In an ever more competitive environment Sandvik Materials Technology,SMT, runs a large-scale program to improve their processes for product development.The purpose with the program is to increase the company?s profitability by increasingthe number of new products in their product portfolio. The strategies SMT is usingfor reaching their goals are to change the way they work with product development byreducing lead time and learning how to prioritize products with the highestprofitability. In the R & D Department the work of improvement pursue by adaptingLean R & D to their way of working. Lean R & D encourages working withcontinuous improvements and eliminating waste.The main purpose for this Master?s Thesis is to develop didactic support to make iteasier to implement Lean in SMT R & D department.

The purpose of the study is to see how four teachers at a school look at the reception and approaching of newly arrived pupils.How do the interviewed teachers describe the school´s reception of newly arrived pupils? How do teachers in preparatory and regular class see at the selected school's reception and treatment of newly arrived pupils?To get answers to my purpose, I have done an ethnographic study called field study and I am using qualitative interviews, and one passive observation. To arrive at a result of my study, I have processed collected data from interviews and Observations and coupled the collected material to the theories and previous research. I have in my study used both pedagogical and sociological theories.The results of my study show that it would be difficult for newly arrived students to be placed directly into the ordinary class, the results also show that newly arrived students receive a safe and stimulating start to their school and class preparation. However, there are shortcomings and resistance of the trajectories leading to entry of the preparatory class of ordinary class, but when newly arrived students have started in an ordinary class, students receive a stimulating teaching.

Nuclear power plants existences have been well debated since the 70s (Swedish radiation safety authority, 2014). Accidents, risk and presence connected to nuclear power plants have been part of many studies around the world. Recent studies have shown a connection between prices of houses and the distance and presence of nuclear power plant in a surronding area of the house. This paper uses Hedonic price modelling to investigate the willingness to pay for an increased distance to the Swedish nuclear power plant, Forsmark. For the dependent variable selling price was used and the independent variables were number of rooms, living area, other area, lot size, selling year, building year and distance to Forsmark.

The aim of this thesis is to describe and evaluate the usability of two Swedish systems, Sofie and Carlotta, which are used to organize and present data regarding museum objects on the web. This thesis also presents how objects are described and made accessible to the public in the two systems. To evaluate the usability, a heuristic method combined with Systematic Usability Evaluation has been used. The description and accessibility of object representations in the systems are evaluated using indexing and classification theories from the field of Library and Information Science. Additional theoretical background that has been used is how users search and browse information systems.

This study deals with play and the importance of meaning of play in the learning process. The aim is to look in to and analyze four preschool teacher´s beliefs and views about the importance of play for children´s learning and development. The study looks at two different preschools, one based on Reggio Emilia- and the other on Montessori- pedagogy, and the aim is to compare the different views and ways of working that the preschool educators have.The theoretical basis for this study is both rooted in a socio-cultural and constructivist perspective, and deals with the relationships between theoretical concepts mean as play, learning, way of working and pedagogy.The study is based on qualitative research methods that consist of interviews and participant Observations. The person?s participants in the study consisted of four active preschool educators, who work in two different preschools.The results of the investigation show that the educators have similar views on the importance of play for the children´s learning process, and this also applies to their way of working.

 We have chosen to write our thesis within a transport company. The work was carried out at DHL activities in Uppsala. DHL is one of the leading transport companies worldwide. Our interest lies in more efficient and advanced transportation and terminals, as globalization and new trends require effective solutions.The aim of our work is to explain the need for information technology applications in road haulage and associated terminal operations. Furthermore, we analyses terminal and applied information technology.

 We have chosen to write our thesis within a transport company. The work was carried out at DHL activities in Uppsala. DHL is one of the leading transport companies worldwide. Our interest lies in more efficient and advanced transportation and terminals, as globalization and new trends require effective solutions.The aim of our work is to explain the need for information technology applications in road haulage and associated terminal operations. Furthermore, we analyses terminal and applied information technology.

