With the globalization, companies in the West chose to shift production to developing countries to cut down costs. This had a major impact when child labor and very poor working conditions in these factories were discovered and led many companies to take responsibility for their suppliers and the employees by adopting voluntary so-called Codes of Conduct.There is a subtle balance to enforce improvement of working conditions for employees at suppliers´ factories and to keep costs down. On the one hand, companies would like to conduct extensive audits at their suppliers to ensure code of conduct compliance and thus protect their legitimacy. On the other hand, audits are expensive so companies would like to minimize audits to keep costs down. Companies thus have to strike a delicate balance in relation to how many and what suppliers they choose to audit.

Background: Investors have several options to choose from when the goal is to achieve the highest yield at the lowest cost and risk. Stocks are a common investment options, but is also associated with risks. Portfolios are usually constructed with several different assets to reduce the unsystematic risk of investment. Funds are similar to composite stock portfolios, the big difference is that they dealt with in their entirety and investors may not affect the fund's content. The problem remains that whether you choose stocks or mutual funds there is still uncertainty as to how the future will unfold.

This master thesis has three purposes. The first purpose is to give a theoretical background of how to divide up forest estates and to study how the legal system for these matters works. A literature study has been carried out to give the background and a theoretical model has been made for analysing the law cases. The first purpose also partly touched the decision process in dividing up forest estates from point of view of the law of land parcelling (FBL), point of view. The second purpose is to examine effects of a change of production requirements in 3 cap.7 § FBL as regards dividing up forest estates of private forest owners.

Syftet med detta examensarbete är att sammanställa maskinkostnader för etableringsmetoderna plöjningsfritt och konventionellt. Vi vill även titta på hur stor kapacitet som behövs på maskinparken för den tänkta gården på 600 ha åker, detta för att hinna etablera grödan inom ett rimligt tidsspektra. Anledningen till att vi valt ett företag på 600 ha är att det är den areal tröskan klarar av att avverka inom rimlig tid. Det medför att vi måste ta en del hänsyn till lägligheten och hur mycket av tiden som är så kallat ?tjänligt väder?.

This study will chart the changeover work, with a standpoint in the SMED-theory, at the company Peter Ernst AB in Värnamo. They are suppliers in plastic moulding industry and delivers to amongst other Saab in Trollhättan and Scania. The company are in a very competitive market, and they have to make manufacturing more efficient and rationalise their costs to be able to compete. A big problem, which the company has identified, is their long changeovers. It brings higher costs, a more stressful work climate and holds back the company from becoming more efficient.Field studies will be conducted on the changeover, which will be observed and filmed.

The costs of logging and of transportation with truck are dominating the total cost of wood delivered at industry. To support the profitability for the members' forestry the processing and handling with the timber has to be as efficient as possible. Increased length of pulpwood in thinning is one conduct that can result in higher productivity and/or lower costs. The study is scaled as a system analysis with the aim to exemplify the differences between working with 3- and 4-meter as standard length of pulpwood, related to biological aspects, timber receipts, cost of logging and cost of transportation with truck. Important aspects are if the change is technically and biologically feasible and economically profitable.

The cost of construction projects have increased during the past few years. Different actors in the construction industry work together to advocate various measures to mitigate these cost increases. One of these measures is to try to improve the efficiency in the phase of production. By striving for a kind of standardization with a constant quest for improvement, the productivity can increase while the costs of production fall.For this thesis has a case study been conducted at the construction company JM AB which is seeking this. They call the approach structured production and have implemented various measures to achieve a more productive output.Based on information from reconciliations, the cost and the spent hours of craftsmen have been analyzed at the company where the case study took place.

With the globalization, companies in the West chose to shift production to developing countries to cut down costs. This had a major impact when child labor and very poor working conditions in these factories were discovered and led many companies to take responsibility for their suppliers and the employees by adopting voluntary so-called Codes of Conduct.There is a subtle balance to enforce improvement of working conditions for employees at suppliers´ factories and to keep costs down. On the one hand, companies would like to conduct extensive audits at their suppliers to ensure code of conduct compliance and thus protect their legitimacy. On the other hand, audits are expensive so companies would like to minimize audits to keep costs down. Companies thus have to strike a delicate balance in relation to how many and what suppliers they choose to audit.

