This degree project aims to evaluate alternative methods to the unanaesthetized castration of piglets. Castration of piglets is performed to prevent the development of boar taint. Boar taint can cause great financial losses for the pig manufacturer. Unanaesthetized castration of piglets is not regarded to be satisfactory from an animal welfare perspective and the procedure will for that reason be outlawed in the near future.Several alternative methods are used in countries all over the world with promising result. The purpose of this study is to evaluate if this methods could be applied in Swedish pig production.A literature study has been combined with interviews; field studies, questionnaires and a small study on male pig production.To be applicable to and applied in Swedish pig production the alternative method must be financially accepted by the manufacturers but also accepted from an animal welfare perspective.Castration is the only way to guarantee a meat free of boar taint.

Self-driving cars are soon to become a reality to the commercial market. A self-driving car does not have a human operator, which enables some interesting characteristics. The main benefits are considered to be:The number of accidents and traffic jams should be reduced.Enhanced comfort.Energy usage could be decreased while capacity could be increased.This study concerns the causes for improved energy efficiency. The reason for improved energy efficiency is mainly because of the variation in terms of acceleration, braking and distance holding are reduced. The vehicles are more intelligent and can work together as a unity.

In recent years it has become more and more evident that man has contributed to much of the climate changes that have taken place during the last century. A major challenge today is to reduce emissions and energy usage at the same time as the global population is growing. To contribute to a better environment, Stockholms Stad has set at target of becoming fossil fuel free by the year of 2050. The construction of new districts is done with this goal in mind; energy efficiency and renewable energy sources are examples of methods to achieve this.Solar energy is considered to be a sustainable energy source and the most common techniques to harvest solar energy in Sweden are solar cells and solar collectors which produce electricity and heat respectively. This report aims to investigate whether an investment in any of these systems would prove to be economically beneficial at Kvarnholmen, a district under construction in eastern Nacka, Stockholm.Since the finished blueprints only cover a small portion of Kvarnholmen, the report examines the possibilities for a house where construction has already begun, Nya Kvarnen.

Algal bloom is a naturally occurring phenomenon and occurs in all waters around the world but in recent years, algal bloom in the Baltic Sea has become more massive and more widely spread. When an algal bloom negative effects on the seawater quality, it may have an impact on tourism in the Baltic Sea. The aim of this thesis is to study, through a survey based on a production function approach, whether an environmental change as algal blooms, influenced the Gotland tourist accommodation industry and their "production of attractive overnight? in the summer of 2005. The results show that algal blooms did not have a great impact on companies ?production of attractive accommodations".

Volvo Penta has been producing boat engines since 1907 and are world leading in this seg­ment. They have today an extended range and also sell industrial power stations. Quality, safe­ty and environmental care are three core values for Volvo and together they strive to give their customers the right product with the right quality.Volvo has developed a production system named Volvo Production System, VPS, and one of the pillars is continuous improvements. Within this pillar you can find value stream map­ping, which is used to analyze the value stream through the process. This tool gives a wide perspective and helps to keep focus on the entire process instead of just parts of it.Volvo Penta in Vara has earlier done value stream mapping but without good results since they didn?t take set-up times and imbalances in account.

Since the end of the Cold War, foreign aid donors have been using political conditionality to promote human rights, democracy and good governance in recipient countries. This phenomenon has been analyzed and criticized, but mainly from a strictly empirical point of view. In this paper, the legitimacy of political conditionality is analyzed through a normative perspective based on the extrinsic value of efficiency. If the political conditions don?t result in a democratic development, including respect of human rights and good governance, they can not be justified.With at theoretical focus on the donors, based on the unequal relationship between donor and recipient, I am examining the donors? possibility and supposed will to use political conditions in development cooperation.

Societal expectations of responsible corporate conduct are currently a fact. It is manifested ina corporate need for limiting and managing external effects, such as environmental impact.An environmental management system is a tool for organizations to structure theirenvironmental work and increase their efficiency. Managing the corporate operations toaccommodate to environmental objectives requires an organizational understanding of theobjectives as well as the procedures. A condition for a successful implementation is the coworkers´ willingness to participate and collaborate.A study made on the co-workers attitude towards the ISO 9000 standard (i.e. qualitymanagement system) reveals that the earlier positive findings are not completely true.