The aim of this report is to analyse the logistics of a medium sized restaurant and give an overall solution for improvements on the restaurant's logistics. The restaurant of interest belongs to Laponia Hotel and is located in Arvidsjaur, Sweden. Investments for over 100.000 Euros are planned for the hotel, which includes a reconstruction of the restaurant. The details on how the restaurant will be reconstructed are not yet known. I therefore chose to analyse the problemin general terms and find a solution that is focused on the logistic system itself rather than its layout.

This paper investigates how students in the humanities in four universities in Sweden reflect on their education and the current view on the humanities as an education and a science. I want to investigate what impact the past few years public debate about the humanities have had on the students. What kind of beliefs and identities do the students of the humanities form and how do they discuss the universities, the choices they made in life and how do they feel about the future.This study is based on interviews with seventeen students in Sweden from four different universities. The research is also based upon a report that The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Näringsliv) published in 2011 and the debate following that report. I have also made participant Observations on the four universities to make a broader description for the reader.

This thesis studies private equity firms' implementation of management control systems in their portfolio companies and whether the systems are affected by cross-national differences. A comparative case study examines five different private equity firms to derive if there are any differences between the private equity firms' management control systems in the United States, Europe and China. The empirical Observations are categorized according to the framework developed by Merchant (1985) and further developed by Merchant and Van der Stede (2003). Theory on the effect of multinationality on management control systems, also developed by Merchant and Van der Stede (2003), are used to explain possible findings. The applied theory includes the cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede (1984) and Hofstede and Bond (1988).

The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions of leadership and gender issues circulat- ing in Womentor leadership development programme, and to have a discussion around what conse- quences they may have on participants' careers. To answer the question I have used a qualitative approach in the form of 10 interviews and non-participant Observations. The theories in this study are based on gender and leadership issues.The problem which forms the basis of this study is the underrepresentation of women at senior posi- tions. A basic assumption in this study is that notions of gender and leadership affect the individual's ability to act. The circulating concepts identified in Womentor are: The leader who wants to be a manager, The leader who gets things done, The communicative leader, Change leader, The motiva- tional leader and The leader as a role model.

"Outstanding" or "They ought to know more about computers" : A study on computer support at university libraries.The main purpose of this study is to investigate the support computer users are given at university libraries. Further, the aim is to find out if the users thought they received the support that they needed. The study is carried out at two different university libraries. The data is obtained through interviews with the librarians, Observations of the daily work at the information counters and questionnaires handled out to the users.The study indicates that variables such as knowledge, time and equipment play a central role in making the computer support successive. To a great extent the computer support is synonymous with information search, but it also deals with word processing and technical support connected with computer errors.

The Swedish Warmblood riding horse is a popular horse for sport in Sweden, and the breeding goal is to produce competitive horses in both show jumping and dressage. The breed has its origin in native Swedish cavalry horses but has been highly influenced by foreign stallions throughout the years. Breeding values are estimated based on the results from young horse field test, which are held for 3- or 4-year old horses, and competition data. The young horse field tests are highly correlated with later performances in competition. The total proportion of horses with own Observations to include in the genetic evaluation are slightly under 50 %, and in most cases their pedigrees are known.

The aim of this thesis is to examine how teachers use computer based assessment in their work and what user barriers they experience while working with computer based assessments. The result of the thesis is meant to provide an understanding of which factors affect the use of computer based assessments and how a company who provide computer based assessments applications can increase the rate of use amongst teachers.To investigate this, the author examined a company in Sweden who provide a computer based assessment application for both universities and high schools. The study was carried out at two different schools, a university and a high school, both located in Stockholm. In total nine teachers were interviewed. The author also conducted Observations at the company whose computer based assessment application was examined.The author?s findings suggest that a lack of functions within the application and lack of costumer support from the company all negatively impacted the teacher?s use of the application.

This study investigates and evaluates a project called "Hisnande historier: från Bellman till Batman". "Hisnande historier" is composed to stimulate childrens literacy and it is directed towards pupils in the fourth class. The project is a co-operation between public librarians and compulsory school representatives in the municipality of Ystad. It contains visits by an author and exercises in reading and writing. We have been following the project during autumn 1998 at two schools in Ystad.