The development of productivity in the construction industry has long been at a steady state compared to the manufacturing industry. Studies have shown that, amongst other things, waste on construction sites can reach up to one third of the total production cost. This has been observed from different aspects, and change is forthcoming.This thesis aims to provide a foundation for an increased productivity at production sites of building bridges. It is primarily based on a field study at Skanska, at a bridge construction site near Grängesberg. Via continuous interviews with the whole production crew, construction workers and management, information on interference and possibilities of improvement at the work site has been documented.

After the formation of the European Union internal market in 1992, member state specific obstacles and barriers were largely removed. This was especially the case in harmonised industries where standardisation and technical regulation have led to legal certainty. Despite this, a large range of trade regulation continues to remain distortional to trade, in addition to the ongoing tariffs and subsidies. The key trade regulations relate to a number of areas involving technical regulations such as production labelling and the protection of intellectual property rights. Whilst policy makers claim justification based around the need to correct market failure in delivering desired outcomes, the question is whether these regulations are appropriate responses to market failures or if they have simply been imposed in an attempt to protect domestic markets.

Problem. With the Swedish public sectors problem with efficiency in mind, several reforms have beeninitiated during the last decades. These reforms go, in academic contexts, under the name?New public management?. The reforms have resulted in, among other things, an increasedcompetition, privatization and goal-orientation in the public sector.

The Swedish market for vehicle inspection is re-regulated since June 2010. More than four years after the re-regulation there are eight companies in the market. Two of these companies are a result of the former monopolist's owners divided the business among themselves. The remaining six companies have entered the market through acquisitions or by building up their business from scratch, these are known as new entrants in the study. The competition has developed slowly and the former monopolist still has the highest market share.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate possible reasons Sweden might have had to motivate the start and end of its nuclear program during the Cold war. This investigation will be conducted using a qualitative research method and making a comparison between the theories realism and liberalism?s ability to explain the decisions. The question this paper is based upon is as follows: Can Sweden?s creating and shutting down of a nuclear weapons program during the Cold war be explained by the international events and actions that were taking place during this time period? The result consists of liberalism pointing out several failures on the international level that might explain the cynical decision from Sweden to create the nuclear weapons. Realism considers the decision to make perfect sense at this point in time, to protect Sweden on the anarchy that was going on at that time according to this theory.The ending of the nuclear weapons program is being explained largely by the rise of the MAD-concept which renders the acute need of nuclear weapons in Sweden void.  Liberalism on the other hand considers this a logic step due to the better established UN that is playing a larger role now than in the 1940s. In conclusion, realism does a better job explaining the start of the nuclear weapons program, while liberalism explains the end of it more efficiently. The contribution this thesis has to the research of political science can be seen mainly in three areas.

The construction of an identity among lesbian women during 1950-­?1965 is in focus in this master ?s thesis. My starting point is that identity, such as lesbian or any other identity, is formed in relation to other people and groups, as well as society. This thesis will also examine how lesbian women met and formed bonds with like-­minded, and whether these aspects changed, during the defined time period. The empirics is made up by letters written by women to Riksfo?rbundet fo?r sexuellt likabera?ttigande (a Swedish organisation for lesbian and gays) as well as an interview with two lesbian women who were born in 1938 and 1940.

The Swedish healthcare systems have over the past decades experienced a major reorganization that involves reduction of costs and cuts due to the financial problems that the public health system faced. Healthcare was criticized because it was considered to be bureaucratic and inefficient (Funck, 2007). The solution to this problem was to focus on other measures rather than the economic measures, such as modernizing the healthcare instead of cutting down. Implementing a balanced scorecard in a public sector as a hospital, perceived as failures. This is due to several factors such as communication, knowledge and expected time are not taken into consideration when implementing the scorecard.

If Swedish companies are to compete with companies in low-cost countries they have to achieve a more efficient production. The purpose of Total Productivity Maintenance (TPM) is to increase the company's profitability by increasing the productivity. TPM is a method that involves all employees and aims to prevent failures in order to increase the availability of existing equipment.The aim of this paper is to evaluate the implementation process of TPM and give recommendations for the further implementation process. The conclusion and the analysis are based on a case study done at a production department at ABB Cewe-Controls facilities in Nyköping. The case study consists mainly of qualitative data from participation observations, surveys and interviews.Commitment of the management is a key factor in the implementation process of TPM.

