Given that the end-customer has become more demanding, the retailer has to deliver products according to the market demands, which have forced manufacturing companies to constantly search for new opportunities to reduce costs and improve efficiency. It is, therefore important to choose suppliers that are able to compete with the market demands.The market demands in the textile industry have lead to shorter product life cycles, which have caused manufacturers to deliver flexibility with high technology to compete successfully on the global market. To achieve the market requirements the underlying factor is to be aware and optimally use and control time. New technology can have a major influence in the production development, if the company choose to take benefit of the advantages, by optimal allocation of the internal resources the productivity and efficiency will increase, to accomplish a competitive advantage. One way to achieve this is by investing in a Unit Production System.In our thesis we have questioned what the main driving forces for an Apparel manufacturing company is when it chooses to invest in new technology.

Handling product returns has become a critical activity for organizations as the volume of gods flowing back through the supply chain rapidly increases. Few research studies have published specific empirical data concerning the reverse logistics practices of companies. Information technology and information support has long been recognized as a competitive weapon ? capable of enhancing company performance and achieving efficient reverse logistics. Reverse logistics is very unlike the forward, as it is more reactive and also has less visibility.

At a manufacturing company, due to the competition the price is reducedtowards the manufacturing cost. Therefore it is important to maintain control ofones costs and keep calculations up-to-date.This thesis deals with cost accounting at a aluminium-processing company. The report focuses on calculating machine cost per hour since the manufacturing costs are the major part of the total product cost.Managers on the company believe that the costs they use in calculations todayneither is up-to-date nor advantageous in a market aspect and due to that their calculations need to be revised. The machines cost per hour is a major part in the manufacturing calculation. The company wants to provide a competitive price that also covers their costs.

Summary Title Are older consumers of interest for the Swedish Apparel market?A study of older consumers? attitudes and interests in apparel Deadline 12 January, 2007 Course FEK 533 Authors Brusk Kutlay and Linda Nordén Tutors Björn Carlsson and Roland Knutsson Keywords Older consumer, apparel, lifestyle, attitudes, consumer behavior Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate weather the 50+ segment is a strong market for apparel, i.e. if it is an interesting market for the Swedish apparel industry. The aim is to contribute to a better understanding of consumers? attitudes toward apparel shopping on the Swedish market.

Companies within the e-commerce industry currently try to overcome the disadvantages of not being able to provide a physical inspection of products, and this is especially an issue for the apparel industry. One way of trying to overcome this issue is by presenting apparel with a short video of a model wearing the garment. The aim in this thesis is to investigate how these video presentations affect consumers' emotions, cognitions and intentions. Since previous studies have found that different shopping scenarios can moderate the effect of stimuli in the atmosphere on the consumers' emotions, we also aim to see if a video presentation, depending on the shopping scenario, could have a negative impact on site visitors. Moreover this thesis investigates the moderating effects of involvement on consumers' cognitions.

AB Sandvik Cormorant?s production unit in Gimo has identified a need to examinethe handling of products between operations with the purpose of generatingproposals of improvement for the product handling.The aim of this project is to study the existing manufacturing process and givesuggestions for improvement. The proposals should reduce the manual handling ofproducts, decrease the risk of damaging the products during the manufacturing andform a basis for increased traceability. Based on a mapping of the manufacturingprocess and the problem description, a specification of requirements has beencomposed.The mapping of the manufacturing process suggests that a change of the currentsystem is required. The company is recommended to decide how the producthandling between operations should be performed as guidelines for the productionteam.

The purpose of this study is from a case study develop a model that aims to cost effectively improve productivity in a manufacturing production process. The study highlights the importance of having knowledge about customer needs and using a holistic process perspective when improving productivity to identify the relations between the process stations and by this find problems that cause waste and losses in productivity. Tools and methods used to make production more efficient such as single minute exchange of die, spaghetti diagram, 5s and master production schedule is presented an applied in the model to see how these effect costs, productivity etc.Maintenance effects on quality and productivity in a manufacturing company will as well be covered in this thesis. The results and conclusions finally reveals how the process improvement tools, maintenance and production planning for example effects each other and why it is important to establish an attitude in the company where continuous process improvement should be emphasized..

Lean Production is used by many manufacturing companies. Companies in process industries do not use Lean Production to the same extent today. This is part of the report's issue to explore how Lean Production can be applied to a company in the process industries.The investigated company is a processing company that manufactures various types of foil. The company wishes to streamline its production and has therefore asked the authors to examine if Lean Production can offer the company improvements in their production. Lean Production value stream mapping tool has been selected to identify and analyze the current state of two of its products in production.

