The interest for locally produced food has increased the last couple of years, and some consumers have a willingness to pay a premium for niche products like locally produced food. At the same time it seems like the Swedish pig production are in a negative development period. This study tries to see if locally produced pork could be a possible factor which might affect producers in the county of Västra Götaland views on different aspects regarding their production. Consumers of pork and their point of view regarding locally produced pork were also studied. Surveys to consumers and producers were constructed. Although previous studies claim the opposite, in the two locations (Högsäter and Uddevalla) where the consumer survey were performed, there were more men than women that always bought locally produced pork.

To start a company on the Internet is something that has appealed a lot of people during the last couple of years. Some of the companies have succeeded in their struggle but a lot of companies have failed to live out their ambition. This paper deals with the concept of e-commerce and aims to study whether or not the companies that has succeeded has made use of business models and what other factors that is important that you wont find in any written theory.The paper also aims to study the concept of business models and what a business model consists of. To be able to do this research we have interviewed three different companies that are all active in e-commerce and have survived for at least three years. Two of the companies are classical web shops that sell products to their customers and the last one is a site with articles about hardware and IT business in general.

AbstractThis is a thesis done in cooperation with the firm Somas and University of Karlstad. The project is an independent final examination part of the program in Innovation and DesignEngineering comprising 22.5 points, and performed by Mia Myrén Zreloff during spring term 2012. In parallel and collaboration, Fredrik Kjellin performs a similar job for the same company and with the same extent, but for the Program in Mechanical Engineering.The client and supervisor at the company have been Magnus Jansson and Anders Josefsson. At Karlstad University has technical supervisor been Hans Johansson, and in the design- and development process it was Monica Jakobsson. Examiner has been Fredrik Thuvander, professor in the Faculty of Technology and Science at Karlstad University.The mission has been to make a basis work for the company's own development and make a computational model to calculate, visualize and implement materials and other solutions in the manufacture of the company's ball valves.The project has undergone three major phases that included thorough study of the company, production, the problem and product.

Evaporation is a part of the chemical recovery department at wood pulping mills. The purpose of evaporation is to remove water from the black liquor, which makes the liquor combustible. The process is very energy demanding, and having a well-functioning model of the system is of greatest interest. The model can then be used to study energy consumption and to test different control strategies. Two models have been developed during the master thesis.

Zambia is a country in Southern Africa where poverty is widespread and the traditional keeping of local poultry therefore plays a crucial role in improving nutrition. Meat and eggs from poultry are important sources of protein but also of income. Improving the poultry production is thereby a method to fight poverty. For poultry, the access to light is an important factor for both growth and egg production. In this paper, the focus is on the traditional village chickens used for both egg and meat production, how they are kept, their health and welfare and if the use of a solar lamp will influence their behaviour, growth and egg production. Three studies were conducted in Chibombo and Choma Districts in Zambia were 17 farmers were interviewed regarding the village chicken management of which six farmers participated in a solar lamp experiment.

Effektivitet är för många organisationer ett begrepp som förknippas med att utnyttja sina resurser maximalt. Detta är något som även är märkbart inom svenskt skogsbruk, där man idag är mycket mån om att vara resurseffektiv i sin verksamhet. Det finns dock fler innebörder av effektivitet som begrepp. Toyota, med sitt Toyota Production System, och lean production har bevisat att en flödeseffektiv process med kundfokusering kan vara ett framgångsrikt arbetssätt. Denna studie tar upp lean production som teori i svenskt skogsbruk och knyter an denna mot virkesanskaffningsprocessen.

The E-department at GETRAG All Wheel Drive in Köping have problems with the efficiency on parts of their production equipment. The equipment with the most significant efficiency problems are four automated multifunctional production cells that produces housing for rear drive units. The major part of the problem is the large amount of small stops that causes the low efficiency.The department already worked with logging of interruptions and efficiency calculations before this project started. However this work was not done to the extent considered necessary for a systematic follow-up of the interruptions.The aim of this paper is to point out a more effective and systematic way to work with logging of interruptions and the follow-up. In addition the equipment were studied with a method for efficiency calculation that ? if used properly- is a more powerful and a visually better method than the one used by the company today.As the initial current state analysis of the equipment was made a lack of documented knowledge about the equipment was discovered.

