The world is changing and the business context is no exception. One of the clearest tendencies is a tougher business climate with harder competition due to increased international trade and the expansion of the e-business. At the same time the customers are becoming more sophisticated and demanding. The last decades have also meant that tougher and more frequent demands are being aimed at the businesses from a wider variety of stakeholders; demands regarding how environmental issues, social responsibilities and business ethics should be dealt with. All of the above have driven companies towards implementation of different management systems to be able to cope with the demands as well as to ensure that these issues are being dealt with in an efficient and effective manner.

This study aims to investigate how small scale manufacturing companies reason around an implementation of a PLM-system, as well as the suitability of these systems compared to larger companies. The study is built on a qualitative method. Initially, secondary data was gathered through books, articles and reports. Primary data was gathered through four interviews. Two interviews were performed with PLM resellers, one interview was performed with a PLM developer, and one interview was performed with a small scale manufacturing company that opted to not implement a PLM-system.The results imply that overall differences between larger and smaller companies exist in regard to the need of PLM systems.

Today most ice rinks in Sweden use secondary refrigeration systems with a solution of calcium chloride and water as secondary refrigerant. Due to the large amount of energy such a system uses more efficient systems would be desired.An earlier study concluded in the possibilities of using carbon dioxide as secondary refrigerant with copper tubes as the loops in the ice rink. Since then 3 ice rink refrigeration systems has been built with carbon dioxide in copper tubes. Excluding the ones being direct involved in those projects there is still very little knowledge about how these system works. This study has been made primarily with the aim of adding to the knowledge concerning availability and cost and secondary to look at possibilities for improvement.A comparison between systems with carbon dioxide, calcium chloride respective ammonium solved in water has been made by using Decision Matrix.

The ÅF Group is a leader in technical consulting, with expertise founded on more than a century of experience. They offer highly qualified services and solutions for industrial processes, infrastructure projects and the development of products and IT systems. They are also one of the leading names in certified third-party testing and inspection work.Today the ÅF Group has approximately 4,000 employees. Their base is in Europe, but their business and clients are found all over the world.A part of ÅF-Engineerings business is programming different automation systems to clients. Another part is support in both telephone and personal visits.Because the number of clients is high and the flora of different automation systems is big the consequence is that the employees must have access to many licenses with programming tools.

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, OTEC, is a sustainable energy conversion technology that is not yet commercialized. OTEC is a technology that utilizes the temperature difference in oceans between the warm surface water and the cold water at 1 000 m depth to run a Rankine Cycle. This technology can produce electricity and provide synergies like fresh water, air conditioning and aquaculture. A simulation program for three alternative OTEC systems has been created in order to decide which OTEC system is most profitable; closed, open or hybrid system. In this simulation a production cost analysis is performed in order to investigate and decide which one of the three systems that has the lowest production cost. The production cost analysis also analyzes if the profitability is affected by the size of the facility. After these analyzes, the most profitable of the three different OTEC-systems is expanded by an installation of solar collectors in order to see if the thermal efficiency is improved. The result shows that the most profitable system varies with the size of the facility.

In inhalation anesthesia life-support systems are used to provide gases to the patient and to monitor important parameters. These systems are used in dynamic and stressful situations where the information-load on the operators often is significant. This thesis presents a design concept of an anesthetic system. The design goal has been to keep the information-load on the operator low with the objective to minimize confusion and error.A number of contextual inquiries were made in the operating room during surgery at four hospitals in Sweden. The goal was to understand the actual use-situations when anesthetic systems are employed.

Modern IT systems tend to become more and more complex, while the number of active systems in companies increases. Furthermore, the number of security-related incidents is at an all-time high. These new conditions impose new demands on organizations. For example, it is no longer possible to manually collect and examine the systems log messages.The purpose of this thesis has been to make a comprehensive study of solutions for automated collecting and managing of log messages, analyze the Swedish Armed Forces specification for solutions for central log collection and management, and evaluating exis- ting solutions. The work consisted primarily of literature studies and evaluations of two of the Swedish Armed Forces of selected products: NetIQ Security Manager and Splunk.

