Since the financial crisis of 2007, the global financial market has been characterized by instability. At the same time the banks? lending rates and its link to the reporänta have been in the spotlight in various debates in the media. The government with Anders Borg leading the charge has criticized the banks for not lowering their lending rates when the reporänta has been lowered. The banks defend themselves by saying that the reporänta does not have a direct link to their lending rates anymore.

Approximately 60 million cubic meters of round wood are transported every year with trucks in Sweden and stand for 15 % of all truck transportation in the country. The big amount that is transported results in many haulage companies works in different parts of the country with different conditions to get a good flow on their transports. Today the transport pricing is very general and the payment consists of the unit round wood they are transporting and the distance of the transport. The purpose of this study were, from the freighter and the haulage company?s perspective, try to find ways to change the today applied transport pricing to more differentiated and compare them to historic payment of transportation.

During the last decade, there has been an increase in the use of technology-based self-services within the retail sector. The increase is particularly noticeable within the grocery market. The reason behind the increased use of these systems is partially due to the fact that companies within highly competitive retail markets continually look for ways of decreasing costs while upholding efficiency. The problem is that it is difficult to understand the true economical implications of investments relating to these machines. The purpose of this study is to investigate and contribute with new insights regarding the cost-structures of the stationary self-checkout systems and traditional cashier desks, within the retail grocery market.

The purpose of this essay is to draw attention to the obstacles that affects the internal trade of waste within the EU. The essay doesn?t in any way encourage pollution or illegal handling of waste but unfortunately there are large profits to be made from illegal destruction and recycling of waste and especially hazardous wastes. Therefore the dependable companies handling waste must access a market with fast and flexible (but predictable) regulations as well as lower transaction costs to help make the environment better and encourage a strive for increased recycling. There are examples where some waste only can be sent to a land-fill within the country but could be recycled in other EU-countries.

The payment for produced grain is constantly going down in price. It is important for farmers to become more effective in cultivating more land in a shorter time perspective. At the same time we have to calculate with the risk of getting lowered subsidies from the EU. This is why I would like to find out the possibilities for establishing winter wheat without ploughing. I hope to find a difference in the number of plants due to different soil preparations. With this experiment I expect to find out whether I can establish winter wheat at a lower cost, with the same numbers of plants per square meter.

The construction industries are relatively conservative type of business that takes a longtime to adjust for new methods and embrace new ideas. It dose not matter if the newmethod seems to be an improved method as long as it is new and untried. Constructioncompanies are reluctant to change form a longtime working method to a relativelyunknown method.The purpose with our report is to perform an evaluation of BeWi construction method.Our goal are to present the generally opinion about BeWi from the contractors that hasbeen in contact/worked with the method. We also want to know from the contractor?spoint of view if BeWi and the method measure up to the standards that are presented byBeWi and if they believe that improvements need to be done.Our progress up to the final report has consisted of three parts[1]Field studies[2]Interviews[3]Literary studiesWe started out with field studies where we took notes and observed all the includedworking phases on the construction site when using the BeWi method.

The past and ongoing structural change in Swedish agriculture has led to an increasing number of large-scale farms. The biological factors associated with large-scale farming operations may cause increasing variability, risk and reduced yields due to sub-optimal timing and management of field operations. The theory of economies of scale suggests that largescale production may benefit from lower costs due to scale efficiencies. Thus, large-scale farms may face cost reductions in terms of long term inputs factors, e.g. agricultural machinery.

The real estate company Ihus is facing an expansion of its comfort cooling in Noatun,Uppsala, to provide the buildings in the block with cooling. The buildings in Noatunare mainly used for office premises, where the requirements for an accepted indoorclimate is great. However, it?s uncertain whether Ihus should continue, as currently,producing comfort cooling by themselves using a compressor chiller, or if they shouldconnect themselves to Vattenfall?s district cooling net.The purpose of this report is to examine which technique of cooling is best suited forIhus and their buildings in Noatun. It should also work as a guideline for othercompanies facing the same problem as Ihus.

