One of the most distinguishing features of contemporary globalisation is production fragmentation, a splitting up of the manufacturing of a good into several different stages. Production fragmentation creates new opportunities through vertical specialization; a country incapable of mastering the entire production process may specialize in the manufacturing of one separate part. The aim of this thesis is to examine to what extent international integration affects a country?s ability to engage in vertical specialization in an industry characterized by production fragmentation. The analysis focuses on the european integration process over the last decade, where countries in eastern Europe with relatively low labour costs have been integrated with more capital abundant western economies.

Title: Bottleneck management through materials administration Course:  4FE05EAuthors:  Mikael Karlsson and Johannes Mueller  Examiner: Helena ForslundKey words:  Bottleneck management, material management, process description, timber, proceduresPurpose:   The objective of this study is divided into three parts, all three parts of the purpose aim for the same goal. Namely, to improve the material management so that this enables the bottleneck in the planing mill to keep a continuous  flow, and thereby minimizing the risk for production stops at LB-Hus.  Part.  1:  Identify  and  analyze the material management  connected to  the planing mill  in order to identify problem areas.Part.2:  Identify  improvement potential  in the material management connected to the planing mill.  Part.3: Suggest improvements in the material management connected to the planing mill. Theoretical framework: Process mapping, inventory accounting, balance safety, inventory availability / service levels, safety stock and reorder point, forecasting and routine descriptions.Empirical foundation:  Interviews carried out at LB-House,  illustrated with the help of process maps and a description of each process.  Conclusions:  To work with  the  suggestions  given  and  to  follow  clear procedures  in  all  processes would  result in  a more  efficient  inventory management,  it would also present  a  solution  to  the problem regarding the planing mill being a bottle neck.Suggestions for further research: Review and map the information flow from demand to production start.

Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) is not considered to be a native species to Swedish forests. It´s origin is the pacific coast of Northern America, an area that is dominated by a coastal climate which makes it likely to believe that it would be well suited for growing in the south-west of Sweden. This study aims to investigate the gain in production that can be reached by growing sitka spruce instead of Norway spruce (Picea abies) in the county of Halland. A regression model based on data from forest experiments was produced to explain the gain in production. This model was based on elevation and annual precipitation. The model was then used to create a map layer in arcGIS that shows the gain of volume in comparison to Norway spruce in percent. An analysis was carried out to find what share of the forestland in Halland county that fell into four different classes of production gain.

Many companies do not register all the stops that occur in a production plant, it often takes longer to report than to fix the problem. If no problems are registered, you cannot trace where the problems arise.This master thesis was performed at AcobiaFLUX and they have noticed an increased demand from their customers to trace problems raised in their processes. The aim of the thesis was to find out how a tool to monitor a process best could be developed. Then the most essential from the theoretical base was developed into a useful tool for operators. For the operators to know if the process utilizes the full capacity of a process, the tool presents a measure of the Overall Equipment Efficiency, OEE.

Drinking water from drilled wells has a high content of iron and other minerals in many places in Sweden. Questions about the association between the quality of drinking water and the health of dairy cows are regulary asked both by advisers and dairy farmers. There are so far not many studies published about the relevance for high iron content in water and dairy cow health and production. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate if there is a connection between the iron content in water and the health of dairy cows. Initially a literature study was made about iron and it´s function in ruminants.

This paper is about the new methods and metrics used in industry and business today striving for better revenues and larger market shares. It investigates the relations between the old fordistic and tayloristic way of manufacturing and compares it to the models used in industry today for being competitive, seeking to please customers and becoming more flexible. More specific the paper is about if Six Sigma and lean production are the key for succeeding these days. SKF:s factory in Gothenburg and other companies will make an example for how these methods are used in practice.The aim is to try to answer if these systems with inherited tools and methods are the right way to get the flexibility that is needed for being able to deliver the right goods to customers and market. For a company to be flexible decisions must be made fast and needed changes must be able to be done easy and without too large costs and investments.

The purpose of this report was to compare Lilluns egg production with other Swedish egg producers based on the flow of nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) in the egg production systems. The main focus in the report was the utilization rate of the forage and the excess of nutrients per kg egg. Additionally, the purpose was to identify the environmental impact from Lilluns egg production and compare the results with other egg producers. The inflow of nutrients associated with forage and poultry was compared with the nutrients that were exported from the production. All of the egg producers in this study had an excess of nutrients.

E-Series 450 is a chainsaw designed by Husqvarna AB to the semi-professional user. Husqvarna is a world leader when it comes to chainsaws, trimmers, lawn mowers and garden tractors. The problem in hand can be addressed by the question. ?How easy can we start a chainsaw? The purposehas been to provide a solution to the question above and give Husqvarna a good base of which they can continue towards a finished product.

