Many companies are currently working to optimize and streamline their processes and production lines to achieve higher profitability. In increasingly competitive markets, companies are working to find solutions to increase the value of their production with such a small use of resources as possible. A tool used to accomplish this is the Lean management system. Lean comes from the production system that Toyota has been developing since the early 1900's, The Toyota Production System (TPS). The Lean philosophy helps companies, by working towards continuous improvement in its operations, to achieve higher customer satisfaction, more efficient production and ultimately higher profitability. Many companies are working to implement Lean in their organization. But there are many who fail to implement a complete change towards Lean.

The purpose of this report is to investigate the business relationship between forest machine entrepreneurs and company officials within a timber area at one of the Swedish forest owner associations called Mellanskog. This report shows how these people work with their business relationships, what they believe are the keys getting a successful relationship and how they have got were there they are now. Key words: Business relationship, cooperation, team work, communication, negotiation, respect, commitment and trust..

Internet and social networks have become important features in today?s society. We spend numerous hours on browsing and communicating through these platforms. This development has also led to a shift of power from businesses to consumers. Today?s consumers have more control of if, when and what messages they are exposed to.

Background: Intimate relationship violence is physical, psychological or sexual violence that a person is exposed to in a relationship. There is a strong correlation between intimate relationship violence and mental health problems. A psychiatric ward at a hospital in Sweden, is working with a new routine. According to this routine every new patient should be asked about intmate relationship violence as a part of the admission interview.Objective: The objective of this study was to study how the healthcare personnel is working with the routine, and also to study response rate, interventions and how the work has developed over time.Method: A quantitative study with a retrospective and descriptive studydesign. One hundred and two medical records were reviewed.

People in Sweden have more and more dogs in their care, and several of these dogs are kept in kennels in back yards for various reasons. According to Swedish animal welfare legislations the need for social contact for dogs has to be met. However, there are few details presented on how to meet the need and when it can be considered satisfied. Does the dog need human contact to fulfill the need, or is the company of other dogs enough? This study aims to specify what can be acceptable when it comes to fulfilling dogs? social needs in accordance with the Swedish animal welfare legislation.

The purpose of my study was to see what kind of relationships there were between the youth and the social workers in the treatment home Hassela in Klintehamn, Gotland. The social workers work for six weeks day and night by living together with the youth. I also wanted to examine what happens when there were conflicts between them as signs of tensions in the relationships. In addition to this I wanted to study the relations between power and influence in their relationships where Hassela strives for democracy. My questions were the following; How do the youth and the staff describe the relationships between them? How do conflicts work between them at Hassela? What does the relationship between power and influence look like?The study is based on qualitative interviews with four clients and four social workers.

This paper aims to give an insight into how venture capital work with their investments in the school sector. The purpose of the paper is to examine their work, regarding to goals of the company and the process of controlling the goals.  The study also aims to determine the way the companies work with value growth.This study uses a qualitative research method, where the theories license to operate, the relationship value management framework, agency-principal and new public management theory is tested in relation to the collected data. Eleven persons were interviewed in this paper. This paper also aims to give an overview to venture capital in the school sector, where it will examine whether financial goals could collide with social goals.What the study can tell is that venture capital does not have a license to operate in this sector, according to the theory.

Who has the ownership of a company´s long-term strategy, and who should have it? Is it the board of directors or the senior management? Swedish law and regulations seemingly point in one direction, whereas the findings of studying the relationship between CEO and chairman of the board in eleven Swedish listed large- and mid-cap companies, point the other way. In a majority of the companies the senior management have the ownership of the long term strategy whilst the board of directors merely hold a control function. The possible effects on the companies managed as well as the rules and regulations they are managed according to, are analyzed..

Uppsatsen behandlar mindre grossisters situation på marknaden i Sverige. Mindre grosssisters nyckelposition i den traditionella värdekedjan suddas ut alltmer. Grossisterna måste finna nya vägar för att behålla de befintliga kunderna. Därför måste de skapa mervärde, vilket i sin tur skapas genom att utveckla olika former av samarbete med sina kunder..

Trade Unions are finding it increasingly challenging to appeal to employees and all trade unions alike are encountering new challenges to attract and retain members. Additionally a more diversified and educated labor market is creating demands for trade unions to better meet individual needs. The purpose of this study was to explore and analyze the role of branding in Unionen, the largest white-collar trade union in Sweden, and how branding efforts help in attracting and retaining trade union members. The theoretical foundation of this thesis is based on theories related to corporate branding and relationship marketing. Furthermore, the study develops and introduces the concept of member branding in the context of trade unions.

The purpose of the study was to examine what possibilities and obstacles, according to the personnel and patients in a methadone treatment, exist in the patient's social rehabilitation. How does the methadone treatment encourage the patient's social rehabilitation, what possibilities/obstacles are there according to personnel and patients? What does the patient see as important aspects of his/her social rehabilitation and what importance does the methadone have on the treatment? The results show that there are difficulties for patients to rebuild their life, find employment, start new social networks and get by with everyday tasks. The support from friends and family will simplify the patient's social rehabilitation, otherwise they get isolated and alone. Patients feel that they are fighting for a successful treatment so that they can have a relationship with friends and families again.

Results from previous studies have showed that people with depression has an impaired verbal fluency. The aim of this study was to investigate whether individuals with depression also generate more words containing negative valence. Controlled Oral Word Association test were administered to a group of 13 mildly depressed individuals and a group of 20 non depressed individuals. The fluency and valence of the words produced was analyzed.The results showed no significant differences between the groups regarding either verbal fluency or negative valence. However, a significant positive relationship was found between a negative mood and negative valence.

Business across the Internet has increased in recent years and most companies that are selling trips have increased their sales online. Many companies that are selling trips strive for customers to receive and experience a personal service online. The meeting between the client and a webpage service system on the Internet should work. Service encounters are an essential part of the contact between customer and company and play a big part in how the first impression is perceived by the customer. To understand how a service encounter works, meeting face to face, companies need to understand how customers perceive that meeting.

This study is intended to identify which factors that influence the success of initiatives in Customer Relationship Management, usually abbreviated as CRM. In the course of this study we have been in contact with forty-two companies operating in Sweden within eleven different sectors in order to find out how they operate regarding CRM initiatives, particularly initiatives within marketing and promotions. Against the data collected during the study it was concluded that the companies working with CRM believed that the CRM initiatives resulted in higher profitability and created more loyal customers. At the same time it was evident that the companies had different views on CRM as a method and its benefits. The majority of the companies could not present any tangible results from CRM-initiatives. It was also revealed that decisions regarding CRM initiatives were based on subjective assessments and without theoretical foundation.

This study is inspired by research about alliance as a common factor. The purpose is to explore the positive experiences among community-based social support workers when breaking the rules with their clients. The study questions in which situations they broke the rules and how they handled these situations related to their clients and colleges. Qualitative, individual interviews were made with four community-based social support workers who had such experiences. The results were analysed through an hermeneutic approach using Johan Asplund's theory of social responsiveness.