Product development cycles become shorter and shorter. The time from idea to market has become an important competitive factor. Despite this, methods used for making the product development process faster are surrounded with uncertainty about their efficiency. The purpose of the thesis is to describe the pros and cons of ?best practice? methods for shortening lead times and how these methods effect the lead times in research and development.

Ocean Modules Sweden AB is a small business active in the field of underwater technology. Thecompany was contacted by the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration (FMV) in order todevelop a new system that would conform to their specific requirements. Two students at theRoyal Institute of Technology (KTH) were consulted in conjunction of this project in order to aidthe development and conceptual design of the system.The primary users of the system are the divers of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal division (EOD)- a branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. The purpose of the product was to incorporate allnecessary functions required by the EOD divers into one single system. The main functions arecommunication between the surface operator and diver, video recording, still imaging, positioning,navigation and ocean floor mapping with sonar.

Background: High demands are today placed upon Swedish elderly care nurses as more elderly live with multimorbidity while the hospital bed capacity is becoming lower. Aim: The aim of the study was to explore nurses? perception of decision-making in situations with acutely ill patients in nursing homes and which factors may influence the decision about transferring patients to the emergency department or not. Method: This is a qualitative study with a phenomenographic approach. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with 11 nurses working in nursing homes. The data analysis was based on Dahlgren and Fallsberg (1991) data analysis. Result: Three different description categories were presented, which describes variations of the nurses? perceptions.Feeling comfortable in making the decision; which involved the nurses feeling confident in the decision-making about transferring patients to the emergency department or not.Hesitant in making the decision; which described how nurses perceived the decision-making as problematic, with regard to transferring patients to the emergency department.Many wishes to consider in taking the decision; which explained how nurses? decision-making was influenced by requests from the patients or from people close to them.Conclusion:  The study reflected how  supporting and aggravating factors could influence how nurses in nursing homes perceived the decision-making and how nurses have to take in consideration different opinions concerning the decision making process of transferring patients to the emergency department or not.

Purpose of the study was to illustrate how emotional competence can be important for leadership and to explore the possibility of improving emotion perception ability after training. Participants in this study were 40 managers, divided into control and experimental group, within public administration. The participants implemented a data-based emotion perception test, which were done twice at every occasion, with intervention consisting of information or education between test- and retest. The result showed a clear improvement after intervention, in which no difference was found between control and experimental group, which has been discussed on the basis of the likelihood of a training effect occurred between test-retest. Conclusions about emotional competence or leadership ability could not be drawn from the results of the emotion perception test.

This thesis is based on an assignment from a unit within an international group manufacturing industrial products. The purpose of the thesis is to analyze and suggest ways to improve the cost accounting system in use at the unit. The main source of empirical data has been interviews with employees. The theoretical framework is based on a comparison between traditional/standard costing and activity-based costing (ABC). The cost accounting system in use is described in detail and classified as a traditional/standard cost accounting system.

The main aim of the study was to examine the importance of organizational climate for affective job-related wellbeing. A further aim was to investigate potential differences in employee level in the experience of organizational climate and wellbeing. Another purpose was to see if there was agreement in the view of the organizational climate among the employees. Questionnaires were collected from 44 employees at a chain store. Results showed that Integration, Involvement, Supervisory Support, Training, Welfare, Innovation and Flexibility, Goal Clarity, Efficiency, Effort, Performance Feedback, Pressure to Produce and Quality had a great influence on Enthusiasm but only Pressure to Produce and Welfare correlated with Anxiety.

The aimof this study is to contribute furthermore to understand the complexity of theprocess of learning to read and write in an inclusive environment. It focus on the syllableinstead of the phoneme as a unit in this process which is not the most common way ofdoing it. The report is based on a qualitative analysis of this task in pre-school and gradeone at a primary school in a small municipality.In the result, I have found, that the very structured working process and the diagnosticapproach helps the teachers to understand on what level pupils are at. The pupils whostart working this way in pre-school, feel safe knowing what is expecting from them andthey also learn from each other. All pupils in grade one have, before w 45 in autumnterm, very good letter knowledge and have learnt how to read words with two syllableswith a consonant-wovel-structure.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the managers? perspective on leadership in relation to the motivation of the employees by an example of a manning and recruitment agencies. This is implemented by framing of two questions; What kind of leadership can be identified by middle managers to motivate their employees? Which motivation factors are relevant to employees based on the perspective of the managers? To answer the question and identify leadership strategies and motivational factors and the relationship in between, we have conducted eight interviews with persons who hold a middle management position. Through a qualitative investigation we have been able to go into depth and had access to these managers reflections, thoughts and experiences.

