Due to a constantly increasing competitive pressure it is of great importance to constantly strive for improvements in order to gain competitive advantages. Lean Production is a concept that has been introduced with the aim to minimize waste and increase profitability. The purpose of this report is therefore to investigate how to perform effective planning according to the principles of Lean Production, in companys with customer exclusive products, through a case study at Sandvik Mining and Construction (SMC), and to investigate how SMC kan improve their planning of drifting rods at the production unit in Sandviken.The study started by creating a theoretical framework, to describe the subject planning and planning based on Lean Production. This frame work constituted the base for the case study which took place at Sandvik Mining and Construction, and also for the model and planning tool that has been introduced.The result of the study is partly a general model with factors that contribute to a more effective planning. These factors has beed identifed as SMED, which focuses on reducing set up times and in the end to facilitate the planning.

The aim of this study is about how school librarians useweblogs as a working tool. I wanted to examine how someschool librarians use weblogs as a working tool and why theyare using them. I also wanted to know the advantages anddisadvantages they see with this tool. I believe that children andteenagers are interested in social media- tools and also are bigusers and consumers of these tools. Therefore I thought it mightbe interesting to examine how school librarians who havechildren and young people as their main target group, work withweblogs which is one of many social media tools.The methodology used for this study is interviews.

An increasing number of automotive supplier companies are investing in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in order to gain cost advantages. This has happened in a rapid pace since many of these countries did not have any foreign direct investments (FDI) at the turn of the century. The problem now is for how long these countries will be able to maintain the low costs. One purpose was to create a model of country advantages for automotive supplier companies when relocating further production to CEE. This dissertation was written in cooperation with the Trelleborg Group.

The aim writing this essay is to understand and to explain difficulties with communications during sign language interpreting at the Video Relay Service (VRS). Another aim is also to identify the necessery conditions for communications at the VRS and to investigate why difficulties may arise in lack of these necessary conditions. The questions of this essay are: Which are the vital important difficulties in communication at the VRS and why do these difficulties arise?To answer these questions, four sign language interpreters working with the VRS, have been interviewed. These interviews constitute the empirical data of the essay.

This study covers reading comprehension and the introduction of the "Tell me" approach as proposed by Chambers (1993) to a group of teachers in a Swedish F-3 school. Five teachers got to use the method for three weeks and were interviewed before and after the experiment to analyze their current ways of working and reactions to using the method in everyday tutoring. The result from the first interview showed that all of the participants had been using methods to improve the children?s reading comprehension prior to the study, but no one had tried the "Tell me" approach. After trying the method throughout the test period, all of the participants were positive about the methodology and showed an interest in continuing the use of it.

The aim of this study is to illustrate, and analyze how social workers are able to more effectively pursue operative possibilities within their own particular organizations. The main question concerning this issue is: How are social workers, working within the same district organization able to realise any potential for co-operation with other social workers, in different locales and units, yet working within the same organization? Following on from this question, further issues arise such as: 1. How do the varying demands of the clients affect the workload of the social worker? 2.

This thesis investigates the effects of active ownership on the return on assets (ROA) of Swedish listed companies during the years 2003 to 2013. Active ownership is operationalized based on the probabilistic voting model that is used to calculate the minimum amount of shares the largest shareholder needs in order to possess control of a contested vote at the shareholder meeting. We study the three largest lists on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, having 1454 observations from 207 companies to test our hypothesis. The main result from the study is that there's a significant positive relationship between active ownership and ROA during the investigated period. The active owners' relative strength also proves to have a significant positive relationship to ROA..

The purpose of this thesis is to outline an appropriate model in order for companies to successfully act and compete physically as wholesalers at the same time as acting on the virtual market by selling directly to the end consumer. The approach of this thesis is hermeneutical and abductive with elements of hypothetically deductive approach. Our research has a qualitative research strategy based on case studies and interviews as well as on secondary data. Interviews were conducted with the case company JaymJay Wear AB as well as with other companies, so called mini cases. The secondary data consists mainly of textbooks, web sites and journals.

