Benchmarking is an established method of working which is often used in order to develop the quality of the organization. However, almost 70% of the organizations with benchmarking fail due to the lack of planning and structuring of the benchmarking exercise. Maintenance sections in the paper and pulp industry are one of those who have decided to conduct benchmarking. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain knowledge of how the maintenance sections in the paper and pulp industry deliberately structure and plan to use benchmarking as a driving force for quality development in the maintenance sections.The study is a hermeneutic case study. Telephone interviews and document analysis have been used as data acquisition methods.The results show that there is a lack of both planning and structuring in the benchmarking process, and lack of management commitment for quality improvements within industrial maintenance.

The company Västra Mälardalens Kommunalförbund, VMKF, wishes to revise and optimize their present data and IP-telephony network as of today consists of the three municipalities Köping, Arboga and Kungsör. As a municipal corporation, they seek consultation regarding internal as well as external review and investigation of the main structure of the network, its functionality and safety. By today?s increasing demands of Internet accessibility, availability of services and security far more extends the requirement of a complete network design. The foundation of networking rests on the balance between each of these necessities.

In Sweden, the demand for bio energy has increased in recent years due to the current energy and climate debate. In 2008, the energy supply of Sweden was 612 TWh, biofuels accounted for 123 TWh of these. Stumps have been highlighted as a potential fuel in recent years and the Swedish Forest Agency expects a technically and biologically feasible potential of 20.7 TWh annually between 2010 and 2019. The idea of utilize stumps is not new. During the 19th century stumps were used for tar production and during the 70?s and 80?s attempts were made to use stumps in the pulp industry.

This thesis was performed at Indusec ABin Stockholm. Indusec AB is a companythat develops security solutions.Together with the Police of Sweden theyhave gotten the assignment to develop anapplication based on one of theiralready existing product Inferno soundbarrier. This application is supposed tobe mounted on a ballistic shield thatthe police use, the application consistsof a speaker box (the sound barrier) anda trigger with wire. The trigger withwire is the part that will be addressedin this thesis. The application willthen be used as a tool to surprise atarget at various skirmishes.The project consists of three majorphases, pre-study, concept generationand modeling.

As technology have continued to develop over the latest decades and become more advanced the pressure on the general citizens understanding of technology becomes a essential part to live in our society today. The transition have affected our society in great ways and have made a great impact on different groups, one of them being the elderly population in our society. The purpose of this study is to examine how the fast technological development in the latest decades have affected the elderly in our society. This from their perspective by gathering empirical data through semi-structured interviews with elderly people involved in the Agnes-project, a research project focused on improving the general quality of life for older people and increase their knowledge about technology. The study has shown that after the older peoples time involved in the Agnes-project their quality of life had improved in different areas. Areas such as increased cognitive activity, increased interest in new technology and an improvement in their communication with friends and family.

The web has evolved much through the years. From being a place where author and reader were clearly distinguished, it now invites everyone to take part in the development of both content and technology. Social services are central in what is called Web 2.0. Wikis, blogs and folksonomies are all examples of how the users and their communities are key to the development of services. Collaborative writing, tags and API:s are central.

The title of this thesis is ?Accessible Landscape - boardwalks in nature areas?. The main purpose of this thesis is to show how you can increase the accessibility for disabled people by constructing boardwalks in nature areas. The platform for the thesis is a study of litterature on boardwalks, accessibility and disabilities. After defining these terms I made three excursions to three different locations in the south of Sweden. During the excursions I evaluated the boardwalks situated in each of the areas through preferences such as the construction of the boardwalk, its design and the accessibility. After the excursions I interviewed managers of the areas I visited, and people working with disability questions in the municipalities where the excursions took place. To know how to make a boardwalk accessible you need to have knowledge about certain concepts, rules and recommendations. My thesis deals with aspects such as: *Accessibility *Disability *Rules and recommendations when building boardwalks *Real life - evaluation from the excursions and interviews with the managers The result shows that accessibility is a hot topic in Sweden and a lot of improvement is being done with fi nancial support from the European Union.

