This exam report has been developed in association with Strangbetong AB, Sweden.The natural gravel that is being used as fine aggregate for concrete production today is an ending natural recourse and the Swedish government has decided to strongly reduce the extraction from the year of 2020. The only reasonable replacement is aggregates from crushed rocks but this material has other properties than natural aggregates. The concrete manufacturers now have to learn how to use these new fine aggregates in a cost effective way in order to ensure the quality of their concrete production.In this project, crushed aggregates and combination of crushed and natural aggregates have been tested with existing formulas for fresh concrete. The two parameters yield stress and plastic viscosity have been measured which gives a good description of the workability of the fresh concrete. Different methods to make measurements on the dry fine aggregates, has also been tested, to find out if there is any correlations between these parameters and the parameters from the measurement on the fresh concrete..

This master thesis is about the collaboration between the custom dairy heifer grower and thedairy producer.The custom dairy heifer grower is a rather unusual strategy of reproductive management inSweden compared to other countries like U.S. and Denmark where the specialization withindairy production gone much further. In these countries the research also has reached muchfurther within this type of industry. However in Sweden there has been research made in thearea of collaboration, but then only within collaborations in the industries of crop production,dairy production and pork meat.The down going trend of profitability within dairy production together with poor profitabilityin the beef industry could partly remedy if more collaborations around heifer contractingwould arise. But since the industry still is of a rare kind in Sweden the knowledge about howthese types of collaborative arrangements works and their contracts are put together is poor.By that the aim of this master thesis is formulated as follows: "how is usually thecollaborative arrangement between the dairy producer and custom dairy heifer growerdesigned".

To invent an optimized product is a complicated process. This process is only half of the work. It is equally important to develop a production system that can produce the product in an  efficient and ergonomic way.After several evaluations of conceptual and detailed drawings a final idea has come to light.The idea intends, to the maximum extent, utilize the facility in a more efficient way through moving assembly lines and stations closer to the flock section and the stock for complete products. To make the production better, stations are placed in more logical places given the assignment they are supposed to accomplish. This improves the material flow radically.

This report is based on a thesis that was carried out during spring 2012. The report covers the development of a preliminary study to Performance Sk8. The purpose of the study is to facilitate and contribute inspiration to Performance Sk8 to run an automation project to bring home their production to Sweden from China. The reason is to gain a greater ability to control quality, produce smaller batches and reduce the cycle time to reduce costs.The goal is that the preliminary study shall meet the requirements and wishes Performance Sk8 and other partners defined. The pre study will contain different cost proposals for the automation of selected process and serve as a basis for procurement of the equipment.The pre study has resulted in some proposed solutions to the various steps required to automate Performance Sk8 ?s production.

This review paper summaries scientific research about horse thermoregulation and the consequences of using a blanket. Horse owners put blankets on their horses to protect them when they are clipped, to protect them from bugs, to keep them clean and so on. This can have consequences for the horse which their owners might be unaware of. I have tried to answer following questions by searching the available scientific literature; ? How can the horse maintain thermoregulation? ? Is there a risk of suffering when horses wear a blanket? ? Is there a risk of suffering when horses do not wear a blanket? ? How can animal inspectors estimate the welfare of horses when they wear or do not wear a blanket? My result shows that horses who wear a blanket have an increased risk of becoming overheated, develop a chafing, have an increased exposure hazard and have a restrained natural behaviour.

Sheep breeding contributes not only with wool, hides, meat and milk but also with openlandscapes. The sheep?s wool is a good raw material thanks to a lot of different qualities as itis water rejecting and easy to form. The wool production today is concentrated to specificplaces in the world which leads to environmental problems and a distorted market. InJämtland, a province in Sweden, there is right now a staking going on for local production andrefining of wool in a project called Ullforum.

Quality was earlier only an issue for the company?s quality departments but today is the entire organization involved in quality- and improvements work. With the customers in focus, both external and internal, quality and improvement work should be integrated in the daily activities. The management shall state goals and visions together with a policy. Through participation the correct requirements for a successful work are created.With SPC, statistics process control, there is an opportunity to perceive variations in the process and with the correct tools make it stable.

The different aspects of each individual construction project such as the general conditions, design and economic restrictions as well as many more factors mean it is difficult to standardize building processes or plan in detail based on past experiences. As a result operational efficiency is often reduced, and unnecessary waste is generated. To make an organization more efficient and therefore reduce waste production everybody involved needs to appreciate and understand the improvements that can increase the organization?s efficiency. To investigate these improvements a time study was performed on two different construction sites, both of which involved buildings being constructed of prefabricated steel and concrete elements.

The agriculture is today in a development that leads to bigger and bigger units in the primary production. To be able to follow this development many companies chooses to cooperate in different ways. The most radical change is when farmers fuses with other farmers and merge into to a big collectively owned operation firm. The reason behind this idea is that the firms achieve the big companies advantages by being complement to each other. The purpose of this essay is to make an economic analysis of two crop production companies who works together in an operation firm.