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to describe the post-operative care during the three first days for patients who have undergone colorectal surgery according to ERAS care programs with a focus on the variables nutrition, elimination, activity, type of analgesia and the number of hospital days documented in the patient record and patient log books. ERAS means "Early Recovery After Surgery" and the purpose of the health care program is to accelerate recovery after colorectal surgery. The study had a descriptive design and a quantitative approach, in which 51 patient records were included. Log books and patient records were reviewed postoperatively. According to the log books estimated most of the patients, who had documented, that they ate and drank very good or good.

Aim: The aim of this study was to describe intensive care nurses? experiences communicating with patients during mechanical ventilation.Methods/design: A qualitative interview study. Interviews where analyzed using descriptive content analysisSetting: Nine intensive care nurses from two different intensive care units were interviewed using a semi structured interview guide.Background: Past research has shown that patients during mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit, feel very vulnerable and the helplessness of being unable to speak. These patients feels that they are completely dependent on the nurses and their competence. It has been shown to be very important that the patient feels included, acknowledged and respected.Results: The analyzed data resulted in a theme; through communication strive to preserve patients´ dignity and three main categories; create relationship to the patient, minimize patients´ vulnerability and don´t give up.

This thesis aims to describe the differences and similarities between a male dominated sector and a female dominated sector based on gender mainstreaming documentation as well as through interviews with people working within the sectors. The sectors that were chosen in this study were the fire department and the nursing and care administration of Växjö municipality. Both of the administrations? genders mainstreaming documents were subjected to content analysis in order to describe differences and similarities between the administrations. The analysis found that there were differences in approaches between the administrations were the nursing and care administration had aims of achieving a specified amount of men working within the administration, which the fire department didn?t have.

An important task for project managers in multi-project environments is to effectively choose the right people to the project team. For organizations, it means being able to prioritize and plan human resources among the various projects running in parallel. The purpose of this paper is to describe how a project manager in multi-project environments looks at the allocation of people in their projects. We did our research through literature reviews and interviews with seven project managers.The research shows that the studied organizations highlight both the expertise and the personal factors in an election. They do not use any specific personality test to identify their staff.

Drain water heat recovery is an uncommon measure in multi-unit residential buildings. There istechnology available for the purpose but the knowing and experience of the heat recovery systems islittle. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the future potential of drain water heat recovery inmulti-unit residential buildings.A major part of the multi-unit residential buildings in Sweden were built during modernismen andrekordåren (1940?1975). Many of the buildings have worn out drain and water supply systems andmany are in need of a general refurbishment.

This is a thesis report from SLU in Skinnskatteberg, the Swedish university of agricultural sciences. This study is an evaluation of a course in attitudes and behavior for participants of the ETT- project led by Skogforsk, the forestry research institute of Sweden. They do research for the benefit of Swedish forestry. The ETT-project is a project where there are both 74 tons ST-trucks and 90 tons ETT-trucks in test on the public roads. This study is concentrated on the ST-trucks and their drivers, company owners and logistics managers. The evaluation is done by interviews with the various participants.

Swedish studies have shown that more people than expected have problems with leg ulcers and that the yearly cost for treatment per patient is approximately 26 500kr. Since the elderly population is on the rise, there is a need to highlight this growing problem, to make sure that proper assessment tools are used and to improve the standard of care given to patients with leg ulcers. The aim was to show what a difference the nurse can make to patients with leg ulcers. With all types of wounds it is imperative to establish if there is any underlying reasons since certain illnesses can cause more wounds or delay the healing process. The doctor is responsible for making the diagnosis and to prescribe the correct treatment whereas the nurse?s responsibility is for the nursing care and its documentation.