It is of increasing importance to in the most effective possible way, manage and control all the transactions of raw materials, products and information that are exchanged between an organization and all its operators. These flows and the need for strategy and managing the processes of planning, implementing and control of the supply chain, has given name to the concept supply chain management. Supply chain management involves all movement and storage of raw material, and all the processes that is needed to manufacture a product from origin to consumption. Globalization, technology and increasing time and quality-based competition are all driving forces behind the concept and reasons for an increasing interest in supply chain management.The purpose of this essay is to by using a qualitative case study examine which decisive success factors that can be identified for effective supply chain management. We have compiled different theories on the subject to use for analyzing a case study Li & Fung, who is a successful supply chain management company.

CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility, has become increasingly important in a globalised world where the responsibilities of companies and governments are somewhat blurry. The textile industry is an industry where long supply chains and raw material production in developing countries are factors adding to the complexity and difficulties of solving ethical issues. Cotton production faces many environmental, social and financial challenges in the value chain. Therefore this case study takes a closer look at five Nordic home textile companies, Ikea, Hemtex, S Group, Moko and Finlayson, and how these companies choose their cotton related CSR tools and communicate their work on this area. These companies are of various sizes and therefore the resources for CSR work are also different, as well as the perceived values for working with CSR.

Container Security Initiative was launched in 2002 by the US Customs and Border Patrol in order to secure the global flow of containers destined for USA. This thesis attempts to analyze Container Security Initiative in relation to a possible future scenario made by the weapons industry where the state's global traderoutes are being subject to militarization. A development which is partly based on the threat posed by global illegal trade. The latter is discussed and defined based on current research made by Carolyn Nordstrom, Moíses Naím and theories on the cosmopolitan perspective made by Ulrich Beck. Strategy documents concerning Container Security Initiative are then analyzed in terms of discourse to try to say something about what the program indicates.

Feminist initiative ? an idea analysis.On the fourth of April in the year 2005 Feministic initiative (Fi) was created, it was an main response to the slow changes in the Swedish society, which claimed to establish an equal society. Equality has become one of the major indicators of a contemporary democratic society. The Swedish government has long proclaimed to reach this goal, but even though Sweden currently lies in the front among the democratic societies, while you consider equality issues, especially between the sexes, there is still a lot that need to be done in the Swedish society. Feministic initiative began as an organization and established a political party and participated in the election during the year 2006, but failed to reach a place in the parliament.

This paper examines how debt cancellation, given under the HIPC-initiative, has affected corruption over the period 2000-2006. The examination is foremost interesting due to earlier research showing that high corruption leads to unequal distribution of economic resources. This, combined with the objective of the HIPC initiative to reduce poverty, indicates that combating corruption must be successful in order to fulfill the goals of the initiative. A linear regression shows that countries that have benefited from the HIPC-initiative indeed have a lower corruption than other countries. A panel-data analysis shows on the other hand that no effect on corruption due to debt cancellation or reforms undertaken in the program can be confirmed..

This report is the documentation of a project in the education Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering. The project was carried out at Alfakonsult AB. The purpose of the project was to map out the transference of information between the different operators in the supply chain of medicine in Sweden and to analyse this in order to reduce lead-time and the total throughputtime. The supply chain of medicine in Sweden consists of producers, distributors, one wholesaler, prescribers and patients. The mapping of the transference of information showed that most operators in the supply chain have done well introducing technical aids to facilitate the transference of information.

Many researchers emphasize the increasing strategic importance of supply chain management, but there is still a lack of concrete guidance for managers faced with strategic decisions in supply chain. Within decision-making theories, the rational decision-making model is the most commonly used. This because of its suitable foundation, enabling a structure to the complex decision process. The rational decision-making model is today not developed to include the aspects of strategic decision-making made in supply chain. The purpose of this research is to adjust a structured rational decision-making model, making it applicable for strategic decision-making in supply chain.

Purpose - To analyze the relationship between supply chain management maturity, supply chain performance and financial performance in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME:s).Design/methodology/approach - The data comprises 15 SME:s that participated in a local logistic study in Gävleborgs län. The levels of supply chain mature within these firms were based upon an interview study and the financial performance of the firms was then examined using financial reports-based data.Findings -The results of this study indicate that there is a strong relationship between SCM maturity and SC performance in SMEs, some relationships between SCM maturity and financial performance, as well as some relationships between SC performance and financial performance. This means that if firms use maturity indicators in the SCOR areas to improve their processes, they will most likely achieve a positive effect on supply chain performance and probably also on financial performance. The result implies that the supply chain maturities in these firms are higher than expected with no one at the adHoc level.While this study is based on a rather small number of participating firms, it would be valuable to further test the significance of the indicated correlations between SCM maturity and performance in a large-scale survey.Research limitations/Implications - The research is an attempt to understand supply chain maturity and it´s implication on financial performance. Developing supply chain maturity is an opportunity for a company to gain superior performance.