Studiens första syfte är att med institutionell teori kartlägga det kontraktsnät som konstituerar den europeiska marknaden för professionella herrgolfare. Det andra syftet är att analysera och diskutera vissa utvalda aspekter av detta kontraktsnät som utmärker Europatouren från traditionella vinstmaximerande företag. Den europeiska marknaden för proffsgolfare har organiserats i ett företag för att det är ekonomiskt fördelaktigt. Med Europatouren som en sammanhållande länk begränsas transaktionskostnaderna bl.a. genom att antalet kontraktsvägar reduceras och genom att utrymme för långsiktiga relationer med viktiga parter skapas.

In this thesis proposals for different designs of a borehole thermal energy storage (BTES) have been developed for the building DN-huset in Stockholm, Sweden. To build a BTES results in savings in energy costs by approximately 44 %, i.e. 2 million Swedish crowns annually. Furthermore, a BTES would reduce the annual environmental impact with roughly 75-157 tonnes of CO2 equivalents per year, depending on how the electricity consumption?s environmental impact is estimated.

Silviculture in young stands in Sweden is below the mark concerning what has to be done in the forest, and it is time to solve the problem. The problem will not be solved only by the private forest owners, professional help is needed. Skogsägarna Mellanskog is one of four forest unions in Sweden who wants to play a role and take responsibility for forestry in the middle of Sweden. This academic essay is based on a market survey sent to 350 forest owners in the Örebro district. 186 of them answered the questions, giving a response frequence of 53 percentage. The purpose of the essay is to find the determining factors which will make a forest owner to find a collaborator when planning and carrying out the silviculture measures in young stands. The result of the survey shows that the forest owners are anxious about the price and the costs. The costs have a severe effect if the silviculture measures in young stands will be carried out or not.

In Sweden there are currently two separate guidelines you may use whenperforming calculations on frameworks, BKR and the Eurocodes. Although at theend of 2010 you are not allowed to use BKR any longer and only the Eurocodeswill be viable. The aim of this thesis is to explain how the Eurocodes and EKS work and alsohow they compare to the current guideline BKR. Similarities and differencesbetween these guidelines are also discussed so that the reader will get a betterunderstanding of how the Eurocodes are applied. The areas discussed are asfollows:Principles and adviceSafety ClassesSymbols and IndexesLifespanLoads and partial coefficientThe thesis also deals with the impact that this transition into a new guideline willhave on corporations, guideline costs, education and computer software. As anexample a rough estimate on what costs this transition will create on a companywith 20 employees is also included. Calculations have been performed in order to investigate how the design valuesdiffer between the two guidelines, the Eurocodes and BKR.

This thesis project has focused on studying ÅF?s business concept Energy Collaboration, which is their way of selling energy efficiency services. Thereforeongoing projects have been analyzed. The purpose was to determine achieved energy efficiency, costs and profitability for the studied projects. It was concluded that the Energy Collaboration is a good way of selling energy efficiency services, since the customer takes no risk and energy savings of about 15-25 % can be achieved with simple measures.

With the globalization, companies in the West chose to shift production to developing countries to cut down costs. This had a major impact when child labor and very poor working conditions in these factories were discovered and led many companies to take responsibility for their suppliers and the employees by adopting voluntary so-called Codes of Conduct.There is a subtle balance to enforce improvement of working conditions for employees at suppliers´ factories and to keep costs down. On the one hand, companies would like to conduct extensive audits at their suppliers to ensure code of conduct compliance and thus protect their legitimacy. On the other hand, audits are expensive so companies would like to minimize audits to keep costs down. Companies thus have to strike a delicate balance in relation to how many and what suppliers they choose to audit.

The Swedish forest industry has put a lot of resources in the development of digital communications in hopes of improving collaboration with suppliers. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether VIDA would benefit from using digital communication with suppliers. The survey was conducted as a questionnaire study among the company?s staff and its suppliers. The result indicated needs and interests to use digital communications in both groups. Young suppliers and suppliers on a distance showed the most interest in using digital communication. In terms of using these digital communications, the staffs and suppliers were most interested in information regarding transaction and forestmanagement plans.