Generally, the economic health of Swedish roundwood truck transport companies has not been good. Profitability is important for maintaining the stability in the transport business, which is a condition for long-term transport planning in the forestry sector. The scope of this study was to identify probable factors influencing the profitability of roundwood truck transport companies and quantify the influence of these factors on economic results. The study was carried out at a major roundwood truck transport organisation in mid-Sweden and was implemented in four steps. In the first step economic results from the haulage contractors were collected and a random sample was taken from accounted net margin for the account year 2005/2006. In the second step hauliers were interviewed to identify probable success factors. At the third step data for identified factors were gathered through a questionnaire.

Understanding how innovation and renewal occurs in an industry is important for how to manage technical development for individual companies. It is also important for creating a beneficial industrial context for renewal, from both a political and an industrial perspective, in which new solutions can arise and spread through the involvement of several actors of the industry. How innovation and renewal occurs in the construction industry in Sweden is however viewed differently. One challenge that has been pointed to is that most of the work performed in the construction industry is organized in projects, which in turn should affect how innovation and renewal can be achieved. The aim of this thesis is to provide an understanding of how the project organizing in the industry affects innovation and renewal. This is executed through a case study of the construction of Skandionkliniken, a proton therapy clinic, and by using an industrial network theory that challenges the traditional view of how innovation is achieved.

The Swedish boat industry is considered quite conservative and subject to only limited development. The purpose of the study is to explain the structure of the boat industry, to analyze and evaluate ways of competing and provide recommendations for developing a competitive strategy. The aim of this thesis is to explain how to be competitive in the Swedish boat industry. To be able to do so three areas are used to deepen as well as broaden the understanding. The three areas within competitiveness we have chosen to highlight are differentiation, individualization and distribution.

This report investigates the possibility to use non-petroleum based adhesive (biobitumen) in asphalt. The main reasons for replacing bitumen are the fact that oil prices are rising, the threat of peak oil and the fact that the asphalt industry is becoming more environmentally friendly.The main purpose of this report is to investigate whether there are any non-petroleum based adhesives on the market. If so, how can they be used? The questions covered are:? Are there any other alternative asphalt coatings available?? Can bio-oils be used in asphalt?? If the bio-oils can be used, what are the details their properties?? How does a cold climate affect the bio binders?? What is the Swedish asphalt industry?s opinion about bio asphalt?The project was concluded through literature studies, consultations with people in the asphalt industry and through several interviews.The conclusion of this report is that there are some existing non-petroleum based adhesives on the market. They are mainly used for bike paths, sidewalks and parkareas.

Transportation of pigs might be a welfare problem. Stress during and after transportation can negatively affect the meat quality or cause carcass damages, which leads to major economic losses every year. The transportation chain can be divided into several stages; loading, transport and unloading. This literature review focuses on unloading of pigs from a transport. When arriving at an abattoir pigs can be fatigued and need to be as smoothly unloaded as possible.

The name of the thesis is?Istheprintedbook?sdeaththeauthorsbread??Astudyinhowthepublishinghouses?andtheauthors?relationshipschangeduetotheintroductionofthee--?book?Thee--?book,whichisadigitalcopyoftheprintedbook,hasbeenonthemarketforovertwodecades.However,itisnotuntilnowthatchangesarehappeningwithintheindustry,whichaffectsthedifferentactors.Amazonhasforexamplelaunchedane--?readerbythenameKindleonthemarketandApplehaslaunchedasurfpadbythenameiPad,bothwhichyouareabletoreade--?bookson.Thetechnologicalchangesthatarehappeningaffecttheactorswithinthebookindustryaswellasthestructureoftheindustry.Theresearchquestionofthisthesisis?owdothepublishinghouses?andtheauthors?relationshipswithinthebookindustrychangeduetotheintroductionofthee--?book??Actor--?networktheoryisusedtoinvestigatethis.Thetheoryincludesbothhumanandnon--?humanactors,whichtogethercancreateanetwork.Theactorswithinthenetworkconnectthemselvestoeachotherandtherebyformthenetwork.Thepurposeofthisthesisistocreateanunderstandingforhowactorsandtheirrelationshipswithinanestablishedindustrystructureareaffectedbydigitalisation.Toachievethis,semi--?structuredinterviewswereconductedwithpublishinghousesandauthors.Theboomofthee--?bookinlargepartdependsuponthetechnicaldevelopmentthathasoccurredandwhichhasintroducedsmartphones,e--?readers,surfpadsetceteraonthemarket.Moreactorswillariseinthebookindustryduetothedigitalisation,whichinturnwillaffecttheexistingrelationshipsofthepublishinghousesandtheauthors.Thepublishinghouseswillkeeptheirroleinthenetworksasakeyplayer,butcomeintocontactwithmoreactors.Theauthorsaregiventhechancetoself--?publishtheirbooksase--?books,whichmakethemcomeintocontactwithmoreactorsaswell.Asmoreactorsarise,thestructurewithintheindustrybecomesrelaxed.Hence,thepublishinghousesneedtoenrolthenewactorsinorderforthemtokeeptheirpositioninthenetwork..

