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 background of this study is the fact that it nowadays is more common to grow wheat after wheat. Usually we plow every autumn to remove the straw, and we wanted to study the effect of alternative methods to do it. We have done this experiment to answer the question if no tillage is better than conventional plowing. The results of the field experiment indicate that there is a link between plant establishment and the choice of equipment, but also a higher weed pressure in experimental plots with only ground tillage. The equipments which left much straw on the top of the ground the problems with fungi were more severe.

The debate about questions concerning corporate governance has intensified in Sweden the last decade. From July 1th 2008, the Swedish Code for Corporate Governance was extended to comprise all Swedish companies listed on the OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm. Our aim with this master thesis is to examine the effect of the Revised Code on Swedish corporate governance and in particular its contribution to creating value or costs. We do this through a qualitative study of 22 interviews with representatives for different interests. With our study, we have found that the Revised Code in several areas has had considerable influence on Swedish corporate governance.

The purpose of this report is to survey Swedex AB?s production costs and to gather all info into a manageable calculation tool. This was made by time and motion studies, interviews of the personnel. All factors were gathered into an Excel chart.The calculation was made according to an additional-charge-method that was considered to satisfy Swedex AB?s goal.

During the 1970?s the interest for quality management and the concept of quality costs increased considerably. Business leaders noticed that there was a great potential for reducing costs of poor quality. Since up to 10-30% of a company?s total turnover may consist of poor quality costs some consider them as an unexploited goldmine.

The construction industry has been heavily criticized in the past few years for its development of productivity compared to the manufacturing industry. In 2009 the Social Care Center developed a report that treated och criticized different errors within the construction industry. For instance competence, construction errors and performance had showned bad results which had to be improved. A common sentence within the building industry is that ?every project is unique?. Today it?s common for a construction company to have costs for material and services which exceeds two-thirds of the total cost.

This degree project is based on identifying and allocation of costs in a packaging section at Electrolux Distriparts in Torsvik.The purpose of this thesis is to identify the costs that emerge when packaging different articles and show how the costs are allocated. The report also contains improvement suggestions about how the company can use the current computer system more efficient.The methods that have been used in order to approach the problem and the collection of information have mainly been literature study, interviews and observation.The work started with answering the questions; which expenditure cost and direct cost exist in the section, how can they be allocated, if improvement can be done and how the flow of information is supposed to happen.In order to answer the questions we used our former experience and the knowledge we achieved by reading literature, interview relevant persons in the company and observations carried out in the section.Through our studies, we came up with an Excel file, which is the groundwork for a template that can be used by the company in different occasions depending on the situation and need. It is important to remember to modify the template if the presumptions change. In the template, we have identified the different kind of costs that emerge when packaging different articles and we have also allocated the costs. In addition formulas and estimations that are necessary for the cost calculation are presented.The work consisted in making the groundwork for a template.

Sandvik Group is a global engineering corporation within materials technology and produces, among other things, band sawsteel. In order to develop custom relations, custom benefits and the supply chain Sandvik wants to become more acquainted with its customers. Improved feedback means that Sandvik will be able to develop its products in a customized direction. This thesis is a tool for educating and developing sales staff. As a support a calculation tool that can be used as a sales aid has been developed.

Introduction: Bokföringsnämnden started the K-project in 2004. The purpose was to collect rules and standards for different categories of companies in a complete set of regulations. Small businesses were given the option to choose between K3 which is the main regulatory and K2 which is a simplified regulatory framework. One specific difference between the regulations is that companies may not capitalize development costs if the company applies K2, this may causes problems for the companies that can give rise to such costs.Purpose: The purpose is to explain the problems that companies have identified in the choice of regulatory frameworks and the implications that may follow the specific rule in K2 on the company's activities and financial report.Frame of reference: K3 contains definitions and requirements that must be met so development costs can be capitalized in a company. Information presented in the financial statements should be relevant to the reader.

This is a work that look at the factors that affect future monthly costs when buying a house in Sweden and which options are the most financially favorable over a 30 year period. The work also examines whether it is economically beneficial to invest in a low-energy house regardless of geographic location in Sweden, and discuss about whether a calculation template can help individuals to choose more environmentally friendly options. The work has been limited so that a certain number of predetermined factors and its measurable values have been developed with the help of a literature study. The factors chosen are building type, climate, heating systems, loan interest rates, energy prices, energy price increases, inflation rates and down payment. These are then combined into 72 different calculation cases which get put in a calculation model made in excel.

Lean Production is used by many manufacturing companies. Companies in process industries do not use Lean Production to the same extent today. This is part of the report's issue to explore how Lean Production can be applied to a company in the process industries.The investigated company is a processing company that manufactures various types of foil. The company wishes to streamline its production and has therefore asked the authors to examine if Lean Production can offer the company improvements in their production. Lean Production value stream mapping tool has been selected to identify and analyze the current state of two of its products in production.

The spruce bark beetle (Ips typographhus) is one of the 25 000 species of insects in Sweden, an insect of great economic importance because it can alone terminate forest of high value. During the past decade, insights of climate change received with increasing attention. If the future brings a milder climate in the north and therefore a longer growing season, one would think that it would only affect the forestry to the better? Yet in recent time, outbreaks after storm felling seems to occur more frequently. The Spruce bark beetle ruins millions of cubic meter of Norway spruce (Picea abies) in Sweden alone, with more frequent storm felling and a larger amount of wind thrown threes in the forests there will also be room for an advancing reproduction.

Fuel wood is currently the third largest assortment from the forest in Sweden after pulpwood and lumber. Branches and tops i.e. logging residues are one of the assortments of fuel wood which is a common by-product after harvesting nowadays. The way to utilize, disintegrate and transport the logging residues varies between northern and southern Sweden. Branches and tops are collected throughout the year at appropriate stands, but are consumed mainly wintertime.

Evaluating and choosing suppliers based on price alone, has traditionally been the dominant strategy for supplier selection within the purchasing function. With the origin of the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)-concept in the early 1990s, a new philosophy dawned that promoted the importance of knowing the effects of supplier performance on the buying firm?s internal costs. Since then, scholars have been arguing the case of TCO as a viable model for making purchasing decisions and conducting supplier evaluation. Still, after two decades little is known about its penetration and impact on the practices of buying corporations, leaving the questions of which costs are included in the purchasing organisations? decisions unanswered, and even more importantly why certain costs are considered and others not.

Since the 1980s, companies have taken a larger interest in quality and it´s economic impact within the company. Having the knowledge that it´s not quality that costs money, but it´s rather the lack of quality. The work immerses itself in the field of cost of poor quality and the development of key performance indicators.The thesis is performed at Bufab Holding in Värnamo. Bufab Holding is a trading company which mainly buys and sells C-parts. C-parts include fasteners, other small metal-, rubber- or plastic parts such as wires, springs and electronic fasteners.The aim of this thesis was to make a survey of the cost of poor quality and to find key performance indicators (KPI) for cost of poor quality that can be continuously monitored.