Because of the increasing trends in energy consumption and increased environmental awareness, greater focus has been placed on improvement and development of renewable energy sources. An already proven and accepted method is biogas production from anaerobic digestion at municipal wastewater treatment plants.In the waste water treatment process solid material and dissolved pollutants are separated from the water, forming a sludge. The sludge is separated from the process and stabilized during anaerobic digestion or aerobic aeration. Most often, mesophilic anaerobic digestion is used. Because of degradation by microorganisms, biogas with a high content of methane is formed during the digestion.

Today there is a limited demand for quality certified cereal in Sweden. The demand can in the future increase and become a requirement for the entire market. Since the first of January 2005, grain producers in Sweden are food producers and traceability is important for the food industry. It is possible for grain producers to certify the productions under the certification IP SIGILL. The purpose of this essay is to explore why some grain producers continue to be certified while other producers end the IP SIGILL certification.

Background: During the 2000s, there has been an increased interest in studying business management and strategy implementation with customer focus in public organisations. To achieve business goals it is important to continuously work with strategies to meet customerdemands for increased efficiency and service. Purpose: The aim of the essay is to examine how to work on strategy implementation in a municipal real estate company from a management perspective in order to achieve overall goals. Method: The study?s methodology is a case study based on qualitative telephone interviews that were conducted with representatives in managerial positions from various levels of the company.

This study has investigated the possibilities of implementing lean in a division of a hospital in Stockholm. The goal was to reduce the lead time for the patient to get his diagnose by implementing lean in the two production flows of this division. In order to accomplish it, a complete map over the value stream has been done. With the help of the value stream map and lean theory a list over the processes in contradiction with lean has been made. Finally propositions to implement lean and by this way reduce the lead times in this stream have been made out.

The environmental assessment system Miljöbyggnad is a Swedish system initiated by Bygga-Bo-Dialogen to assess buildings with regards to three main areas; ?Energy?, ?Indoor climate? and ?Materials?. A building can obtain three different classifications depending on how well it manages to meet the demands. GOLD is the highest classification and is followed by SILVER and BRONZE. The majority of the measures needed to comply with the demands are done during the design phase.

The Swedish building contractor JMRegion Öst would like to to investigatethe possibilities of developing andstreamlining the production of singlefamilyhouses. JM are producing singlefamilyhouses with prefabricated framesat a rate of about two houses per week.During construction, the different tasksare performed by JM?s own productionstaff but also by varioussubcontractors.When examining the schedules of recentlyproduced projects, it appears that allthe houses are more or less completedeight weeks before the customer moves into the house. During those eight weeksseveral operations are conducted such asinspections, installation of appliancesand cleaning procedures. The inspectionperiod constitutes between 25 and 35% ofthe complete construction period.By conducting interviews, it has beendiscovered that this final phase is anessential security buffer for delays anderrors that often occur.

With new energy directives in place, the Swedish Social Service (SSS) stands beforethe challenge how to reduce the energy demand in its locales. It is a complex matter,as the locales are rented from various property owners and it becomes a question ofhow to reduce the operational electricity and influence the property owners to workmore with energy efficiency. This thesis takes a balanced research approach in threeparts. Firstly a qualitative part in form of interviews with personnel at the SSS and itsproperty owners, secondly a quantitative part of descriptive nature in form of energystatistics and thirdly a literature review of Energy Management (EM) Supply ChainManagement(SCM), Green Supply Chain Management(GSCM) and EnviromentalPerformance Indicators (EPI). This in order to be able to give normativerecommendations of how the SSS should act to reduce its energy consumption in itslocales and provide new insights on how EM, SCM, GSCM and EPI can be applied ineffect.

The purpose of this master?s thesis was to find problems that occur in the production line at Atlas Copco Rocktec Division, in order to decrease the costs of defect in quality. When the problems were distinguished, the authors ought to choose the problem with the highest improvement potential. One request from the constituent at Atlas Copco Rocktec Division was to connect the improvement to the document The Way We Produce. The document provides information and values about Atlas Copco and consists of 10 principles to be able to reach their vision.