This paper is the result of a case study conducted at Uppåkra Mekaniska AB during the spring of 2006. The task that was presented by Uppåkra was to develop a basis for a decision for the planning activities at the company, so that in the future they can create lot-sizes which are based upon a total cost perspective. Total cost in regards to lot-sizing is defined as the sum of the administrative reordering costs and warehousing cost per stock keeping unit.To collect data a series of interviews and observations were conducted. This data was then used during the lot-sizing simulation and analysis. The 15 units that the simulation was conducted on were grouped into three item classes depending how many different machine setups they required during the production process.

Arbetet visar praktiskt hur en organisation kan utnyttja kvalitetsbristkostnader, för att sedan utifrån dessa identifiera möjligheter till förbättring. I arbetet används identifierade kvalitetsbristkostnader för att ta fram en projektplan för motortillverkningen. Projektets resultat ska medföra att kvalitetsbristkostnaderna vid motortillverkningen minskas. Arbetet börjar med att identifiera vilka kvalitetsbristkostnader som motortillverkningen har dokumenterat. Därefter tas en enkät med öppna frågor fram, vilken behandlar kvalitetsbrister vid motortillverkningen.

The Department of Forest Products and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences has received means from Vinnova for a preliminary study of the organisation of logging work of today and how a better logging organisation should be brought about. This thesis reports results from qualitative interviews with nine forest machine contractors regarding the situation of their companies. The interviews have been analysed with respect to the genesis of the companies, which tasks they perform or that they could consider perform-ing, business relationships of the companies, relationships between the different partners of the companies, and the state of competition experienced by the contractors. The companies have developed either from the contractor previously being machine operator employee or from that the contractor in making has owned a machine and needed work. Their primary business is mechanised logging.

Industries with energy costs as a large proportion of their total costs are greatly affected by the instruments deployed to cope with the Swedish climate and energy policy goals. With energy costs representing more than 30 % of the total costs, tomato cultivators are one of the affected industries. In order to remain competitive with other countries, a more resource- and cost-efficient cultivation of tomatoes in greenhouses is desirable in Sweden. Based on the concept of industrial symbiosis, this study investigates the prerequisites for a resource-efficient production of locally grown tomatoes in Sweden through the utilization of low grade industrial waste heat. The study is based on the foundry industry as the supplier of waste heat.To investigate the environmental, technical and economic potential of the exchange of waste heat, a comparative life cycle assessment, an inventory of the supply of industrial waste heat in Sweden, a compilation of potential technologies for the recovery of low grade industrial waste heat for heating greenhouses and a comparative life-cycle cost calculation were carried out.

Detta examensarbete är det avslutande momentet för programmet ?Byggteknik och Design? på ?Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan? i Haninge. Arbetet utfördes för byggföretaget Einar Mattsson Byggnads AB. Uppgiften var att ta reda på varför kalkylerade och verkliga kostnader för nybyggnadsprojekt skiljer sig. Studien baserades på produktionskalkylerna för fyra projekt och ntervjuer med minst en inblandad från varje projekt.

During the period 1952-2008, real prices of wood before taxes and charges declined. However, the actual net income has not changed by the same percentage as the price list, because taxation, driving costs and the ability to make deductions has changed. This report considers the inflation by using the Swedish consumer price index. Net income refers to the remaining income when relevant costs, taxes and fees have been paid.The purpose of this study was to examine how the private forest owner's real net income has evolved over the period 1952-2008 for three categories of forest owners. These three categories are1.

Companies that invest in e-learning have different expectations regarding the outcome of the investment. According to literature and articles it is common that companies see reduction of costs as the primary benefit with e-learning. Therefore we ask ourselves the question if companies have attained the expected benefit of the investment in e-learning and to what extent cost reduction have been a determining factor in the investments? The purpose of the thesis is to examine if companies that invest in e-learning have attained the expected benefits. We also want to examine what the reason for investing in e-learning is and if cost reduction is the primary reason for investing.