The global share from buildings towards energy usage in residential and commercial buildings have been increasing constantly reaching between 20% to 40% in developed countries and has overtook the other major sectors: industrial and transportation. Energy demand reduction in the building sector is important for Sweden to achieve national energy aims for reduced energy use in the future.  For this reason, energy efficiency measures in buildings today is one of the main objective for energy policy towards 2020 goals.

This project moves on the same path to find energy efficiency potential in Fridhemsskolan buildings in Gävle, Sweden by performing energy audit using IDA-ICE software to simulate energy performance for the buildings under study. In addition, measurements have been made on three of the school buildings named Hus 1, Hus 2 and Hus 3.

The results include different energy efficiency retrofits on each building and economic analysis of these retrofits for each building individually and for the whole buildings together. The presented measures are reducing working hours of the ventilation system in Hus 2, change of CAV system with VAV system in (Hus 1 and Hus 2) and lights changing to LED, s efficient lights and building envelope improvement which includes walls and roof extra insulation and windows replacement.

Replacement of the CAV system in Hus 1 and Hus 2 were not economically beneficial when considering their high cost compared to energy reduction that can be achieved by applying them. On the other hand, energy retrofits analysis showed that combination of the following energy efficiency measures is the most effective and profitable: extra insulation (walls and roof), windows replacement and lights change to LED in the three buildings. In addition to these measure is reducing running hours of the ventilation system in Hus 2.

Implementation of the recommended energy efficiency measures will save 120, 737 kWh/ year of the district heating and 21, 962 kWh/year electricity consumption with capital investment of 417, 396 SEK and 98, 957 SEK/ year cost saving with payback period of 4.2 years. These figures represent 40.3% and 18.1% reduction in district heating and electricity energy use respectively.

Since reducing working hours of ventilation system measure has no capital investment and have the highest figure of energy reduction it reduces payback period significantly. In case the amount of money saved by this measure doesn’t consider; payback period for the other measures which require capital investment will be 13.5 years and the energy saving in terms of cost will be 30, 874 SEK/ year. 

One of major concerns in gas turbine industry is to reduce emissions.  Tow kind of approaches could be identified in the industry to reduce emissions, namely Primary Emission Reduction approach and Secondary Emission Reduction approach. The primary approach concerns emission prevention in combustion, while secondary approach is all about emission cleanup before releasing to the atmosphere.

Combustion flame temperature highly influences on emissions specially NOx formation.  NOx emission is lower when the combustor operates close to lean flammability limit. Incorporating catalyst to combustor is one of methods to extend flammability limit.  Heat and Power Division at KTH-Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden has developed a test facility to test performances of catalyst in combustion.

The combustion test facility available at Heat & Power Davison at KTH, consists of high pressure air compressor and air flow control system, air preheating unit and control system, fuel flow control system, combustor unit, and exhaust gas analyzer system. But lack of proper user interface to control and monitor the operation of the test facility through a computer work station was a major concern from experimenters.

The purpose of the thesis work is to design and construction of supervisory control and data acquisition system for the full scale catalytic combustion test facility.  Labview 2012 is used as the main platform for implementing data acquisition and control system for the test facility. Thermocouples, pressure transducer signals, air flow meter signal are connected to Keithley 2701 data acquisition system and then connected to the computer. Fuel flow controllers are directly connected to the computer via serial port. Air flow control actuator signal is given through ADAM digital to analogue converter.

Developed GUI is more convenient for users in terms of easy control of air flow, fuel flow and gas sampling probe systems, and monitoring of temperature, pressure measurements and exhaust gas species systems. And also GUI provides web interface to select correct conversion factor, and also to view live data recording. The developed GUI can be accessed through online to monitor the operation. 

Purpose: In the contemporary society in which companies operate there is increasing interest in understanding the effects and changes of culture on projects in connection to decision making. This is evident of the fact that most companies are using groups or teams composed of mixed culture to perform their tasks and develop their activities into different geographical regions by adopting project management as a “way of working” other than a tool or technique. The objective of this study is to explore the cultural influence decision making in project teams through a multi case study of applying Hofstede’s dimensions of culture model to selected Swedish firms. 