The forest industry is one of the most important industry branches in Sweden. Since the demand of high precision wood deliveries has increased, the demand on a well constructed forest road net also has increased. A good road net gives the wood-supplier competition advantages and also increases its service level towards its customers, lumber-mills and pulp-mills. In some parts of Norrbotten, the road net is still insufficient and not yet built out enough, and that is why it is important to know how to act and where to improve the road net in these areas. The purpose of this thesis was to create a work-model for long term road planning in areas with no road net or a not yet complete road net. The model has been created in an ArcGis environment, where a long chain of tools has been tied together with the program ?Model builder?.

Logistics is an important concept in the organizational context in which the planning of flows, services and products are treated. Logistics handles supplier management, supply of materials, production and distribution. The distribution of goods can be managed with different types of transportation depending on price and time aspects. The lowest transport cost for larger amount of goods is by maritime shipping. A common carrier used in transportation of goods is a standardized ISO- container.

This study was made for the round wood transport company MT Transport AB. Time studies were made in order to analyze time consumption on the mill site for timber trucks delivering round wood at the Södra Cell Mörrum mill. The most interesting was to see how much of the time spent at the factory that was waiting time. In three weeks the study was going on and the drivers were clocking it themselves..

This paper argues that the food industry in general and the one taking place in Scania in particular, are disregarded in the official management of industrial preservation carried out in Sweden today. Despite the articulated ambition of a cultural heritage that as many as possible could identify with, the practice tend to create an industrial heritage based on stereotype ideas about the landscape in Sweden and the characteristics of industry. The way the open land of Scania differs from the traditional image of the appearance of Sweden, is used as one possible way to explain why the food industries of Scania are overseen in the management of industrial heritage. It is also argued that the high number of female employees might bee a reason why the food industries in general are given low priority in the practice of cultural heritage. By putting the Findus pea industry and the cultivated landscape that provides the factory with primary products against the official criteria for industrial memories, it is examined what values for preservation the food industry contain..

Transportation represents 10-15 % of wood supply costs. It is therefore important to improve efficiency in the transport system to decrease these costs. The aim of this study is to map the timber vehicle routing processes used by a sample of timber hauling contractors and to identify possible links between the vehicle routing process and service and economic variables. The study was carried out at Södra Skog in autumn 2008. 15 timber hauling contractors were sampled and interviewed about their work with timber transports.

The objective of this thesis is to examine the capital structure of Swedish small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Accounting data from Swedish game developers, combined with the result from a survey, is used to examine their financial conditions and capital structure decisions. We find that non-debt tax shield, firm size, growth opportunities and age are, to various extents, the determinants of capital structure in the game industry, while effective tax rate and asset structure have marginal effects. Our study also implicates that most of the existing capital structure theories can explain SMEs leverage decisions to some extent; however, some adaptation is needed to fit these theories into the SME context. Additionally, we find the existence of a financial gap in the game industry which might need efforts from both demand side and supply side to eliminate..

Stressful routines for animal handling can reduce immune function and productivity of animals. If stakeholders are handling animals aversively, animals will show increased expressions of fear for humans and higher stress levels which lead to the compromise of animals? welfare. In Ethiopia, there are no legislations to protect animals from suffering or discomfort. The main objective of this study was therefore to analyse welfare of cattle on animal markets in Ethiopia and map out supply chains of animals to these markets.

Natural disasters are becoming more common due to climate change and it is important to adapt the society and its infrastructure to withstand events such as extreme rainfall. Precipitation is an important climatic factor affecting the transport and annually generates the cost of millions in damages, over the past 40 years heavy rain has increased and will continue to increase in the future. The extreme rainfall that occurred in Kramfors municipality in September 2013 led to flooding and destroyed several roads, including highway 90, which recently both had been rebuilt and given a new stretch of road. Extreme rainfall had also occurred in the municipality earlier.  The aim of the thesis was to examine how the Swedish Transport Administration handles new knowledge gained after natural disasters and how this is used in the planning of new roads.

This Projects goal was to develop a manual, which was to be used as help for a fishing company in the making of an SMS (Safety Management System). The manual was going to follow the guidelines presented by the IMO (International Maritime Organisation) and the Swedish Transport Agency. The projects client was a smaller fishing company that was about to build a fishing vessel.The work has been carried out as a project, it was finished within the schedule and the client was most satisfied with the result. The client has used the manual in the making of the Safety Booklet (SMS) and they are now certified according to the rules of the Swedish Transport Agency..