Demand has become increasingly difficult to forecast in today?s volatile markets. Being able to produce towards real demand is becoming vital for companies, since inventories of finished goods are expensive to maintain and because miscalculated products tie up capital that in the end is never repaid. More and more companies are using postponement strategies to delay the process of producing until real demand has become known. Tooling Support Halmstad is a company within the manufacturing industry, which has become aware of the benefits with postponement strategies for parts of their production.

In today?s society more and more activities are digitalized. This means that everyone has to be able to use information and communication tools (ICT) in order to take part in the digital world, otherwise they will be left out of the digital community. There is a so called digital gap between for instance elderly and young people, where elderly do not know how to use the tools and there for cannot gain access to the digital society. What happens when people, not only grow old, but also have a communication disorder, such as aphasia? How are they included? The purpose of this study is to investigate whether or not surf pads are good tools for bridging the digital gap for people with aphasia, and which activities and situations that encourages people with aphasia to work with the surf pad.

The purpose of this study has been to explore the expectations of the primary school on the activities of the pre-school. In order to limit the study I have chosen to compare the expectations found in two different schools. In the first case, the pre-school is integrated with the after-school centre and grade one to three (primary school), into the same building. In the other case, the pre-school share localities with the after-school centre in a separate building, with its own yard, within the primary school area. Since the purpose is rather comprehensive, it has been divided into sub-themes with separate set of questions.

This study investigates the effects that commercial computer games have on young individuals social comfort and learning progress. As a systematic study of literature, scholarly articles have been analysed in order to illuminate the positive as well as negative effects on social comfort and learning progress that may come with playing computer games. The social effects have mainly been discussed with role-playing games, such as World of Warcraft, as starting point, while the learning effects have been coupled with strategy games, such as Civilization IV. The study does not simply declare how these games can be good for these factors, but also in what respect computer games may prevent the development of young individuals socials skills and learning progress. The study showed that in spite of perpetual prejudices against computer games in the technological age, computer games might actually be good to use as a tool in order to authorize the development of young individuals regarding learning and social aspects.

In order to get a better understanding of the interaction between employees and their technical work tools one needs to know what factors influence the interaction. The purpose of this study was to examine if there is a correlation between the personality traits Extraversion (E) and Neuroticism (N), tested with Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI), and experience of the new Intranet among employees at The Swedish National Transport Administration (SNTA), and also to gather information of employees? opinions about the new Intranet. A survey, containing questions about the Intranet and a personality test (EPI), was posted on SNTA?s Intranet for eight workdays (N = 88, females = 53, males = 35).

I dagens konkurrensmässiga och bitvis turbulenta och komplexa miljö som företag befinner sig i är behovet av ständiga förbättringar inte bara i produkter och tjänster utan även processer centralt. Vikten av att arbeta med förbättringsarbete inom alla delar av ett företag är idag stor samtidigt som förändringstakten förmodligen aldrig har varit större. Lean tillverkning som först implementerades av Toyota har en mängd värdefulla verktyg i verktygslådan och ett av dessa verktyg är VSM. VSM har använts som ett ovärderligt verktyg för att identifiera förbättringsmöjligheter i form av slöseri, kvalitetsbrister och för att reducera ledtider med stor framgång främst inom repetitiv icke MTO-baserad tillverkningsmiljö. ABB Metallurgi är en ledande leverantör av systemlösningar för omrörning av metallurgisk smälta och stabiliseringsutrustning för valsverk.

This degree project focuses on the importance of being professional doing a job at the same time as being able to express one self in a professional way. The degree project also focuses on how the work as an environmental- and health inspector could be made easier by making the inspectors aware of their language and open to change. Finally the focus of this degree project lies on how positive contacts can be made with people despite them being informed of difficult or unwanted things.In order to get an overview of the inspectors? communication skills today the environmental- and health inspectors at the environment office in Laholm´s municipality were evaluated. The inspectors´ communications styles and languages were checked on the basis of the ?nonviolent communication model? by Marshall Rosenberg.The content and the result of this report were presented for the head of the environment office, the chairman of the committee and the participating inspectors in Laholm´s municipality.

To create a profitable and competitive business an important factor today is a well-functioning logistics. Through effective internal material flows effective logistics can be achieved. Unnecessary handling and movement of materials is a waste which affects the internal material flow. These wastes should be identified and eliminated as much as possible to improve the internal materials handling and through that achieve a more efficient business. At Fagerhults Belysning AB, where professional lighting systems are developed, manufactured and marketed, a new inventory has been built and changes in the assembly has been made during the past year.

