Concrete is a very common construction material. It´s characteristics are strength, durability and formablility. Superplasticizer is a common admixture, which changes the properties of concrete. Today (spring 2007) there are no certian mathematical methods to calculate the required percentage of this admixture needed to give the necessary set slump flow in the overall concrete recipe. Concrete batching companies must therefor experiment with different amount of superplasticizer in order to meet the specified slump and strength. The purpose og this report is to investigate if any mathematical relation can be established between the amount of superplasticizer used and the slump flow achieved. After carrying out some practical experiments using four different superplasticizers a direct relationship can be establish between the percentage of admixture used and the slump/flowability achieved. Unfortunatly at present due to the numerous variables, the calculation of mathematical formula can not be achieved..

Treatment wetlands been showed efficient for reducing pollutant in waste water. In Lajeado ? RS, Brazil the landfill has poor leachate water treatment. It is necessary to supplement the treatment plant because they need to reduce BOD, COD and nitrate of the water going to recipient. A subsurface flow wetland (SSF) can be a good choice.  In order to be able to design an efficient SSF it is important to understand how the grain sizes of a substrate affect the reducing of pollutants in waste water.

Background: Mass customization has been identified as a competitive business strategy by both companies and academics because of its ability to incorporate the voice of the customer into companies? products and services. Although mass customization may sound appealing, the strategic concept is still developing and firms adopting this business strategy face several challenges. Production concerns are of high relevance since mass customization implies a high level of customer involvement in the product design. Since the areas are closely linked it is reasonable to ask how a mass customization strategy affects production concerns.

BakgrundSvensk sjukvård har idag bland de bästa behandlingsresultaten i Europa, men trots det förs diskussionen om sjukvården ofta i negativa ordalag. I ett försök att förbättra synen på verksamheten och bli mer effektiva har sjukvården i Sverige ofta använt sig av kommersiellamodeller, modellerna har dock behövt anpassas för att fungera i sjukvårdens miljö. En av de senaste kommersiella modellerna som nu införs i den svenska sjukvården är Lean Healthcare,som är sjukvårdens version av Toyotas produktionsfilosofi Lean Production. En stor del avtidigare forskning på området har behandlat Lean Production men lite finns att tillgå som handlar om Lean Healthcare. Den här studien är ett bidrag till att utöka kunskapen om Lean Healthcare i Sverige.SyfteSyftet med den här studien är att beskriva hur Lean-filosofin fungerar i den svenska sjukvården samt att göra en jämförelse mellan Lean Production och andra kommersiella modeller som tidigare har införts i den svenska sjukvården.GenomförandeMed hjälp av intervjuer på tre svenska sjukvårdsenheter har en fallstudie med fokus på Lean Production och Lean Healthcare genomförts.ResultatResultatet av studien visar att Lean Healthcare, i likhet med tidigare modeller, har krävt anpassningar för att fungera i sjukvårdens kontext.

This report is about the issue with decreasing production rate mainly caused by failuresrelated to the multiswitch. The multiswitch is a machine at Gefleortens Mejeriföreningwhich has the function of distributing milk cartons from one incoming track into fiveoutgoing tracks. Milk cartons who gets stuck and there by causes the production to stop,is the mainly problem with this constructionThe purpose with this report is to understand the causing factors and make suggestions which can help solving these factors. By analyzing the machine during production, having contact with different suppliers, searching internet for information, 3d-cad drawings and the complementary with personal experiences, this machine has  been evaluated and as a result of this new problem has come to be known.The discovered problems was analyzed and resulted in new suggestions for alternative options. Later the most functional results was chosen and put as a suggestion for the new model.A new machine built with the suggestions from this report assures to be well adapted to the environment at Gefleortens Mejeriföreing and the problems it causes..

The production costs have steadily increased within the construction industry during the 21st century. Voices are raised meaning that the construction industry is too unsuccessful in making the production more efficient and to develop it?s way of working. One way to deal with the production costs is to minimise the waste, with waste meaning activities that doesn?t add value to the finished product.

This thesis aims to examine the viability of various techniques for increased electricity generation in CHP plants and the effect of electricity price fluctuations on the profitability.The techniques examined are fuel dryer, pellet production, methane production, combined methane- and pellet production, seasonal heating storages in caverns and pit heat storages and condensing tail. Using Excel and Matlab, the prerequisites for investment costs, revenues and expenses were calculated.What affects the price of electricity is a combination of economic and technological development, energy prices, economic structure, population changes and weather. Different scenarios for the electricity price were therefore examined. In the base case, the electricity price was given by the Nord Pool electricity price statistics of area three in 2011. Thereafter, WiMo was used to design the electricity scenarios for 2030, which was then applied to the data to obtain the viability of various scenarios. The techniques examined were found to give greater profits to the CHP plant by increasing and optimizing the production of electricity.

Since 2004, wind power has had the largest installation of new capacity compared to other energy sources in Sweden. Accommodating new wind power may require strengthening or rebuilding of the existing grid in areas where the grid is already loaded to maximum capacity. This master thesis examine the possibility of a new 400/130 kV substation in Yttermalung, Sweden, with a connection to the two neighboring regional grids in Dalarna and Värmland owned by Fortum. This substation would provide a new connection point to the Swedish transmission system as well as an interconnection of the two, currently separated, regional grids. Different expansion scenarios where a substation with and without series compensation or a phase shifting transformer (PST) to control active power flow were studied.