Bakgrund: Begreppet Supply Chain management uppkom för att bättre kunna svara mot kundernas krav, på den föränderliga världsmarknaden. Konceptet förutsätter ett nära samarbete mellan företagen som ingår i en värdekedja, vilket gör att beroendet mellan medlemmarna ökar och relationerna blir allt viktigare. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att klarlägga makt- beroendesituationen mellan företag i en Supply Chain och därefter utreda hur dessa förhållanden påverkar relationerna mellan företagen. Genomförande: Datainsamling har skett genom personliga intervjuer och telefonintervjuer med anställda på Volvo Global Trucks samt fyra av deras leverantörer. Resultat: Makt används i Supply Chain relationer, men relationer av skiftande karaktär uppvisar skillnader i hur makt- och beroendeförhållandena ser ut.

Den växande e-livsmedelshandelns Supply Chains har studerats genom hållbarhetsglasögon där syftet var att ?[?] ge en fördjupad förståelse över hur svenska elivsmedelsaktörerarbetar med frågor rörande Sustainable Supply Chain Management?.Syftet fullgjordes genom en kvalitativ studie av tre organisationer, i vilka totalt 9 beslutsfattare intervjuades enligt ett semi-strukturerat intervjuförfarande. De data som samlades rörande e-livsmedelsaktörernas arbete med SSCM har i sin tur analyserats med hänvisning till en i förväg fastställd teoretisk referensram.Vår studie avslöjar att två av de svenska e-livsmedelsaktörerna är exemplariska och framstående med att införliva hållbarhet i sin Supply Chain. De engagerar sig aktivt i de initiativ för Sustainable Supply Chain Management som i litteraturen identifierades som nödvändiga för en verkligt hållbar Supply Chain. De har en allomfattande och övergripande strategi för att minimera den sociala risken, reducera resursutnyttjande och förorenande biprodukter i hela Supply Chain samt för att förbättra organisatoriskt inbäddade ohållbara vanor.

This Master Thesis is a part of PlymoVent?s business to customer plot, with the aim to investigate how the consumers receive the services that PlymoVent provides. With regard to PlymoVent's business strategy and reference theory, the demands of how to receive and monitor a supply chain for a better customer satisfaction where targeted. The findings refer to poor customer satisfaction due to obscure procedures in problem resolution and discrepancy handling, and vague transportation accuracy..

This study aims to investigate the origin and the development of a certain type of decision phenomena, namely political decision chains. A political decision chain is defined as a seemingly rational decision being made, that is reverted through a new decision and this for other reasons than the original decision being regarded as having fulfilled its intended purpose. The essay attempts to explain the occurrence of these decision chains through a case study in order to thoroughly examine the complexities that surround political decisions overall. The essay concludes that uncontrollable factors and chance to a large extent affect the origin of these chains, allowing actors to change the political agenda according to their preferences. The relative weighting of these factors that is made by the actors, which exist within the decision chain, makes them underestimate the relative power of other actors that may have different preferences.

Ethiopia is a developing country situated on Africa?s horn. Ethiopia ranks 173rd on United Nations human development index where the least developed country ranks 186. About 85% of all Ethiopians are employed in agriculture. Onion is one of the basic ingredients in the Ethiopian cuisine and thus an important crop.

In 2011, a crime prevention initiative was undertaken by the Swedish police department in Scania. Two years later, the Swedish media reported on this initiative, claiming that it had been intended as an ethnic registration of Romani people. This revelation resulted in a great deal of controversy and sparked a national debate on the issue of ethnicity and public registration in Sweden. The police in Scania had difficulties explaining the purpose of such a registration effort, and could not provide evidence that it had been legitimate and legal. This paper will attempt to explain the motivation behind the original police initiative with a theoretical analysis based on assessments from public authorities.

This study concerns mapping and analysing two different Supply Chains at Setra Group. Setra Group is Sweden?s biggest producer of solid wood and is primarily owned by Sveaskog, Mellanskog and LRF. The Company consist of twelve sawmills, five planning mills and an organisation for distribution of building material. This study maps one chain for Swedish Glulam standard beam and one chain for solid pine flooring on export to Japan. The glulam chain is based on spruce as raw material and includes all actors between sawmill and the Swedish building material retailers.