Value stream mapping is a tool that is frequently used by many different companies. It is a great tool used to achieve the work that follows the theories of lean production. The tool is used, however, only frequent on the factory floor and the method is also designed based on this type of use.An interest of applying the method on administrative parts of the company has occurred lately. Administrative parts of the company refers to the part that does all the planning such as purchasing, receiving orders, customer contact, contact with factory floor and other work that is made around the actual manufacturing. But the knowledge about applying value stream mapping on the planning part of the company is lacking because the method is relatively new.In this work, a comparison is made between the introduction of value stream analysis on production and planning.

With a religious psychological perspective this paper focuses on how religion is communicated during an investigation, and how religion might include in the decisions and the implementation of committed honor killings. This study pinpoints the question if it´s reasonable to unilaterally declare honor killings with culture, which is based on a distinction between culture and religion. The study is done on a court case where the offender confessed to a murder that is categorized as a so-called honorable motives. The material consists of interrogation reports during the investigation and several notes written by the offender before the murder. With a broad definition of religion the text material is analyzed with the theory of attribution.

Within system development users have rarely been involved or received much attention during the development. Most of the times, the primary focus within system development lies on insuring functionality, rather than making the system usable. The literature specifies that a non user-centered approach can contribute to a product with low usability, which can lead to an ineffective and unsatisfactory experience for the end users.The purpose of this thesis is to begin an investigation to see if the use of non user-oriented system development methods is a possible cause of low usability in the final system.To achieve the purpose of this thesis, we have conducted a case study. Within the case study we examined the usability of a time reporting system. The case study included seven minor studies; an investigation concerning the development of the system, an expert evaluation of the system, interviews and observations of users, developed paper prototypes and executable prototypes, both which user testing was performed on.The result of this study shows that by working with user-entered methods, the usability in the time reporting system increased after the design had been revised.

The main purpose of the study is to investigate Sweden's four large banks, concerningrisk and return, to see if there are any differences between them. The paper will alsoinvestigate the following sub sections: are there any differences in how the banks havesucceeded in managing geographically targeted funds and if there are any differencesin how funds are performing according to the fund size.The study is based on a quantitative method and has a deductive approach. Theselection consists of all of the four banks Swedish and Nordic funds (according tomorningstar.se 's categories "Sverige" and "Norden"). The study is based on secondarydata gathered from sources such as Morningstar, Affärsvärlden, Dagens Industri andthe Swedish National Banks websites.Swedbank Robur has performed the highest results in the case of Swedish funds.Handelsbanken has performed the highest results in the case of Nordic funds and thetotal of all funds that are in the study. Based on the results of the study it was possibleto distinguish a link between fund size and the annual return. .

The purpose of this paper is to investigate what consequences the discussed Balken-case have had with regards to freeze-out prices decisions for cash bids. In order to evaluate this, a comparison with a previous study is made. Last but not least, the aim is also to see what kind of arguments the minority successfully can make use of in order to reach a higher freeze-out price nowadays. Underlying the results is basically an empirical survey based on arbitrations disclosing the tendencies after the Balken-case compared to before. The empirical investigation shows that practice has become more clear and uniform after the settlement of the Balken-case where a movement from theoretical values towards market prices is recommended.

There is an increase of financial integration, which can be seen in recent mergers of banks, financial institutions etc. in the European Union especially in the Nordic countries. However there are some weaknesses in providing consumers cross border services in the sector of banking, such as cross border bank account transfer of payments. The existing transaction costs do not encourage cross border services. Nevertheless a customer of a global or European bank can anticipate to be treated the same way in all of its branch offices inside the EU countries.

This essay is a case study about the Swedish Armed Forces during the years 1988-2004; when it transformed from a force constructed to meet an invasion, to an international force with the primary mission to help subdue conflicts around the world. The essay uses texts and documents to examine what happened between these years and to find out what drove that change.By asking the questions A) ?What happened between the years 1988-2004?? and B) ?What is the difference between the Armed Forces in 1988 and in 2004??, it is possible to also ask C)?Why did the Swedish Armed Forces change??.The essay is divided into three main parts; 1) a theory-part focused on three main theories of international relations: liberalism, realism, and constructivism, 2) a historical case study examining the evolvement of the Armed Forces during these years, and 3) a conclusions section that uses thethree theories of international relations to examine why this change happened.In examining the historical period and making conclusions about the differences between these years it was also necessary to construct a scale of military power, on which the historical case study is based..