Changes in the environment are affecting the world market, and pressures from several stakeholders? are forcing different enterprises to adjust to the current situation. Farmers? difficult working conditions and environmental impacts of the conventional cotton production in India have been highlighted. The small-scale production that is characterising India?s cotton farmers implies an insufficient competition power.

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.

This thesis investigates if a system for small scale electricity production located in anurban environment can be profitable. The work has been divided up into two parts,one extensive literature study and one case study. The purpose of the literature studywas to investigate the area, resulting in a choice of which technology to be studied indepth in a case study.In the case study a system containing small scale wind turbines and photovoltaicsmounted on Gränby Centrums roof was examined. From data containing wind power,wind direction and total irradiation, possible production from a system weresimulated. Three products of each technology were examined in the simulations.From the simulated production an economic analysis was carried out, this toinvestigate if a system is profitable.

StoraEnso decided in year 2002 to build a pulp mill in the province of Guangxi, southernChina, and also establish eucalyptus plantations to provide it with raw material. By 2010StoraEnso controls about 90 000 of planned 120 000 ha, out of 75 000 ha is already plantedwith Eucalyptus.By using better genetic material, improve the tending, selecting the sites more careful and byusing a proper fertilization regime StoraEnso hopes to increase the mean annual incrementfrom today?s 25 m3/ha, on bark, to 35 m3/ha. This study is one part in this work to increase themean annual increment in the plantation.This master thesis is the forth in a series, that has followed up a fertilization trial that startedin spring 2006 when the trial was laid out and treatments decided. The aim with the trial is toexamine the production potential of Eucalyptus urophylla in Guangxi, southern China.

There are several factors influencing the profitability of production with sheep. Two of the most important factors are ewe fertility and lamb survival. Also growth capacity of the lambs is important. This paper aims to review correlations between the ewe?s fertility and maternal behavior and lamb survival.

In 2005, Outokumpu began to implement its system of continuous improvement, OK> 1, at Avesta Jernverk. OK> 1 has not generated sufficient results on plant KPI:s. The purpose of this study is to identify the understanding,  participation and commitment regarding to OK> 1, and to suggest some actions to make OK> 1 more successful with emphasis on these three aspects. The thesis shall also determine whether there are any differences in the attitude towards OK>1 between Blue Collars and White Collars.The study consisted of a survey, and interviews. The output from these methods were processed and analyzed and finally resulted in a SWOT ? analysis and suggested actions for improving the understanding, participation and commitment towards OK>1.

Bakgrund: I takt med att konsumenters preferenser har förändrats, har företag fått överge massproduktion till förmån för produktionssystem som bättre avspeglar konsumenternas ökade krav på flexibilitet. Ett sätt för att överbrygga denna utmaning är att implementera lean production. Även om detta sätt att producera på har tydliga fördelar för dagens företag, verkar lean production även kunna medföra problem i avseende på att kombinera med den befintliga, i många fall, traditionella styrningen i företaget. En del av styrningen som verkar vara speciellt svår att kombinera med implementeringen av lean production rör mätningen av produktionen. Vid en närmare granskning visar det sig att det råder vissa motsättningar mellan traditionell mätning och lean production som kan påverka företagets beslutsfattande negativt.

This paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using different benchmarking models to measure and compare the efficiency of Swedish gas distributors. It also discusses to which extent the results of a benchmarking study should influence the revenue-cap which will be implemented in the gas distribution sector in Sweden from year 2011. The discussion is based on arguments from both theory and practical applications of benchmarking. The results suggest that benchmarking Swedish gas distributors against distributors in another country using a parametric model is most favorable, but the reliability will be increased if non-parametric models are used also. Partial and total productivity measures could be used to confirm results of other benchmarking analyses.