The aim of this study has been to investigate students? understanding of fractions when they occur in the practical subject home economics. In order to investigate this, the learning study method was used. Learning study can be understood as a method to gain deeper understanding of what is learnt by students during a lesson to increase learning outcome.The variation theory framework has been utilized to analyze the results of this study. The object of learning was chosen to be addition of fractions bigger than one half when they appear in home economics.

For many companies, the Internet has revolutionized the relationship they have with their customers concerning costumer service. The use of Information Technology in regard to Internet as a media has provided companies with the opportunity to build customer databases in order to target their customers individually. The airline industry was one of the first pioneers to use the full potential of Internet to improve customer relations and its profits which we aim to investigate in greater detail in our thesis.Our thesis answers the question on how Scandinavian Airlines' (SAS) Eurobonus department uses their website to create valuable and profitable relationships with SAS loyalty club members through direct marketing. In order to answer our research question, three key informants have been interviewed - each representing different sub departments at Eurobonus; service and support, IT and marketing. Our results were that the Eurobonus department use direct marketing methods by sending customized e-mail offerings to target specific customer, using their customer databases.

Kommunikation mellan företag sker idag i allt större utsträckning med hjälp av olika typer av elektroniska medel och för elektronisk handel mellan företag är det EDI som har den största potentialen till besparingar och förbättringar. EDI tillämpas främst vid order- och leveranshantering men i dagsläget sker en ökad användning av EDI i fakturahanteringen. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka vilka effekter EDI-användning i fakturahanteringen innebär för en verksamhet med fokus på sändandet av fakturor. Vi har gjort intervjuer på fyra företag som använder EDI i fakturahanteringen och frågorna som har ställts utgår ifrån vad teorierna säger om effekter av EDI-användning och elektronisk fakturering. Några slutsatser vi dragit från den empiriska studien är att elektronisk fakturering leder till bättre kundrelationer.

Objective To study if the Swedish venture capitalists consider business plans in their screening process, and in such case, what aspects they evaluate in order to develop a targeted template for Swedish entrepreneurs. A secondary objective is to describe what other factors Swedish venture capitalists evaluate as a part of their assessment. Methodology The method, which has been used in order to test the objective, has been carried out through extensive literature and article studies, interviews, and distribution of a short and comprehensive questionnaire to a multiplicity of venture capitalists throughout Sweden. Conclusion Generally, the findings of this thesis suggest that a business plan should include elements such as a summary of important elements, a thorough market analysis, financial information, exit strategy, and the risks associated with the project. The empirical material also reveals that venture capitalists also evaluate factors such as ownership influence, the entrepreneur?s industry knowledge, product knowledge and the personal chemistry in their evaluation process.

BackgroundToday a common approach to solve a complicated problem is to assemble a temporary workforce in order to solve the problem by working together within a project. One of the difficulties with working in projects is to maintain the planned budget. Working hours and costs are often exceeded. Many companies presume that any certain project will succeed, a presumption that leads companies not to anticipate risks involved in a project. In companies today there is seldom time for evaluation or moderation of a project, in order to have time for evaluation there is a great need for an adequate planning of the project.IntentThe intention with this study is to create a model for planning, budgeting and evaluation of projects within consultancy companies.MethodWith the help of interviews and discussions within the group Hamnar och Byggkonstruktioner at Sweco has evidence to present a proposal on planning, budgeting and monitoring been developed.ResultsA model has been developed to ease for consultancy companies to plan, budget, monitor and evaluate projects.

Women experience, in a vaster extent than men, unsafety in urbanpublic spaces. This is a structural phenomenon, based on unequalpower relations. The theoretical starting-point for my thesis is that howwe choose to express ourselves shape the ways we can think about andunderstand society. In my thesis I study depictions of safety in six ofMalmö city?s action plans and guidelines towards increased safety.

The aim of this master thesis is to investigate changes within four discourses identified in the curriculum material of the Swedish library education in Borås Bibliotekarielinjen dating from 1977 and 1985 and its successor Library and Information Science Biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap dating from 1995, 1999. My method used is a text analytic method primarily derived from the discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, yet with addition of tools from the critical discourse analysis of Fairclough. By identifying three floating signifiers within the material, i.e information, library, and librarian, and thereafter identifying their fixation, a pattern of resemblance and diversity in the fixating signs appeared between different courses of the curriculum dating from 1999. Hence I could establish an order of discourse consisting of four library discourses, a knowledge organisation discourse, a user discourse, a society discourse and a management discourse. Using this discursive order as a pattern, I could trace these four discourses back in time within the material dating from 1995, 1985 and 1977.