SUMMARYInventory of raw materials holds an important role in companies within the manufacturingsector. The inventory works as a buffer that secure the supply of materials to the productionunit. The aim of the inventory is to ensure that the company is able to meet the customers?demands despite fluctuations and variations in the material flow. The size of the warehouseand the layout are physical limitations for the quantity of articles that can be stored.

Background: The devolopment in the exchange market has attract a large number of investors. The information flow is extensive and it might be hard to follow the dynamic market. Some investors therefore choose to place their capital in a stock portfolio which is manged by a professional firm with no influence from the capital owner, this management is called discretionary managing. Purpose: the purpose of the thesis is to examine the working methods and the rationality regarding the management of the discretionary portfolios. The purpose is also to try to examine whether there is a relation between the selected risk, return and fees.

Background: Many companies have outsourced their IT-operations and their expectations of what this IT-outsourcing will contribute to the business are high. Cost cuts are not always a natural outcome of IT-outsourcing. Many companies that have outsourced their IT-operations consider it to be problematic and complex to exercise management control and reach cost control which was the purpose of the IT-outsourcing. Purpose: To describe and analyze what affect IT-outsourcing has on a company?s management control system and a company?s possibility to exercise cost control.

The number of firms adapting the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility is constantly growing. It is no longer enough only to supply your customers with demanded products and services since todays? customers have an increased awareness and are demanding more transparence when it comes to the manufacturing and responsibility for society.Along with a growing interest in social, ethical and environmental matters, many firms have received critique, consequently forcing them to start taking more responsibility for their activities. The clothing industry was among the first to get critized and therefore early in starting their work with CSR.The purpose of this paper is to investigate how firms in the clothing industry work with CSR today, and also how they choose to communicate this work, both internally and externally. The methodology of the paper is qualitative and aims to deeply investigate four different firms, along with an additional interview with a CSR-consult from one of the leading communication-firms in Sweden.The theoretical foundation includes a frame of reference around CSR and the communication thereof, and also a few relevant theories around CSR and business ethics.After analyzing the empirical material the paper have reached a few conclusions.

In recent decades, project based work form has taken a dominant role of work for many companies. Developments in the field have progressed rapidly and research has contributed to more efficient working practices. This study describes the elements that a project manager should keep in mind when he leads a project without actually being physically present, complex factors occurred and the basic approach to encounter them. The aim of this report is to examine factors that arise in the context of coordination at a distance and how companies, in their daily work, surpass these obstacles. The study does not include cultural differences, time zone differences and language differences, all very common in project management at distance.

Environmental issues is now taking a growing place in society and to ensure that companies meet public expectations and do their part in working towards a sustainable development, environmental management system is said to be an effective tool (Almgren & Brorson, 2009).This case study has examined a company's environmental management system in order to find strengths and weaknesses within the ISO 14001 system. The work was carried out using interviews, document reviews and analyzes in which the three main concepts control the report ; "daily work", "audit" and "environmental aspects".The results shows that the daily work looks different depending on where you are; in the production or at the office. The audit examined all documents related to the environmental management system and the study showed that the biggest strengths was the commitment and waste handling while areas such as environmental goals and management review needed improvement. As a result of the deficiencies identified, suggestions for improvements was proposed. The investigation of the routine of the environmental aspects showed an incomplete routine where the red wire from identification to evaluation was missing.

This degree project has been carried out by Oscar Adolfsson and Marcus Blomqvist, during the spring of 2010, both studying to become Bachelor of Science in Innovation and Design Engineering, at Karlstad University. The degree project includes 22,5 credits.The work is done on behalf of Etac Supply Center AB in Anderstorp. Etac is a company developing and manufacturing home health care products, with operation in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, England and Germany, and with sales worldwide. Bo Lindqvist, R & D manager has been the contact person at Etac.During the project the students has had a workplace at Semcon Caran AB in Karlstad. Semcon has also been helpful as a sounding board.The objective of the work has been developing a new, wall mounted shower chair, assigned for persons with difficulty to stand up while showering.Etacs requirement of the shower chair is that it should be able to support a user with a weight of 100 kg, the chair shouldn?t have any outrigger, optional should be armrests and backrest.

Discourse Analysis of editorials from Danish and Pakistani newspapers related to 'Cartoon Controversy'. The study examines the intercultural dimensions of media ethics, focusing on the meaning of freedom of speech and CSR as it is perceived by the journalists in the respective contexts.