Abstract Contemporary cities find themselves today in a fierce competition against other cities over company establishment and in -migration. In this competition, the city?s main objective is to become an attractive site of capital accumulation.  As this happens, the pressure on the vulnerable groups in society increases, leading to a social geographic polarization. I have examined how the shift towards neoliberalism has affected a city on the fringe as Kalmar. How is the postindustrial urban space constructed? I found this important to analyze since it put two important questions in the light: For whom, and for which purpose do we build the city today? My questions have been:v  What are Kalmar municipality?s strategies to develop Kalmar?v  What are the results of this strategy in the urban space?v  What are the consequences of this strategy?The research has been a case study of the city of Kalmar with a qualitative deductive approach where David Harvey?s theories about the city in a capitalist system have been the underpinning structure.

This is a 20 points graduation thesis, performed at the Department of Urban and Rural Development at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala. The main aim of this thesis is to examine what it is like to combine studying with working and starting your own company. Furthermore, I want to be able to convey this knowledge to others. An important part of being a landscape architect is informing people, and making rather abstract issues tangible. The word 'entrepreneur' is originally French. Today, we think of entrepreneurs, or contractors, as energetic people, who dare to try new ideas. There are many reasons why people start their own company, but the most common ones are the wish to fulfil oneself and to be able to plan one's own time.

Background and discussion of the problem: In the staffing company business a unique situation exists because of the three part relation between the staffing company, the users of the staffing companies? services, and the consultants employed by the staffing company. To over bridge the conflicting objectives of the staffing company and the consultant incentive systems are designed. Research question: What effects on the consultants? effort direction do the staffing managers expect of the formal or informal incentive system? Method: The authors have found that a suitable method for the thesis is a survey study.

Mechanical relays are more and more being replaced with semiconductortechnology. In this thesis it is investigated if and how the larger loads couldbe controlled by transistors. The main part of this work aims to create andverify a solution that can control the starter motor, as well as protect it incase of any failure. The different malfunctions that the solution protectsagainst is high current, too high peak current, low current, maximum cranktime and minimum cool off time. The timers also protect indirectly againstoverheating of the starter engine.The transistors used are BTS555, from Infineon.

BillerudKorsnäs is a leading global provider of primary fiber-based packaging materials and on Gruvöns Bruk in Grums, they have chosen to invest millions in the boiler at the facility to increase the total capacity of the factory. This results in the Pulp Flash Dryer at Gruvön being burden more, which makes it important that it is of great reliability and can be run with a high capacity. The reliability of the Pulp Flash Dryer at Gruvön is not as good as one could hope, which leads to reduced availability and production, as well as to increased maintenance costs. There are a number of different reasons for this, but all the casual links are not known.The purpose of this project was to perform a system analysis of the Pulp Flash Dryer to identify bottlenecks and the most critical parts from a capacity- and availability perspective. Appropriate methodology for the system analysis was used and would be used in a structured way to perform the analysis with data from the process and the maintenance system.

The complex, ever growing and changing environment, requires that today's organizations are dynamic and willing to change in order to stand competitive.This awareness has made change number one priority in almost all organizations' agenda.We live in a world that is constantly changing, yet many organizations fail to change successfully. When a change occurs in complex environments with multiple stakeholders, it immediately increases the complexity and the challenges of the change process.A complex situation may arise when, for example, partial outsourcing of the corporate information system infrastructure. Two of the most difficult challenges that organizations face today is to conduct a successful change process and managing the effect of a change, such as arising expectations. It is very common for change in an organization not to achieve the desired result or that they even fail. There may be a lot of reasons for these failures.

Due to the globalization today the competition in the market has in- creased and it requires flexibility and produce according to customer demand. In order to reduce the cost of wages industrial companies are now considering moving the manufacturing to low-cost countries. To keep up with the competition in the market without moving the manu- facturing abroad, Lean Automation was developed. The concept of Lean Automation is to reduce the perceived complexity with automa- tion and make automation available for new users and in new applica- tions.Haldex Brake Products are situated in Sweden and want to maintain the manufacturing of the automatic brake adjusters in the country. It is a product well-known and highly exposed to the competition in the mar- ket.