Assessment of an application for wind power establishment is a multi-criteria problem including the coreproblem: whether to grant permission or not. In Sweden, County Administrative Boards decide the outcomes of these kinds of applications. Five permit officers were interviewed to investigate the difficultiesand the type of value aggregation in this work, and to test reasoning models as possible decision supporttools. The commonly used type of aggregation was condition-based aggregation. Aggregation based onvalue differences, which means weighing together aspects for and against the wind power establishment,was considered difficult to apply by the respondents. Most of them agreed that some of the aspects thatspeak against granting permission could be aggregated but that aggregation of all aspects would be harddue to differences between aspects. In addition, the value of the main aspect that speaks for permission,climate friendly energy supply, is very difficult to estimate. Thus, aggregation based on value differencesis a difficult question and how it could be performed is discussed in the paper. If policymakers wish tomake it possible to take both positive and negative aspects into consideration and to discuss thetrade-offs transparently, the investigated method can be a way forward.

Transportation disruptions can be damaging to a supply chain because goods may not arrive on time and this jeopardises the service level to the customers. While supply chain disruptions have gained significant attention from scholars, little has been done to explore these disruptions in the context of transportation. The study described in this paper aims to address disruptions occurring in the transportation of goods from a plant to a distribution centre. We modelled this real case to obtain insights on the effectiveness of different strategies to mitigate transportation disruptions. We evaluated four mitigation strategies and compared the outcomes in terms of service level and total costs: (1) the risk acceptance strategy, (2) the redundant stock strategy, (3) the flexible route strategy, and (4) the redundant-flexibility strategy. The results suggest that the best strategy differs depending on the budget that managers are willing to deploy to improve the service level. The simulation experiments and the use of the Incremental Cost Effectiveness Ratio (ICER) would be instrumental in helping decision makers in selecting the best disruption mitigation strategies where the best option would likely be different under varying circumstances. 

In line with today's emergence of new technology, there is high competition within the manufacturing industry, which places higher demands on today's industries to develop new strategies to withstand the fierce competition. For this reason, today's industry needs to be more efficient and is becoming increasingly digitized, which is the core of the new industrial revolution called "industry 4.0". 

The aim of this study is to investigate, with the help of value flow analysis, new innovative tools, and principles within lean production, whether the manufacturing process can be more efficient. The study was carried out at a manufacturing company that produces dehumidifiers and has ambitions to streamline it’s manufacturing process. 

Through the literature review, site observations, interviews and data analysis, a comparison was made with the theory to find solutions to the problems that emerged. The results of this study show that it is theoretically possible to make a manufacturing process more efficient using these methods. It can be pointed out that one important study will be to test these solutions to see what results can be achieved. 

This paper explores the hidden lean potential exposed by manufacturers’ usage of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The potential can be classified into three types: unlocked lean potential in a connected ERP system, unlocked lean potential in an un-connected ERP system, and the lean potential for further unlocking in companies that do not use ERP systems when collaborating with suppliers/customers. Empirical data is obtained from two cases of manufacturing companies in Sweden and one ERP system company. The findings indicate that hidden lean potential can be unlocked through digital collaboration within the supply chain.

Lean management is an approach where value is created through the reduction of waste. Eight forms of waste were identified by the Toyota Company as worth considering while managing an efficient production process: overproduction, waiting, transport, over processing, inventory, movement, defects, and unused creativity. Modern manufacturing plants are being transformed by Industry 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution, which promotes a wide variety of technological solutions to increase innovativeness and competitive advantages. Technological solutions are created on the basis of data that must be analyzed to enable manufacturers to be more strategic in the decision-making process and generate new profit channels through data analytics. A conceptual framework was developed to investigate if the inefficient usage of data has a negative impact on manufacturing performance through the decision-making process. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in two leading manufacturing companies in Sweden that are following lean principles. A new form of waste, digital waste, was defined. This paper suggests considering digital waste as a new type of muda (waste), which is its theoretical contribution. From a practical perspective, the results of the paper encourage practitioners to pay extra attention to data analytics, work on the reduction of digital waste and establish new revenue channels based on data analysis. Download full PDF  Get metrics  Rate article

Many companies strive to develop their arrival controls in an effective way as arrivals controls have proven to be significant for the companies. This is grounded in the fact that arrival controls improve the flow of production and minimize the risk for production errors since the controls enable an effective management of the company’s products and materials. Not establishing these controls consequently often leads to production default, stress and increased expenses. Nonetheless, many companies choose not to implement arrival controls because such implementations are accompanied by large costs. Furthermore, they require space, which smaller companies do not have.