This examination work is performed at the institution of industrial economy and production at Jonkoping technical university, for JELD-WEN Door Solutions plant in Forserum.Today the focus in the company is on to reduce their inventories binding of capitals as well as inventory of products and that includes to get a good control of the supply and handling of material which is of great importance.JELD-WEN Door Solutions is one of the worlds leading producers of windows and doors and the head-office is located in Oregon, USA.A great number of wooden doors are manufactured by the company in varying of constructions, classifications and performance.The production of the plant in Forserum has a project- and customer focus manufacturing where only internal doors are produced. The overall market they are concentrated on is to different institution such as schools, hospitals etc.The purpose of this work is to investigate possibilities to improvement of material- and production control at JELD-WEN. The report will handle the master production schedule to and from the production divisions within manufacturing industry. Focus will be on the way for information- and material flows from arrival, transport within the company and further on to customers.Further a map of the flow was performed which gave a clearer picture of the connection between the flow of information- and material for the manufacturing process. On the basis of the mapping of the flow, the group discovered that the flow of material had some improvement potential.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) issues have been received much attention in businessand management practises globally. Jensen & Yeh (2009, 3) state that ?The agenda ofCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has emerged as a factor in the process of globalization,and Chinese companies may sometimes feel pushed into this agenda without a clearunderstanding of the rationale behind it?. China?s textile and apparel industry, amanufacturing-based economy with its products bounding up with the consumers worldwide,has been facing enormous pressure to take CSR initiatives, particularly in relation toenvironmental issues and labor standards.

Companies in the apparel industry are becoming increasingly responsible with regards to the social and environmental issues related to textile production. Despite these tendencies, there are great insecurities surrounding the concept of CSR and the effects on consumers of CSR communication. There is currently no model for breaking the concept of CSR down into smaller elements, specific for the apparel industry. In the first part of this thesis, we create such a model, applicable in a consumer communication context. In the second part, we investigate the effects on consumer attitudes and intentions of communicating the different elements of CSR presented in the model.

Background: A large number of companies works as a link between manufacturers and final users. These companies buys and stores goods to be able to deliver when a need comes up later in the chain. The storage could have a negative effect on profitability and therefore places great demands on the management control systems. ABC as a method has been used with some success in manufacturing for over ten years. In wholesale companies the method is not frequently used.

Studies show that activity based costing (ABC) is not widespread in practice even though it has been present in the academic world since the 80's. This thesis examines the reasons for the discrepancy between theory and practice through a case study of a Swedish manufacturing company. The intension is to answer the question of what contributes to the choice of precision in product costing.We found arguments for increasing precision in product costing but not to the extent of a full-scale ABC implementation. The company's estimation of the value of increased precision. In the study three company unique factors were isolated that affected the company's estimation of value; drifting purpose of product costing, historical use of product costing and knowledge about product costing..

This thesis describes the design of a tipping trailer, from a company?s demands andrequests to complete manufacturing documentation. The design is developed for thecompany Abexor AB in Östersund that produces tipping trailers. The product issupposed to be used by Abexors customer to transport cargos of different kinds,such as gravel, stone, dirt, etc.The work commenced with a meeting at the company where demands were set.After that a pre-study was conducted to find out what traffic rules were required forthe trailer to be allowed to be driven on roads. Similar products were examined tosee how the trailer could be designed.

This examination work is performed at the institution of industrial economy and production at Jonkoping technical university, for JELD-WEN Door Solutions plant in Forserum.Today the focus in the company is on to reduce their inventories binding of capitals as well as inventory of products and that includes to get a good control of the supply and handling of material which is of great importance.JELD-WEN Door Solutions is one of the worlds leading producers of windows and doors and the head-office is located in Oregon, USA.A great number of wooden doors are manufactured by the company in varying of constructions, classifications and performance.The production of the plant in Forserum has a project- and customer focus manufacturing where only internal doors are produced. The overall market they are concentrated on is to different institution such as schools, hospitals etc.The purpose of this work is to investigate possibilities to improvement of material- and production control at JELD-WEN. The report will handle the master production schedule to and from the production divisions within manufacturing industry. Focus will be on the way for information- and material flows from arrival, transport within the company and further on to customers.Further a map of the flow was performed which gave a clearer picture of the connection between the flow of information- and material for the manufacturing process. On the basis of the mapping of the flow, the group discovered that the flow of material had some improvement potential.