With background in the rapidly growing need to find solutions for sustainable energy production and the increasing interest for wind power, this report was written. With take-off point from the wind power plant Big Glenn, which has been built in the harbour of Gothenburg, a model of the adjacent power grid has been created in Simulink/SimPowerSystems. Parameters for the power grid and its components has been provided by Göteborg Energi Nät, that has also been the supplier of measurement data of produced power, the power need from loads in the vicinity, voltage levels, current values and also the variation of power factor at the wind power plant.The SimPowerSystems model has been used to perform simulations of power flow in the grid. These simulated values have then been compared to the measured values to verify the functionality of the model. Further, the model has been used to perform simulations of a grid fault, which causes a voltage drop.

In the year of 2009 the conditions for managing primary healthcare in the region of Västra Götalandchanged. The decision was taken by the regional assembly and resulted in that the citizens since thenhave had the opportunity to choose which health care provider they preferto stay with. Along with thisdecision a new market for private health careproviders was established, which resulted inincreasedcompetition between the providers.In order to manage the competition, the health care providers arenow forced to be more efficient in their operations andalso to beeven more focused on their patients.Backa Läkarhusgruppen is an example of a private healthcare provider in the region of Västra Götaland.In the same way it is also an example of anorganizationin need of analysing their operations to seehowit can be further optimized to meet patient needs and expectations.The aim of this study is to analyse Backa Läkarhusgruppen?s organization and its operationsin the hopeoffinding suggestions whichwill improve the patient flow.To allocate and solve the problems thatBacka Läkarhus suffer from,an approach inspired by Lean Healthcare is used throughout the report.Some of themost significant problems that were identified within the organization are:?The synchronization of demand and capacity is inadequate.?Absence of standardized routines.?Absence of present leadership.To be able to improve the patient flow Backa Läkarhus needs to handle these identified problem areas.By synchronizing the staffing level in relation to the trends in demand a reduction in the patient?swaiting times and throughput time will be possible. Creating clear responsibilities and routines for thestaff will contribute to a higher degree of patient focus and thus lead to a more efficient patient flow.

A district heating plant has the advantage that it can take advantage of the waste heat from industries and use of cheap fuels to produce heat. But for the long term is competitive requires that energy is also saved in district heating plants. One way to save energy in a district heating system is to increasing cooling to the return temperature. This leads to less power needed to drive the distribution pumps,  and that more energy could be extracted from the same amount of fuel by an improved flue gas condensation.In Karlskoga the return temperature into the district heating plant is high. They would therefore reduce the return temperature in order to extract more energy from the flue gases.

 Saab Microwave Systems (SMW) is a business unit within Saab AB that manufactures and develops different types of radar- and sensor systems for naval, airborne and ground based forces as well as within the market for civil security. In addition to the manufacturing of radar and sensor systems they also provide different types of service concepts. The business unit has 50 years of experience within the area of developing radar systems and is considered to be one of the market leaders. When applying an assemble-to-order production strategy with products at this level of cost price the product lead-time is vital and becomes an important part of the strategy within marketing and sales. Within SMW there is a new department called Supply Management (SM) that provides the supply of incoming and outgoing material. Within SM there are four sub-departments working with activities such as planning, purchasing, receiving inspection, storage and distribution.

Water is an essential factor for both people and animals, and access to water is therefore of great importance. The water access also largely determines the availability of food for people and feed for animals. The aim of this study was to survey the affect of water access on milk production from dairy animals. The study included nineteen farm visits that were made in the Nyando district in Kenya between February and Mars 2011. Farm visits included interviews with questions about for example number of dairy animals, milk production, water access, feed and water routines.

This study was conducted at Glimek AB, a company that has chosen to decentralize its central storage unit in order to increase production efficiencies. The purpose of the study was to identify the problems in the production cycle that lead to the decision to decentralize the central storage unit, as well as identifying what the decentralization entails. The effects of the decentralization have not been analyzed in the study, and consequently neither financial nor production disadvantages have been considered.Appropriate questions were formulated based on the chosen underlying theories, and were asked to selected individuals with relevant knowledge. The study is based on the information that was gathered from interviews with management as well as staff within the company. In addition, supporting information such as flowcharts, drawings, orders and decision support documents were supplied by the company.

This master thesis was a continuation of a previous study in the diesel exhaust characterization, which is part of the academical work embedded in the EMIR-1 project. The main objective of this thesis work was to finish the installation and make the proper modifications of the particulate mass measuring system located in one of the engine test cells at KTH, in order to be able to measure the mass of the particles from the exhaust of diesel engines.This experiment requires a diluted flow sample from the exhaust that should be sent to the device that makes possible the measurement of particle mass, called TEOM. In the first stage of this project, the objective was to study and make the proper modifications in the existing KTH diluter because there were several problems to obtain a constant dilution ratio from it during tests.This modifications were made and it resulted in a great improvement in the maximum inlet and outlet flow that this diluter can handle. Therefore another modification is proposed for controlling the inlet exhaust flow so it will be possible to regulate the dilution ratio and make it constant along a wide range of engine loads and speeds.The second and most important stage was to make particulate mass measurements possible by analyzing the frequency signal from the TEOM device. The idea was to obtain the frequency of oscillation from the tapered element in the TEOM, and therefore with the proper correlations, be able to predict the particulate mass concentration in the exhaust flow from the engine.An electrical problem in the TEOM circuit was detected and corrected, so the signal that carries the frequency from the TEOM can be analyzed properly.