The purpose of this study is, through the analysis of previous literature and interaction with a local company, examine how efficient arrival controls can be structured. Additionally, this study aspires through, improvement proposals, to aid Munters AB in the construction of arrival controls.

This is a qualitative case study conducted at Munters AB in Tobo. Empirical data was accumulated through semi-structured interviews, analytical observations and consistent visits to the company.

Arrival controls are of significant importance for companies and the absence of such are undoubtly damaging for the company. This is evidential in the interviews, where both the quality director and the Lean coordinator were aware of the company’s shortcomings in this area. Further findings show that all workers in the production department experienced continuous defects in every day production and therefore hoped for an implementation of arrival controls. In conclusion the study found that Munters AB is in urgent need of arrival controls. However, in order for such an implementation to be as effective as possible, the company needs to utilize different methods, tools and system and crucial forward planning in production. 

In this Thesis Project, the creation of a Low Energy building was examined in order to investigate how complex was to select the suitable parameters and systems of the dwelling, aiming to achieve the lowest possible energy consumption in one year period. All the technologies implemented into the system intended to be as energy efficient and profitable as possible. Another objective of this study was also to present the potential of the system to produce a part of the consumed energy, through renewable energy sources, approaching by this way also the standards of a Zero Energy Building. Firstly, the floor plan of the 150 m² detached house, was drawn in the designing program AutoCAD. In continuation, this 2D floor plan was imported into the simulation program as well as all the initial input data so as for the Base model of the building to be created For the analysis of the building, the Simulation Program IDA ICE 4.7 was used. Gradually, alternations and adjustments were made into the Base model. Different models were created planning to analyze their results and conclude to the proper solution. All the simulations run for one year time period in order to present the total energy usage, system’s losses and demands in each case. In addition, as for the current study, the location of the construction was Athens, all building’s characteristics were chosen to comply with the Greek Regulation for Low Energy Buildings. Finally, through the procedure followed after having accomplished a series of simulations, the final annually energy demands managed to be within the required limits.

To gain a competitive advantage, companies need to develop strategies. This can be achieved by implementing Lean management with a focus on continuous improvement and waste elimination and by strategically focusing on logistics goals and planning. Since defects and incorrect processes are a form of waste, it is important to improve the management of defective products. Previous research has focused on the semiconductor sector, the glass industry, and the steel industry using quantitative methods, but there is a research gap in the paper industry because no research was found in this study. 

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of defective product management in the paper industry and to design a qualitative decision model that can be used to determine the most appropriate prioritization method for managing defective products.

The methods used in the work include case studies, interviews, observations, document studies, and literature reviews. These were chosen to collect data and empirical evidence, enabling an analysis of the company's current situation and the gathering of important information about the handling of defective products.

The theory in this work encompasses planning, prioritization methods, Lean management, customer relationships, key performance indicators, quality deficiencies and quality costs. Production planning can balance costs, delivery service and efficiency. Lean principles reduce waste and improve production flows. Human Lean emphasizes the importance of human resources. Customer relationships and key performance indicators are crucial for measuring and improving performance. Quality deficiencies and quality costs emphasizes the importance of improvement efforts to reduce costs and increase productivity.

The results show that some respondents want to improve the process regarding the handling of defective products and that there are deficiencies in staffing capacity and quality assessment of products. The results show that certain areas are particularly important when handling defective products. These areas are production time for orders and quality assessment, layout, staffing, delivery date, product type and machine settings.

The discussion presents various key areas that are important to consider. Based on these, a decision model has been developed to select a suitable prioritization method based on the company's situation.

The conclusion of the study is a decision model for companies that need to choose a suitable prioritization method. Further research is suggested to explore its suitability.

The paper reports on a project in the area of simulation based decision support (SBDS) at the operational level of the manufacturing system. The purpose of the project was to explore and describe the possibilities to use a standard discrete event simulation package for capacity planning in a situation where labor was a primary and scarce production resource. This has been done through a case study at a Radio Base Station (RBS) assembly line at Ericsson Radio System, Gavle in Sweden. Results from the study are a conceptual structure for a SBDS system and a prototype simulation system tailored for the RBS-2000 assembly line. The system has been tested in a simulated environment and results indicate a delivery precision improvement of eleven percent. Conclusions from the study are that this kind of tool for operational decision support offers a flexible decision support environment and that the need for high quality information and information collecting systems are crucial for the success of such tools.

