The manufacturing industry is currently in a short-term downturn while the competition is increasing. The result of this is that companies must find new ways to bring out their products. Traditional competitive strategies, such as low pricing, is not sufficient today as the customer is inquiring something more than just a good product. Higher demands are presented on an accurate, well functional, communication between customer and companies, as this has become an important strategic factor in achieving long-term profitability.The aim of this independent project was to analyze and evaluate the communication process between a company and its sales companies.In order to illustrate this process, a case study was carried out at Alfa Laval, their sales companies and employees at their distribution center in Tumba. In order to see the differences in attitudes between the management, the sales companies and the employees regarding communication and involvement a gap analysis were used.The theoretical part of the study considers theories about business mission, communication, involvement, quality and creating value.The result showed that a smaller gap exists between the sales companies and the management while a slightly larger one exists between the employees and the management.

The purpose of this essay is to apply Activity Based Costing on a Service and Support function in order to identify and allocate costs for providing support for IT deliverables..

The purpose of this thesis is to identify the factors that drive efficiency and effectiveness in technical development projects performed at A?F?s department of product development. In addition to identifying and analyzing these factors, the thesis also analyzes what needs to be taken in to account in order to implement a measurement system that is able to both monitor and control the identified factors.The thesis has been performed in a qualitative manner. It is based on interviews with people from several different technological companies, within different lines of business, all of which are customers to A?F?s department of product development.The results show that there are seven critical factors for project efficiency and effectiveness.

Internal communication is an important factor in organisations today. For many system development teams it?s critical that the communication works well. Without communication, success would be impossible. This study aims to highlight the effect communication has on the members of agile project teams.

The purpose of this study is to facilitate sustainable building by the use of BIM. The goal is to determine which aspects of sustainable building, which can be analyzed mainly with BIM tools, but also other aids.The study is based on literature studies and interviews. The literature review examines aspects important for sustainable building by studying environmental certification systems applicable in Sweden, as well as the BIM tools available on the market to analyze these aspects. The literature also includes the concepts of BIM and sustainability in order to provide a clearer view of its meaning. The interviews have brought the study's overall understanding of the industry and guidance on the subject.The results are presented in a table, where the aspects relevant to sustainable building are listed.

Background: In our case study we have been studying a company that during the last seven years have tried to implement the control system Balanced Scorecard. They have during this period made three attempts. According to Kaplan and Norton, the creators of Balanced Scorecard, it should take about 16 weeks to implement a Balanced Scorecard. Purpose: Our purpose is to investigate which factors that influence the possibility to implement Balanced Scorecard. Method: We have conducted a case study where we have studied implementation at three levels in a company.

The purpose of this essay is to examine cost-benefit-analysis as a method of evaluation of labour market policy. To illustrate the possibilities and difficulties of the method chapter four contains a partial cost-benefit-analysis of the results of a labour market project in Kävlinge. The questions this essay strives to answer are the following: What possibilities and difficulties do cost-benefit-analyses entail? How would one conduct a cost-benefit-analysis of the project in Kävlinge?The method used in this essay is mainly a literature study of cost-benefit-analysis of labour market programs. The labour market project Brännpunkt is used as an example in a partial cost-benefit-analysis.The applied cost-benefit-analysis of the Brännpunkt project in Kävlinge shows that it is possible to calculate the profit for the society as a whole, given that the necessary information is obtainable.

Metod/Method: Semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts med kommunchefen, personalchefen, fyra medarbetare och en facklig representant i Sala kommun. Materialet från intervjuerna analyserades sedan bland annat med hjälp av två av Morgans organisationsmetaforer, Kotters 8 steg, agil projektledning och Derbys tidigare forskning inom området./ Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with the local head of government, the human resource manager, four employees and a union member in Sala kommun. The material from the interviews was then analyzed with help from Morgans organizational metaphors, Kotters 8 step, agile Project management and Derbys earlier research on the area. Slutsatser/Results: En organisationsförändring enligt agil projektledning innebar att de teoretiska rekommendationerna för hur en organisationsförändring ska genomföras följdes. Att personalen gjordes delaktig i förändringen gjorde att motståndet mot organisationsförändringen kunde minimeras vilket var den största fördelen. De nackdelar som fanns med en agil projektledning vid organisationsförändringen var i princip obefintliga i jämförelse med fördelarna./ Organizational change according to agile Project management made sure that the presented theoretical recommendations on how to succeed with organizational change were followed.