Bakgrund: Företag utsätts dagligen för olika former av risk och osäkerhet. Efter2008 års finanskris där många företag hamnade i finansiellttrångmål, då det var oförberedda på finansbubblans konsekvenserblev riskhanteringen inom tjänsteföretag mer uppmärksammat. Huridentifierar och hanterar egentligen tjänsteföretag operativ risk ochtill vilken grad använder dem sig av försäkringar? Och hur förhållersig den praktiska riskhanteringen i relation till akademisk teori?Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att skapa en djupare förståelse i hurtjänsteföretag identifierar och hanterar operativ risk med hjälp avolika försäkringar och sedan jämföra med teori gällanderiskhantering.Metod: En kvalitativ fallstudie som bygger på intervjuer riktade mot ettspecifikt företag för att djupare kunna studerariskhanteringsprocessen och deras hantering i form av försäkringar.Vi har även valt att komplettera med information från företagetsårsredovisningar.Resultat: Resultatet av vår undersökning styrker den teoretiska kopplingen tillpraktiken. När det kommer till begrepp som risk, riskhantering ochriskhanteringsprocess anser vi att det finns ett starkt sambandmellan teorins tolkning av dessa och den praktiska tolkning samttillämpning.

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is a technology that utilizes the temperaturedifference in oceans between the warm surface water and the cold water at 1000 m depthto produce electricity. The purpose of this report is to investigate if OTEC with its synergiescould become a commercially feasible energy solution for a small island. A literature reviewis conducted to explore the different OTEC technologies and to what extent the threesynergies; fresh water, air conditioning and aquaculture, could be used. In order to calculatethe profitability of these synergies there is also a study conducted on the conventionalmethods and cost of fresh water production, aquaculture and air conditioning. A model is setup using a scenario of a small tropical Island with population of 100 000 people.

As a consequence of a turbulent financial market with recurring recessions, the Basel regime was developed, an institutional change with the purpose to create enhanced financial stability through increased capital requirements and increased scrutiny of internal procedures. The Basel regime is an often recurring element in social debates where various aspects are discussed, one of which is whether it maintains its purpose to secure financial stability or whether it is cost effective, and if not, who gets affected by these potential costs.The majority of previously conducted research within this area agrees with the opinion that changes in the regulatory framework within the financial markets, such as the Basel regime, has led to reduced risk of bankruptcy for the banks which has contributed to increased global financial stability. However, research illustrates that these types of changes in the regulatory framework impose a financial burden leading to contradictions in the division of these costs between costumers and shareholders. This dissertation has been conducted from a shareholders perspective, out of which the study ?s three hypothesis has been created from.The data in this study is built upon the stock price from the three largest available banks? shares (based on total assets), in the 26 countries which are represented in the Basel committee from (2007) to (2013).

At SIA TallOil's pellets factory in Latvia wood shavings and saw dust are dried with flue gases from a gas burner. TallOil wants to replace the gas with a biofuel that is available at the pellet plant. The reason for this is the unstable gas market in Europe in combination with the fact that TallOil wants to improve its profile as supplier of renewable bio fuels. In this project the technical and economical possibilities for a fuel conversion to ether bark powder, wood shavings or wood powder have been investigated. These fuels should be burned in one of the following applications: TPS BioSwirl, VTS Multifuel burner or Saxlunds bio fuel combustion plant Due to the fact that the fuel alternatives available are relatively common except for bark powder, the work has mainly been focused on bark powder.

This Thesis aims to explore how to integrate an IT-system for facilitating anorganizations work with Continous Impprovements.This is done here by examining and analyzing the process within a handful ofcompanies who seem to have been successful with their own implementations. Thestudy is focused on the implementation of one particular system, "System C2".Simliarities and differences between the companies, and the established rule of thumbfor these kind of activities are focused upon. This to emphasis how another actormight emulate some of the apparent success.Part of the core question is found in the title, since Continous Improvement is oftenseen as a relativly low-risk activity, is it then also possible to take a low-risk slow pathto the implementation of such a system in the entire organization?.

Den ökade förändringstakten i samhället på grund av ny teknik, internationalisering och att samhället blivit alltmer mångkulturellt bidrar till att större krav ställs på företag att hela tiden förbättra sin verksamhet. Akzo Nobel Surface Chemistry, Production Surfactants i Stenungsund, har huvudsakligen sina kunder och konkurrenter runt om i Europa. Då Sverige ligger i utkanten av detta område tar det omkring en leveransdag längre tid för Production Surfactants att leverera sina produkter i jämförelse med företagets konkurrenter. Detta medför att Production Surfactants behöver kompensera denna längre leveranstid genom exempelvis högre produktkvalitet, större flexibilitet eller lägre priser för att ha möjlighet att tävla på marknaden. För att uppnå detta behöver Production Surfactants utveckla och systematisera sitt förbättringsarbete.