same for more different items.For special pallet, a survey were made of the process with two different VSM and a calculation of how much ABB would earn at ordering more special pallets than getting the material delivered on the A-pallets.

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.

Until the beginning of the 1900:th century the paper making process was handicraft. The paper machines that have been developed since then are as impressing in size as fascinating when it comes to the technique. The process has always been improved to give a better paper for lower costs, with as short manufacture time as possible. Stratified forming has been a reality since 1830. From the beginning it was applied to board and paperboard.

This study is focused on small scale water and wastewater handling in Sweden. The study is divided into two major parts; the first describes common methods for water- and wastewater handling and the second part is a case study on three small and expensive systems in Gällivare municipality, in the north of Sweden. In the case study, abilitys for the local government to hand over unwanted systems to the water users is investigated and found to be a plausible solution to cut costs for two out of the three studied systems. In the third case, water and wastewater systems is not recommended to be handed over but other ways of cutting costs are suggested..

The competition for Norway spruce pulp wood in Central Sweden increases, forcing the supply-structure of Holmen to face two important challenges. Firstly, it is of the outmost strategically importance to secure the long-term supply of Norway spruce pulp wood to the industries. Secondly, Holmen desires to increase the obtainable volume of Norway spruce pulp wood. This would enable the company to choose volumes in the lower price-segments and thereby decrease the dependency of costly marginal volumes. As this work shows, one part in managing these challenges could be to lower the quality standards concerning root rot (Heterobasidium annosum). Facts presented in the work shows that: 1. Technically, the TMP-industry of Braviken can handle a much more rotted pulp wood than that used today, although the cost of refinement increases.

Kvalitetsbristkostnader handlar om att veta hur mycket avsaknaden av kvalitet kostar organisation samt att spåra dess orsaker och effekter. Genom att mäta kvalitetsbristkostnader kan förbättringsmöjligheter identifieras och resultatet av förbättringsåtgärder mätas. Mätning av kvalitetsbristkostnader bidrar även till att kvalitetsfrågor får en mer framskjuten roll i företaget. Denna studie har genomförts på ABB Machines och inom ABB AB finns idag en förståelse för att bristande kvalitet kostar pengar. Arbetet med att identifiera kvalitetsbristkostnader har därför fått hög prioritet.

AbstractFrom 1st of July 2003 it is compulsory for companies with an average number of ten employees the latest two financial years to account sick leave in the annual report.The government?s purpose with accounting of sick leave was partly to evoke an action from the companies? side in terms of motion as an effect due to the awareness of the level of the sick leave. The government was of the opinion that the companies had too deficient knowledge in sick leave and that the knowledge about causes and costs had to increase.In this paper three companies affected by the compulsory accounting of sick leave have been interviewed. The paper defines to only concern private companies. The companies were interviewed in purpose to form an opinion of whether the companies have changed their health promoting actions due to the application of the law.

In Stockholm, Johanneshov the Slaughterhouse area (Slakthusområdet) can be found. A number of companies have gathered there providing the Stockholmers with meat products. This area has a great need for cooling to supply large cold storages. To facilitate this, a central cooling system has been built, supplying the area with effective and safe cooling.The aim of this master thesis study is to give hints to energy efficient and reliable changes that can be put in place at a low marginal cost depending on the future activities in the area. The suggested changes will be presented to the company Bravida (managing the system), which also desires a deeper understanding of the energy flows through the central cooling system.Firstly visiting the site with proper guidance, we have then tried to understand the function of the system including which machines and media that are used.

A helicopter based system equipped with a millimetre-wave fire control radar is studied for improvement of the detection probability for moving ground targets. The system is a pulse doppler radar that sends out the electromagnetic wave in repetitive pulses. The frequency in which radar sends this pulse is called Pulse Repetition Frequency (PRF). The velocity of the moving targets is measured by spectral analysis of the pulses received. With this sort of system some targets will not be possible to detect.