Detta examensarbete handlar ?Verklighetstrogen Effektskomposition?. Målet med arbetet är att undersöka och utnyttja alla de olika aspekterna som gör att en film med specialeffekter känns så verklighetstrogen som möjligt. Arbetet handlar om de olika delarna i en filmproduktionsfas så som pre-production,production och post-production. Filmen som skapas är en specialeffektsbaserad hemmavideo som har som syfte att vara så chockande som möjligt i förhållande till vad man förväntar sig när man börjar kolla.

Sustainable beef and milk consumption. The consumption of beef and dairy products in Sweden is high. A lot of greenhouse gases are emitted from the production of these products. The production of beef in Sweden has decreased but the import has increased. The number of dairy cows has decreased while beef-production with suckler-cows has increased in Sweden.

Responsible production is a subject of increasing importance for companies toadopt and communicate to their environment and many companies choose to implementenvironmental ? and ethic considerations into their brand strategy. There is, however, adividing line between companies according to what extent they choose to implementresponsible production into their brand strategy and to which extent they choose tocommunicate it to their stakeholders and surroundings. It is the hypothesis about a dividingline that is the foundation for this essay and something we believed could be interesting forfurther analysis.The purpose of our essay is to find out how the brand strategy of a company is affected by theresponsible production and in what extent they communicate it to their environment. Byanswering those questions we hope to find out why some companies communicateresponsible production more actively than others.We have conducted in-depth interviews with the Swedish clothing companies; MariaWesterlind, Zion and Dem Collective and we have through our analysis reached interestingconclusions.

As demand for renewable energy is increasing rapidly, the market for biomass pellets is expected to continue to grow in the near future. Most of the new raw materials that are discussed for pellet production have one thing in common; the production costs will increase compared to using traditional raw materials such as sawdust and planer shavings. The aim of this thesis is to investigate to what degree increased use of new raw materials for pellet production will affect the general pellet prices in Sweden and to survey what plans Swedish pellet producers have concerning new raw materials. To investigate the raw material situation of the Swedish pellet producers an industry survey was performed. Literature studies were also made on previous research in the subject field. Calculations of the production costs for pellets were done for the raw materials sawdust, wet sawmill chips and energy wood respectively. New raw materials are already used by the large-scale pellet producers in Sweden.

The purpose of this study is to see a display on how family, gender and sexuality are produced in four same-sex parents? stories about their children?s pre-school start. The question formulations that have been used were aimed to find out what expectations and concerns parents may have on the pre-school organization, if the parents have any saying regarding the organization, if the pre-school have worked with equality and how they have been treated as a family. The method used is a qualitative study based on interviews. Four lesbian women have been interviewed on their experiences of their children?s pre-school start and after finishing the interviews the content has been analyzed from different viewpoints found in the material.

The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of activities, flows and waste in a company's production process. By performing a value stream analysis, non-value adding activities are identified in a production process and then the suggested improvements that can reduce lead times will be stated. The value-stream mapping identifies the flow of information and the flow of material in a production process and this provides the basis for the identification of non-value adding activities.We conducted the study at Lammhults Möbel AB in Lammhult Sweden, where the production flow of Spira-21 has been investigated. This to identify any non-value adding activities that affect the flow negative and consumes time and money in a non-value adding way.A reasonable approach for the project was taken by studying the methodologies and theories. We conducted interviews and site surveys at Lammhults Möbel AB where the flow of information and material in the production process were investigated.

This report is the result of a thesis work carried out on the Risifrutti production at the company Procordia Food AB. The thesis is at a master level and is the final work for the author to receive a Master of Science in Innovative production at Mälardalen University. The thesis comprises 30 credits and has lasted for 18 weeks. The thesis is mainly a research on whether it is possible to perform an Environmental Value Stream Map (E-VSM) in a food processing industry and an evaluation if the tools E-VSM and Green Performance Map (GPM) are useful in this type of industry. An extra part to this research is to use the results from the E-VSM and give Procordia Food AB information on improvement potentials in the Risifrutti production. The author has found it difficult to collect some of the quantitative data to the E-VSM, mainly regarding energy, but by using the Value Stream Mapping (VSM) tool and other Lean tools the author was able to identify and quantify several wastes in the Risifrutti production. Recommendations for improvements based on these wastes have been given to the company. In the research part of this report the utility of the Value Stream Map, Environmental Value Stream Map and Green Performance Map in a food processing industry have been analyzed. The author has found that the Value Stream Map has been a useful tool since waste and unevenness in the tact of the production has been identified. The Environmental Value Stream Map and the Green Performance Map are also great tools when a company wants to analyze their environmental impact and then invest in environmental improvements. However, no profound energy analyzes has been done in the Risifrutti production because of the lack of energy meters for steam, electricity and compressed air in the production lines..