The structure and performance of grocery distribution in Sweden has changed profoundly since the second world war. Increasing access and usage of the private car, in combination with an accommodating town planning has enhanced the exploitation of scale economies within distribution firms. There is, however, some ambiguity concerning the overall efficiency of the distribution system when the costs associated with travelling and purchasing performed by households are treated as an integrated part of the total distribution cost function. The purpose of this master thesis is to develop the foundation of a spatial optimisation model, which defines the most efficient distribution system. The underlying idea is that the optimal localisation and size of grocery stores is a function of economies of scale within the firms weighed against distributions costs within the households, such as transportation costs.

The change in course recently taken by the Swedish Armed Forces results in an increased use of equipment, and thereby increased requirements of preventive maintenance. This paper aims to examine the current responsibilities for preventive maintenance in an army unit. The intended effect of this examination is to disclose possible flaws, and to help make routines for preventive maintenance more effective.The questions asked in this paper are;Who, in an army unit, is responsible for the routine maintenance?When is this responsibility valid?What demands does the technical service have on responsibilities for the routine maintenance?How are these demands met?How ought to be responsible for the routine maintenance?To answer these questions the author has chosen to use a descriptive method to show the current facts. A theorizing method is chosen to, from described facts, clarify the demands of the technical service on routine maintenance.

Shock absorber units play a key role in establishing the driving dynamics and performance of automobiles. Öhlins Racing has manufactured high-tech automotive shock absorbers for over 30 years. Öhlins Racing?s advanced technology has contributed to over 200 world championships in automobile racing. Öhlin?s manufacturing process has long utilized automated fluid filling equipment during the final shock absorber unit assembly stage. The filling process consists of vacuum pumping the shock absorber unit and subsequent transfer of fluid. Vacuum pumping is necessary to remove residual air from the shock absorber unit prior to initiating the liquid filling stage. The presence of undesirable gases drastically compromises the performance of a shock absorber. The filling degree, defined as the final ratio of air to oil, is determined by the specific filling protocol as well as the specific equipment utilized.The current investigation aims to develop a viable technique to accurately determine residual air content in shock absorber units. If the filling degree can be appropriately quantified for a specific manufacturing process, then the air/oil ratio may be quantitatively related to shock absorber performance. The utilized measurement method must be completely integrated into the manufacturing process to guarantee shock absorber performance specifications according to the manufacturer?s standards. By utilizing the measurement method developed in this work, the manufacturing process, manufacturing equipment and product specifications can all be tailored to provide improved filling conditions.The developed measurement method provides accurate quantification of the filling degree under a wide range of processing conditions. The method establishes the relative quantity of air in the shock absorber unit by performing in-situ compressibility tests. The fill ratio can be controlled and varied by manipulating the vacuum pressure exerted during the filling process. Performance tests, however, indicate no correlation between filling degree and unit performance..

Kitron had wishes to be able to test and measure how disturbance affects their vehicle electronic units before they have been verified by SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden in Borås. This work started with the writing of a demand specification together with Kitron for a product PSQS, Power Supply Quality Simulator, which can generate some test pulses according to a standard for electronic units to Volvos vehicles. A design proposal was developed with the help the demand specification and was verified with the help of simulations. All electric schematics was designed with the guide of the design proposal. The pulses realized in the works of this thesis are those which Kitron experienced that they have a need to test in their own premises and which are possible to generate with the means available.

This study was conducted at Glimek AB, a company that has chosen to decentralize its central storage unit in order to increase production efficiencies. The purpose of the study was to identify the problems in the production cycle that lead to the decision to decentralize the central storage unit, as well as identifying what the decentralization entails. The effects of the decentralization have not been analyzed in the study, and consequently neither financial nor production disadvantages have been considered.Appropriate questions were formulated based on the chosen underlying theories, and were asked to selected individuals with relevant knowledge. The study is based on the information that was gathered from interviews with management as well as staff within the company. In addition, supporting information such as flowcharts, drawings, orders and decision support documents were supplied by the company.

This study is based on interviews with five unit managers working in the functional disabilities business. The purpose of this paper is to examine how these unit managers see their roles and their leadership, and to give the reader an insight into what it might entail to be a manager in social work. Theories applied are the role theory and three leadership theories. The previous research this study made ??use of affects ?leadership in social work" and "manager's role and leadership style."Being a unit manager of the functional disabilities business means having a so-called middle management position, which entails expectations being directed upon them from various avenues.

