Equipment Fluids & Utility (EFU) is one of nine segments within Alfa Laval. The segment has experienced initial problems with sales volumes on the emerging markets so far entered, even though there is a seemingly large potential. No clear reason for this has been identified, and the management of EFU wants an efficient solution to the problem. The problem was to investigate what areas are affe

This Master Thesis aims to investigate the reasons why Scania Assistance can see a decrease in number of assistance cases. The problem has been divided into a quantitative analysis based on statistics and a qualitative analysis based on expertise. A new way of structuring the statistical material has made it possible to identify German French, Belgian and Italian customers as Scania Assistance´s c

Backgrund Product development (PD) in the plant breeding industry is characterized by long development cycles and decisions framed with uncertainty concerning key questions such as likely future competitor actions or the market outlook 10-15 years from now. In many ways the contemporary picture of the industry is changing rapidly; new technologies are developed to shorten the length of PD cycles a

Idiomatic expressions are abundant in the Japanese language. Probably more so than any other (although there are no official records of this; the opinions seem to differ between Mandarin, French, English and Japanese, among others). And among these idioms, there is one word that is more common than all the others. So common in fact, that it has inspired the conception of several books and articles

The furniture market regarding trading with furniture and home decoration products is an expanding market. But despite of good sales the traditional companies are losing market shares. Critical success factors are defined as elements (projects, products, dependants or other factors) that, if not fulfilled will have a great impact on the possibilities of reaching business goals. By defining the com

Globalization has since the 90s played a big part in the way companies look at their business and strategic developments. Acting on a global scale introduces a new complexity when it comes to running a business successfully. Alfa Laval being a global player within their product segments, experiences this complexity with production facilities as well as employees spread around the globe combined wi

In an economic environment signified by shortened product lifecycles, product proliferation and reduced profit margins, product replacement decision making (PRDM) ought to be an important part of management. The case is however often that considerably more energy and resources at a firm are spent at the opposite task, hence product development. The main purpose of this master thesis was to constru

The thesis idea originated from that the authors experienced that they would have liked to have more opportunities to apply their educational and personal skills before attending the business world. The authors found a way to accomplish this by the application of a multidiscipline case simulation. The purpose of this master’s thesis is to test an idea and the application of the same. Another purpo

In Lalati, understanding women's roles, in respect to their needs, strategies and contribution to their household food security is seldom the focus of any discussion. Undoubtedly fisherwomen and fishermen are different but the question remains, how different and to what extent is it different.This thesis is a case study which documents the fishing practices and the traditional ecological knowl

Studien undersökte sambanden mellan kvaliteten i relationen till det åldersmässigt närmsta syskonet och faktorer som välbefinnande, syskonantal, könssammansättning i syskonrelationen, biologiskt släktskap, rivalitet och åldersskillnad. Dessutom undersöktes könsskillnader i respondenternas svar. 470 personer deltog i en enkät med fokus på de ovan nämnda områdena. Resultaten visade att syskonrelatiThis study examined the relationship between the quality of the relationship with the sibling closest in age and factors such as well-being, number of siblings, the gender composition of the sibling relationship, biological kinship, rivalry and age difference. Gender differences were also examined. 470 people participated in a survey focusing on these areas. The results showed that the quality of

This study investigates the effects and policy lessons from the surge of capital inflows that the Baltic countries experienced during the period 2004-2008. We discuss the main risks and policy challenges involved with such an episode and assess what scope there was for policy makers to face these challenges. We also devote some attention to the area of measuring exchange rate pressure by applicati

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to find intermodal transportation solutions for COMPANY X’s production in Turkey to different destinations in Europe. Methodology: The analysis is mainly based on quantitative studies. An inductive approach has been used to connect theoretical perspectives and the empirical material. Theory: General theories within transports and environmental effects are ill

Even though Japanese possesses several means of constructing imperatives, such as inflections and different suffixes, it is often through the use of circumlocutions that requests are made. This paper takes a look at the common imperative constructions in Japanese, analyses their usage, and then aims to investigate which of these constructions are actually found in colloquial speech by means of an

This thesis is a submission for the new modern area of law that is intangible, immaterial and immovable. It can be called as virtual property or virtuality as such. Mainly due to globalization, the 21st century could be regarded as the beginning for a new digitalization era. Along with the expansion and generalization of the use of the Internet, digitalization has created a concept known as virtua

Warehouse management is the science of optimizing warehouse activity with the intention of reducing inventory holding costs and increasing material throughput. A warehouse management system (WMS) is an IT system used to support warehouse processes and ensure a smooth ow of material. The main objectives of the WMS are to keep track of inventory levels and distribute tasks to warehouse sta. The syst

Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to investigate how organizations should be designed in order to work in the best possible way in China. Method: A theoretical background has been studied. The background covered mainly cultural studies, where a comparison between Sweden and China was made, and also design parameters for an organization. An empirical study took place in Shanghai, China, where m

Background In a competitive market place a competing company has to focus on continuous improvements and effectiveness, something that can be achieved by investing in product resources which then generates a need of capital. The need of capital can be financed through direct financing or external financing such as leasing where the leasing company offers the customer capital support. Since 1999, A

This master thesis is a project initiated by the fourth-party logistics company UBQ. They aim to take over the management of the transportation and storage of raw material for Volvo Car Body Components, VCBC, in Olofström. VCBC wants to remove the storage of raw material in the production area. The thesis aims to link the both companies’ requests together by describing the current situation, the s

Background The queues within Swedish healthcare are presently unacceptably long. The demands and costs of healthcare have increased and are expected to rise in the future. This has resulted in a higher stress on all of the healthcares resources, from the financial aspect to the human. As with many other public establishments, Lund University Hospital has suffered from weak finances, which in the l

Agile methods have the recent years gained ground within the software industry by being lean and flexible, and one of the companies having adopted agile methods is the fast‐growing Swedish developer of mobile applications Tactel AB. The company was interested in enhanced knowledge within the agile area, specifically about Scrum, and with one of its development teams – Mobical – in focus, Tactel wa