The aim of this essay was to describe and interpret the managements and organizations impact regarding the caregivers working conditions. To examine this we used a qualitative method. We completed two group interviews and five individual interviews with a total of fifteen enrolled nurses that worked within elderly care. In our interviews we found that the enrolled nurses felt that the organizations economic interests collided with their personal values regarding good quality elderly care. We also found that the caregivers experienced that they had an impact on their working conditions and that their employer was the main reason for making it possible..

The aim of this final thesis is to make it easier for the customer of a new designed house to get a picture of what the house will look like inside before it has been built.A method, which can be applied by any construction company who likes to visualize there buildings, has been designed and tested. One works after a regular design planning which is transformed into a three dimensional model of the house. In a rendering program, materials and surfaces are chosen for the model and then a picture of the finished product is made. The programs used for this work are ADT 2006 and VIZ Render.To evaluate the use of this method I?ve chosen to cooperate with LB-Hus which is a housing company that is specialized in building detached houses.

 Date: 2008-10-06Level: Bachelor thesis within Information Technology and business economics, 15p, EIK021Authors: Anna Karlsson, akn05009@student.mdh.seLena-Maria Lindström, llm05002@student.mdh.seMagnus Wretlund, mvd05001@student.seTutor: Marie Mörndal Title: Managing IT-incidents, a case study at ICAs IT department                            OperationsKeywords: IT-incident management, IT-incident management process, IT-incident, ITIL, CCTA Problem: An organization can benefit by having an established management process of handling IT-incidents. But how can this be achieved? Are there step-by-step procedures? What´s included in the management process of IT-incidents? Is the size of the organization relevant to which model is to be chosen? Can the work of the writers of this essay result in a recommendation of a specific model for IT-incident management? These questions lead to the following essay question; How are IT-incidents managed?Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe and discuss how IT incidents can be managed.Method: The writers of this essay have performed a case study at ICA, a Swedish food retail company. Eleven interviews with nine different persons have been carried out. The interviews are analyzed in the chapter called Resultat och analys.Conclusion: Our conclusion is that there are both similarities and differences in Dept.

The scarcity of qualified forest machine operators as well as the increased competition for competent machine operators among others from the mining industry in Norrland, were the reasons to investigate what attracts and what deters active and potential forest machine operators to the occupation. An interview study was conducted among four groups with four persons in each group. The groups were students in year 1 and 3 respectively at a forestry school at upper secondary school level as well as employees of a forest company and employees of contractors. The majority of all respondents were of the opinion that their interests in machines had been important for the choice of occupation. But for the active machine operators both the interest in the forest and their interest for machines have had importance for choosing this occupation.

The main aim of this master thesis was to examine the visual ergonomics and the systematic work environment management concerning lighting issues for nurses within domiciliary care. Further aims were to examine a few existing lighting solutions, to come up with ideas for future possible lighting solutions, and to evaluate if the legal regulations for lighting is satisfying and if the regulations are obeyed in domiciliary nursing.The methods used were a questionnaire completed by 55 nurses, field studies of used lightings in cooperation with a student in industrial esign, test of ten existing lighting solutions in a laboratory environment, and a field test of five existing lighting solutions tested by nine nurses in the home of the patient.The result indicates that 40 % of the asked nurses were dissatisfied with the working light in the patient?s homes. All respondents reported poor working light close to the patient, 50 % reported that this problem occurred daily. One third reported that they had to work in uncomfortable working postures due to insufficient working light, and 15 % reported risk of making mistakes due to the same reason.

The purpose of this essay was to describe and analyse the tension/conflict between external demands and actual conditions, as experienced (and told in interviews) by employees at two social insurance offices in Scania, concerning their roles in the process of working life rehabilitation. The theoretical starting point is the theory of street-level bureaucrats, as defined by Lipsky. The comprehension among the employees were that working life rehabilitation services are approved less today compared to a few years ago. The discretion, i.e. the position to choose among competing alternatives; about what to do, how to do it etc., characteristic of street-level bureaucrats, according to the employees is less prominent, as the routines of handling cases and decision making are regulated.

This essay in how to create a brand identity is a result of a case study of the Spanish mobilephone company Xfera and their new brand ?Yoigo?. Our object was to identify the critical variables in the process of building a brand identity. To achieve this we collected data about the company through several interviews with respondents with good insight in the company. The critical variables that we obtained by analyzing the interviews are presented in an empirical driven model.