Our aim with this study is to explore socialworkers perception of what is a good treatment is and how to establish good relationship with their clients. We have decided to limit our study with social workers in Economic assistance and Abuse Units in social servises and explore if we can discern any differences between the units. We have chosen to use qualitative methods to achieve the aim of this study. We interviewed a total of seven social workers, of which three were from Abuse unit and four were from Economic assistance unit. One of the theoretical frame we have used is Goffmans (1970, 1974) theories about social interaction in which he explains the social encounter between social workers and clients.

Konsumenterna i studien visar på en mångfald av beteenden när det kommer till hur de påverkas av butikskonceptet. Upplevelserna i butikerna är många och varierar mellan konsumenterna. Olika typer av konsumtion skildras, bland annat genomförs nöjesshopping och målorienterad shopping av konsumenterna i studien. Syftet med uppsatsen är att skapa en förståelse och ge insikt i hur konsumenters beteende kan påverkas av butikskoncept. Butikskoncept är ett bredare perspektiv av butiksmiljön som dessutom innefattar sociala faktorer.

Shoplifting is a serious problem due to the fact that about 2 % of a retail store's turnaround dis-appears annually. This paper discusses the problem with shoplifting where a closed retail display of glass can prevent this kind of misbehavior. Hitherto the scientific research regarding how consumers react to a closed retail display is non-existing. With this in mind we want to investigate and enlighten the phenomenon regarding consumer behavior and product appreciation. The study is carried out at a retailer in the beauty industry in Sweden both in stores where the selection of perfumes have been displayed behind glass and in stores in which they have been displayed with open access.

When a combined heat and power plant produces heat and power it often faces a deficit of heat load during the summer or other periods of time. This heat is often unnecessarily cooled away or the power production has to be reduced or shut off. If it is possible to store heat from periods with low heat demand to periods with high heat demand one can get many benefits. Among these benefits are: increased power production, decreased operation with partial load, uniformly distributed load.To be able to store heat in situations like this long-term thermal heat storages are needed. In this thesis five different types of stores are presented: rock cavern storage, tank storage, pit water storage, borehole storage and aquifer storage.

The aim of this thesis is to examine how salesperson control can be exercised in a retail store environment. A case study has been performed on a Swedish fashion company emphasizing the relationship between the company?s upper level management and their retail store operations in order to describe, analyze and classify the prevailing management control mechanisms. The paper presents an agency theoretical approach to the relationship applying behavior- and outcome based control theory, performance measurement theory and incentives theory in order to give a comprehensive image of the control system. The main finding is that the company?s management control system as applied to the sales force in its retail stores can be categorized as mainly behavior-based despite several explicit outcome-based features..

Until the sixties potatoes have had a unthreatened position at the Swedish dining tables, but then different alternatives such as rice and pasta have become popular. In 2005 the Swedish potato-consumption have more than hafted compared with the sixties, we have gone from circa 90 to 40 kilograms per person and year. This paper aims to provide those who are involved within the potatoe business with an overview of the attitude and behaviour towards potatoes that are being held by Swedish consumers. In order to reach to the conclusion, in- store interviews had been held with customers in the cities of Stockholm and Malmö. The interviews showed that the typical potato-consumer prefers to choose and in pick their own potatoes to a bag in the store in favour of the pre-packed alternatives. Based on the outcome of the interviews a number of conclusions could be drawn. The consumers were of the perception that the pre-packed alternatives were too big for their households.

Fuel pellets are a refined bio fuel mostly consisting of residues from sawmills and wood industry. At Rindi Västerdala AB's combined bio energy plant in Vansbro fuel pellets are produced, while the waste heat from the process is used for district heating. The pellets are produced from sawdust, wood shavings and dry wood chips that is dried, milled and pressed into small cylindrical rods. The advantage of refining the wood material in this manner is that the energy value is greater per unit volume and unit weight, thereby the cost of transportation per energy unit is reduced. Also, less storage space is needed.Pellet manufacturing is a complex process since many parameters affects the final results.

The aim of this master's thesis is a comparative study on units for civic information in Göteborg. The study is based on a project currently in progress at the main public library in Göteborg. It is observed that according to the library's mission statement the library aims to become the most competent intermediary of civic information in Göteborg. This statement suggests a competitive strategy towards other intermediaries of civic information. The mission statement does, however, also state that their goal is to be obtained in cooperation with other intermediaries.

The purpose of this essay is to examine which factors that influence the design of internal control in municipal context and how well it works. We choose seven municipals, where we interviewed the administrative managers, the chairmen of the committees and two persons of the staff in each activity unit. The interviews were performed by telephone, due to the keeping of the essay?s timeframe.The theory in our essay comprises eight hypotheses. These hypotheses were operationalised into different variables aiming to make statistical tests possible.