I en mer global och konkurrensutsatt marknad krävs, i allt större utsträckning, att företag väljer att differentiera sig med specifika kundlösningar istället för den enskilda produkten. Genom att, tillsammans med kunden, skapa värde knyter man denna närmare till sig. Ett konsignationslager är en strategisk lagerlösning för att minska avstånden mellan kund och leverantör samt att minska kedjans totala lagerkostnad. SCA Timber har begränsad erfarenhet kring konsignationslager. Av den anledningen har det funnits oklarheter kring hur arbetet bör organiseras. Syftet med studien är att ta fram en best practice för hur SCA Timber ska arbeta med upprättandet av framtida konsignationslager. Studien är en multipel fallstudie av fyra verksamheter inom SCA och baseras på kvalitativa, semistrukturerade intervjuer med respondenter som varit inblandade i upprättandet av konsignationslager. Det empiriska materialet består av fjorton intervjuer. Studien utgår ifrån ett teoretiskt ramverk bestående av teorier kring projekt, kritiska framgångsfaktorer i projekt och skapandet av nyttjandevärde.

During the last two decades, temporary staffing has been the fastest growing industry in Sweden. The latest development within this industry is the integration of third-party providers of temporary staffing. Client organizations outsource the process of recruiting temporary workers to intermediaries with procurement management expertise. The concept is called Vendor Management Services (VMS) and aims to standardize decision-making and lower costs through improved efficiency. However, studies have shown that VMS intermediary functions have negative impact on placement matching.

This study was conducted on behalf of SCA forest AB, Västerbottens forest administration. Timber procurement from non-industrial private forest owners has become an increasingly important part of SCA:s wood supply. The objectives of this study was to report the current forest conditions in the private forests in the county of Västerbotten, analyse the potential for procurement of wood from private forest owners, and provide a basis for decisions on future strategies for timber procurement from private owners.Material and data have been collected from different sources, mainly from Swedish National Forest Inventory and SKA-VB08. This material was the basis for the analysis and calculations performed with the Heureka application PlanWise. This study area was divided into six different analytical areas (Coastal south, Coastal middle, Lycksele, Inland south, Inland north, Skellefteå), where each area of analysis is represented by a number of municipalities.In this study, two scenarios were specified; one describing the current forest management with current harvesting levels and the effects of these assumptions, the second to illuminate what potential there is for future timber harvesting.

The constant need of energy is something that affects us all no matter our current situation. Whether we are driving our car to work, taking the elevator or using the oven to cook dinner we end up relying on energy. Our whole society is continuously striving to achieve a higher grade of efficiency and the process of supplying ourselves with energy is no exception. The importance of appliances in our everyday life cannot be exaggerated and thus the importance of their high efficiency.Efficiency is already a keyword in the appliance industry with labels, stars and numbers helping us choosing the most suitable option for the task ahead. No matter how efficient appliances often use pure electricity as their energy source.

SammandragProblematisering: Tilla?ter kvinnliga revisorer en la?gre ma?ngd av earnings management a?n sina manliga kollegor? En va?ldigt liten del av den befintliga kvantitativa forskningen inom earnings management har fokuserat pa? om det finns skillnader i hur kvinnliga respektive manliga revisorer va?ljer att begra?nsa earnings management i ett fo?retag. Dessa underso?kningar har gjorts i la?nder som enligt World Economic Forum (WEF, 2013) rankas bland de ho?gsta i va?rlden na?r det kom- mer till ja?msta?lldhet, och det finns da?rfo?r en osa?kerhet ifall deras empiriska resultat kan appliceras i andra la?nder. A? andra sidan finns det forskning som tyder pa? att sociala strukturer sa?som ja?m- sta?lldhet pa?verkar inte bara skillnaderna mellan kvinnor och ma?n utan ocksa? synen pa? resultat manipulering.

Password Management Systems är system som hjälper användaren skapa kontroll över sinaanvändarkonton och lösenord. Denna studie analyserar tre utvalda system, hur användarvänliga de är samtvilken typ av autentisering och kryptering de använder. Metoden som används är experiment tillsammansmed intervjuer av fem deltagare, varav alla hade olika erfarenheter med datorer. Studien har visat attanvändarvänligheten bland flerparten av systemen är höga. Risker finns bland upprepade lösenord ochanvändarnamn, samt osäker autentisering.

Vi finner att ledarskapet tar sig olika uttryck beroende av kontext. Cheferna och medarbetarna har olika uppfattningar om verksamheten. Vi tolkar dessa olika verksamhetsuppfattningar som ett resultat av utebliven kommunikation. Dessutom gör personalen ingen åtskillnad mellan ledarskap och chefskap. Detta är ej heller av avgörande betydelse, så länge det resulterar i att alla har samma uppfattning om organisationens dagliga verksamhet..