The accounting of today results in reports that are valued according to one kind of value.There are advocates who recommend that the accounting should be expanded by one orseveral columns, which would enable that other methods of valuation could be used. In thisessay we examine how the ?multi column reporting? can alter the outcome of a financialanalysts? valuation procedure.In this essay we used existing theories about the financial analysts? usage of information toreach the lack of information we found and which we aim to erase whit this essay. To do thiswe studied decision theories and theories regarding information processing, and by interviewswith three financial analysts. After we collected the information needed for the analyses, wethen also compared the results of the interviews with related theories.The theories about decision in this essay concern whether a decision is based on rationality,bounded rationality or irrationality.

The ambition with this study is to look into and create an understanding for how an intranet can work as a support system in work processes in capacity as a source of knowledge. We want to enhance the understanding for which kind of knowledge that can be coded in and transmitted by an intranet, and which that is lost in this process. We also want to clarify what it takes to get this knowledge, in collaboration with the intranet, to support the work in an organization. It is a qualitative case study at a Swedish bank. It consisted of semi standardized, half structured interviews with five people in one of the bank?s local offices.

This report will point out the income for a scania plant production farm, this has been estimated through a case study. The outcome of this report will later be used to calculate a reasonable leasehold charge. This case study is solitary based upon this particular studied farm, at this very point, and can therefore not be used as a general guide. The reason why this particular scania plant production farm has been selected, is because the author is born and raised at the farm and has the intention to run the farm in the future. The chosen farm for this report is based in the southwest of scania and cover 300 hectare of plant production. The crop rotation consists of autumn wheat, sugar beats, spring wheat, spring barely, winter rape and fallow. The farm owns all machinery required.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how social workers, working in a management position in the health care system, perceive the encounter of the medical and social perspective. With seven qualitative interviews, the study tries to conclude whether or not social workers are accepted at managerial positions within the health care sector. The social worker is, as a manager in health care, a leader but at the same time in a professional alienation from the medical caregivers. Organizations in the health care sector are often multi professional and have their own long standing tradition, history and culture. The results show that the conditions for social workers, working in a management position in health care appear to be agreeable.

The objective of this study was to get a better understanding of how the cultivation methods influence the vitality in Prunus avium. The purpose was also to examine if there was any differences in shoot growth and trunk expansion depending on the method of cultivation. To find the answer to this question a literature study and a case study has been done. The literature study concerns the concepts vitality and stress. Different definitions of these concepts are shown and their connection whit establishment is explained. In the background the species Prunus avium, and the four method of cultivation that are included in this case study are described. Measurements of the shoot growth and trunk expansion were made in this study, and as a complement to these methods, a visual estimate of the vitality was made.

In a time of economic turmoil and financial crisis profitability matters rise higher and higher on company agendas. Many companies are pressured to find profitability to avoid layoffs or even bankruptcy. Profitability essentially depends on the margin on the product or service sold and the costs associated with selling these products or services and hence these areas are of vital importance if companies are to improve profitability. Previous research has focused, for the most part, on product profitability while customer profitability has received less attention. This study is based on a case study of a Swedish publishing house and aims to investigate how the company?s Cost-to-Serve varies between its distribution channels.

When a decision is to be made on what long term strategic forest management plan to use, consideration must often be taken to multiple objectives. Such decisions are very complex and a promising approach to handle them is by Multiple Criteria Decision Analyses (MCDA). The study is based on the problem that the MCDA that have been implemented into forest management planning have only had capacity to compare and evaluate a limited number of management plans; which means that there is a risk the most suitable plan is missed. The aim with this study was to test the applicability of combining the MCDA tools: the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for including consideration to multi-objectives into strategic forest management planning. The study was based on the process of creating and selecting a management plan, using Heureka PlanWise, suitable for all the major objectives found in the forest holdings of a municipality in northern Sweden.

In this Bachelor Thesis (20 p.), we present the history and development of "Intelligent Houses", and most important- explore some of the future possibilities in this area. The project has been carried out through an interdisciplinary cooperation between three different educations at the Blekinge Institute of Technology. By conducting a dialogue with various actors with different professions, we have been trying to identify needs within the concept of "Intelligent Houses", were the end user is not only the tenant or homeowner. Through Participatory Design methods, such as a Future Workshop, we have brought the users together to discuss their own and each others needs and hindrances in their respective work practice, and how intelligent house technology could improve their work conditions. We have also been testing a highly sophisticated CO/CO2/Moisture/Temperature/Enthalpy multi-sensor & controller, originally developed for regulating indoor climate systems.