Detta examensarbete genomfördes våren 2013 på Karlstads universitet där TD Rail & Industry i Västerås stod som uppdragsgivare. Projektet innefattade att kartlägga nuvarande omlastningslösningar av enhetslaster mellan järnvägstransporter och vägtransporter, och utarbeta en konceptuell omlastningslösning med fokus på att öka järnvägstransporternas flexibilitet gentemot vägtransporterna. Där vikten lades på att utarbeta ett välarbetat helhetskoncept.Projektet genomfördes med designprocessen som grund och innehöll bland annat momenten; förstudie, kravspecificering, idégenerering, konceptval m.m.Resultatet blev en vidareutveckling av det redan befintliga systemet CCT som bygger på horisontell överföringsteknik och möjliggör därför omlastning av enhetslaster direkt under kontaktledning. Skillnaden mellan RES och CCT är att man tagit bort ombyggnationen av tågvagn och lastbilschassi, som var en av CCTs stora svagheter, genom två hydrauliska ?teknikplattor?.

User friendly and usable are two words that are often mentioned in the context of marketing new products. By doing so it adds an extra sense of quality to the product. The meaning of these words is therefore something that every product wants. But what is it that makes a product usable and user friendly? What methodology exists formaking sure that a product is usable? Does it exist applicable processes to ensure user centered development? These questions together with a practical example are parts of what will be addressed in this report.The thesis was carried out for C2 Management, a company that works with supporting other companies in their work with quality and constant improvements.

The environmental debate is more intensive than ever before and the demands on companies increase. There are a number of methods to make it easier for the companies to fulfil the demands. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) end ecodesign are some of the methods that can be used. Syntronic AB has the possibility to reduce the products´ environmental impact in the design phase. Therefore it is important for the company to make it possible to visualize the negative environmental impacts a product can cause in an easy way. It is also important to visualize for there clients if any improvement is possible. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a simplified model.

The number of people with another culture isincreasing in Sweden. This change in society bringsconsequences in health care that has not any methodsto manage. The Muslim woman?s meeting with thehealth care is one of those areas. The aim with thisstudy was to describe the nurses meeting with femaleMuslim patient.

Several studies show that the clinical reality in psychiatric care does not correspond to the demand of consumer participation from a variety of policy documents that has been produced recently. Studies also show that there is a lot to do in improving, patients with sever mental illness, becoming more involved in their own care. The nurse has a central role in this work. The Norwegian nursing theorist Jan-Ka?re Hummelvolls holistic, existentialistic model for psychiatric nursing were used as theoretical ground.The aim of this study was to examine how nurses in psychiatric outpatient units, caring for patients with psychotic disorders, experiences consumer participation.Qualitative phenomenological method was used.

En förändring är ett tillstånd som vi upplever under hela vår livstid, både privat och i arbetslivet. Företag måste förändras för att kunna bevara sin konkurrens-kraft. Motstånd till förändring kan anses som det största enskilda hotet mot ett framgångsrikt införande av en strategi på ett företag. Ett sätt att hantera detta motstånd är att använda sig av den delaktiga förändringsmodellen samt stävja rädslor och osäkerhet. Syftet med detta examensarbete var att vi ville få en ökad förståelse för hur företag arbetar med produktionsförbättringar och om de känner av något motstånd vid dessa förändringar. De intervjuade företagen anger som sin absolut största förändring deras införande av ett eget produktionssystem med stort fokus på Kaizen ? Ständiga förbättringar. Under arbetets gång stötte vi på en psykologisk och vetenskaplig teori om Förändringens fyra rum som anses vara ett kraftfullt hjälpmedel vid alla förändringar..

Sarah Kane?s first play Blasted (1995) has often been read in a normative and biographical way by critics, authors and previous researchers. This essay makes a supplementary close reading of Blasted from gender and genealogical perspectives and utilizes theoretical works by Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray and Michel Foucault. My study makes clear that the characters different positions in language and talk create and maintain a power imbalance between them. Efforts to change and develop one?s individual position in language and talk are being made throughout the play since it is the only way to bring about a change in the social power structure.

The possibility and the right to be able to communicate with municipalities or other state companies and politicians are natural for the Swedish citizens. However, they may be unaware that this communication process is called citizen dialogue.Today there are so many ways to communicate; one-way communication is not possible in the same way as before. It is above all social media such as Facebook, which has opened the gates one could only dream of.  Via a medium such as Facebook creates a strong citizen dialogue in which the municipality and citizens communicate openly and ask questions and give response.The purpose of this study is to find out how Karlstad?s municipality uses, and maintains, citizen dialogue on Facebook. What are the guidelines and how do the municipality use these? In this paper a qualitative expert interview and a qualitative content analysis has been used to answer the purpose of the essay.