Relationship marketing is an important part of the new view of communication strategies. The theories around this subject has a general and global perspective on how to manage relations and communication problems. But somehow the local perspective is forgotten. In this thesis we have focused on the local market and which demands it has on the work with relationship management. The purpose of this thesis is to find out how relationship marketing can contribute to create a high valued brand on a local market.

This essay deals with the subject of communication through Facebook. In this survey we studied 100 youths from Karlstad and their communication habits and behavior patterns on Facebook. The social network site Facebook has since its start in 2004 made a mark in modern communication. Today in 2010 the site has more than 500 million users. This paper wants to study what happens to other types of communication.

The purpose of this literature review was to investigate how the rearing systems influence the behaviour of dairy calves. Calves are social animals that form groups within the herd where play and social licking between calves are important social activities. Suckling is a complex behaviour and essential for the calf's survival. In the modern rearing systems the calf is usually separated from its mother soon after birth. Calves are then kept in individual pens, group pens or, more rarely, with a foster cow.

Sweden is considered to have one of the world's highest animal welfare standards in agriculture. Despite this, there are shortcomings in animal husbandry. One example is overcrowding, which is a way to increase stock size without making costly investments in the buildings. It can be carried out systematically to increase profitability or due to, for example uneven calving during the year. The European Commission criticizes the fact that stocking density is not controlled under Swedish welfare inspections.

Is the new technology always the best? This final project tries to determine if BIM is the melody of today, or if traditional 2D drawing is recommended. Perhaps a compromise is necessary, utilizing both methods.In order to answer this question, different views from the industry have been retrieved through reports, producers of software and users. The approach has consisted in building a 3D model of the school Råslättsskolan, house 01, along with interviews with people involved in the building process.When working in 2D it is hard to include the third dimension, mistakes are done and collisions happen that must be corrected, in most cases at the construction site. BIM is an incredible help since the model allows you to detect collisions and correct them.

This master thesis examines the development of the two earlier independent IR protocols Z39.50 and SR (Search and Retrieve, ISO 10162/10163), now Z39.50/SR, from the beginning of the 80s to 1996 and their functionality in the client/server environment.Z39.50 applications in library systems will allow easy access to information regardless of platform or location. The use of Z39.50 will create a new user environment. Almost all the library systems of the market support the Z39.50 and surprisingly the use of it in Sweden lied on a very low leve! in 1996. This thesis was followed-up by an interview and a questioner among the Swedish Z39.50 users. They could see a huge potential of development concerning the future IR process.

The background to this thesis is the impact of information technology on libraries and librarywork. If information technology causes changes in the tasks and work of libraries, thenlibrary organisations should also change. It is important to engage and inform the staff if suchchanges are to succeed. This thesis investigates the notions about library tasks and librarywork among eight "middle-managers" at Linkopings universitetsbibliotek.The investigation is based on interviews and then analysed with Soft Systems Methodology(SSM). By identifying the "Weltanschauung" of the staff, the thesis tries to create logicallydesirable and culturally feasible models of systems relevant to the situation at Linkopingsuniversitetsbibliotek.

The implementation of large IT-systems is a complex area where many aspects have to be taken into account.KSU, Kärnkraftssäkerhet och Utbildning AB, is a small company in the Vattenfall group that is increasingly being urged to implement SAP, one of the largest ERP-systems on the market. Vattenfalls purpose with SAP is to centralize certain processes within economy that are common to all the companies in the group, this to gain benefits with economics of scale. However, KSU is not convinced that SAP is a suitable system and that the common processes apply to them.The purpose of this degree project is to investigate if SAP is a suitable system and if KSU will benefit from a transition to SAP. Three perspectives were applied to further specify important areas of the main question. From a technical point of view KSU:s demands on a system was mapped against SAP.