I denna studie undersöker vi om det förekommer earnings management i resultathöjande syfte bland svenska börsnoterade företag vid tiden av en nyemission. Studier om earnings management vid nyemissioner har gjorts förut av exempelvis av (Shivakumar, 2000). Han kommer fram till att earnings management förekommer tiden precis innan en nyemission. Vi hittar dock ingen studie utförd på svenska företag, vilket vi vill undersöka närmare. Syftet med resultatet av studien är att visa intressenter till företagen att de kan bli vilseledda när de ska investera sitt kapital när earnings management förekommer..

The division of Engineering Materials at Linköping University, department of Management and Engineering, conducted a research project concerning Fatigue life of thermal barrier coatings during 2009. During this project equipment to provoke these fatigue failure by rapidly heating and cooling test subjects in cycles, was ordered.Design and manufacturing of the equipment was handled internally at LIU.The equipment was built using a furnace that is lowered and raised over the table where the test subject is placed. To keep the temperature of the furnace a lid slides in place to close the downward facing opening of the furnace when it is in the raised position. On this door there is nozzle that is used to cooling of the test subject by air.To make sure that the equipment can work independently you need an automation controller that can evaluate if movement can occur without danger of collisions. The control system also needs to monitor that all elements are performed according to plan.This degree project is based on a modular system from OPTO 22 and includes the configuration of a PLC that will be supplied with logic and a user interface.The degree project resulted in a graphic interface in which a user can set desired values for different parameters and get information about current values for them.

The purpose of this thesis is to identify the factors that drive efficiency and effectiveness in technical development projects performed at A?F?s department of product development. In addition to identifying and analyzing these factors, the thesis also analyzes what needs to be taken in to account in order to implement a measurement system that is able to both monitor and control the identified factors.The thesis has been performed in a qualitative manner. It is based on interviews with people from several different technological companies, within different lines of business, all of which are customers to A?F?s department of product development.The results show that there are seven critical factors for project efficiency and effectiveness.

The division of Electricity at Uppsala University runs a project called Lysekil project, they have designed a buoy that uses the waves to create electric power from a generator attached to the bottom of the sea.Uppsala University is closely connected with the company Seabased and the university makes use of their facilities in Lysekil. When they designed the buoy issues occurred, the geometric design was flawed, brackets with a short shelf life and it is generally uneconomic.A study visit was done in Lysekil on Seabased facility. With this visit the project started, which is to improve the design of the buoy and the attachment of wires leading to the generator. In this project we have chosen to use a beam system with three beams that are attached to the buoy. Then a wire attached to a plate that sits between the beams will be leading to the generator. Two proposals for construction are created, what distinguishes them are the brackets between the beams and the buoy.From these constructions, the design that is considered most optimal for our project is chosen.All parts of the buoy have been modeled and the drawings are designed in ProEngineer software.The two constructions are compared with each other, but the whole focus is on the second and final structure. The report begins with an introduction describing Lysekil project, and a task description of our project.The project aims to produce an optimal buoy that will be easy to design, materials restrictive with good durability and an economical solution.Wave power true function has been studied, mechanical and finite element analysis of beams, buoy and plate design.This has been presented in this report, where in the various chapters can read more about the processes. Although the relevant facts and information on this project and buoy development is included.

The present Equality Project in the Swedish preschool has been studied according to its view on sex and equality. The purpose was to find out how the Equality Project is described, interpreted and implemented.The research questions focused the central concepts sex (gender identity, gender roles and gender patterns) and equality in the political level, the educational level and the executing level of the Equality Project. From each level some central texts were chosen and analysed.The results indicated that equality is interpreted as connected to an absence of gender patterns and gender roles. The concept of gender identity is differently understood in the different texts. The normative focus and the lack of psychology in the Equality Project are discussed..

In 2005 the Swedish government introduced a law of amnesty for refugees in the country which made the Minister of Integration invite a number of national organizations to discuss this law. After that, seven organizations in Gothenburg also felt that something should be done and they started talking about a cooperation to improve the situation for newly arrived people to Gothenburg. They formed a project, ?Plattform Göteborg?, which in this paper will be evaluated according to a manual from Sida. The project consists of seven organizations which have their separate activities formed by them to improve the integration.

Syftet med examensarbetet är att tillföra ny kunskap inom den svenska earnings management forskningen genom att undersöka kapitalstrukturens eventuella korrelation med earnings management. Uppsatsen har en kvantitativ metodansats, paneldata regressionsanalys används för att genomföra studien. Arbetet grundar sig i tidigare forskning på earnings management området. Vidare prövas Debt-to-Equity teorin mot den svenska marknaden. Den empiriska undersökningen utgår från 231 företag listade på den svenska börsen under tidsperioden 2003-2007 och en negativ korrelation konstateras mellan earnings management och kapitalstruktur.