Although computers have been around for a long time and are used more and more, the use of paper inoffices remains. One of the reasons is that there are not good enough digital tools to get rid of paper from work. In this qualitative case study, the office department of ABB Components is investigating on how the implementation processes for a paperless information flows can be introduced in ways that generate benefits of working digitally.

The result of this study will be based on data collected from interviews and observations carriedout in the office. By identifying which processes using paper in the office, different tools have been developed to facilitate the implementation. The result of this study suggests that the implementation of a paperless information flows must be a well-planned change process where tools are developed to compensate for the earlier use of paper.

With the introduction of paperless information flows, the use of consumables will decrease and the location it takes to store these papers will disappear. This leads to more cost-effective work and less waste paper. In order for this concept to lead to a more beneficial routine it needs to be redesigned for the implementation.

Risk perception can be defined as people’s interpretation and subjective assessment of risk. The perception of risk is a crucial factor that is believed to impact people when taking financial decisions. Previous research shows clear differences between men’s and women’s risk taking in financial decision. Men are in general portrayed as more risk taking and not viewing risk as something problematic, whilst women are not as positive towards risk. The purpose with this study is to gain understanding of how risk perception differs between men and women when taking financial decisions, and to examine if there are any differences in men’s and women’s perception of risk throughout five dimensions of financial risk perception. To answer the study’s formulated research questions, a quantitative study in the form of questionnaire has been carried out. Collected data have been analyzed through a descriptive data analysis and t-tests. The results of this study are in line with previous research and indicate that women perceive financial risk as significantly higher than what men do. On the other hand, the study did not provide a clear result regarding differences between the genders’ risk perception in the five dimensions of financial risk perception. However, the study showed that women perceived the significant negative consequences for financial investments as significantly larger than men. This result can also be considered to be in line with previous research. Due to this, the result of the study can be seen as having contributed with further empirical support to previous scientific research regarding the differences between men and women’s risk perception when making investment decisions.

This thesis examines the internal corruption risk assessment processes employed by civil society organizations (CSOs) in Kampala, Uganda. Corruption poses significant challenges to social and economic development, particularly in developing nations like Uganda, where it undermines public trust and impedes progress. CSOs play a pivotal role in addressing these issues by promoting transparency and accountability. Through qualitative interviews and document reviews with five organizations, this study investigates the frameworks and methods CSOs use to identify, assess, and mitigate internal corruption risks. The six-step risk assessment model by Rausand & Haugen (2020) was used as a guiding framework to analyze these processes.  Key findings reveal diverse approaches: some CSOs employ structured and regularly updated risk assessments, while others rely on informal or outdated practices. Notably, none of the CSOs specifically focus on corruption risk assessment; instead, corruption is embedded within broader, general risk assessments. The study finds that limited funding, expertise, and external pressures significantly hinder CSOs' ability to conduct comprehensive assessments. Despite these challenges, CSOs demonstrate a common commitment to combating corruption, often driven by organizational values rather than formal structures. This study highlights the need for adaptable risk assessment frameworks that align with the varying capacities of CSOs, suggesting that improvements in documentation, transparency, and resource allocation could strengthen their anti-corruption efforts. The study contributes to a better understanding of risk management in Uganda’s civil society and offers recommendations to enhance their organizational integrity and effectiveness in anti-corruption initiatives.

Traffic signal control can be naturally regarded as a reinforcement learning problem. Unfortunately, it is one of the most difficult classes of reinforcement learning problems owing to its large state space. A straightforward approach to address this challenge is to control traffic signals based on continuous reinforcement learning. Although they have been successful in traffic signal control, they may become unstable and fail to converge to near-optimal solutions. We develop adaptive traffic signal controllers based on continuous residual reinforcement learning (CRL-TSC) that is more stable. The effect of three feature functions is empirically investigated in a microscopic traffic simulation. Furthermore, the effects of departing streets, more actions, and the use of the spatial distribution of the vehicles on the performance of CRL-TSCs are assessed. The results show that the best setup of the CRL-TSC leads to saving average travel time by 15% in comparison to an optimized fixed-time controller.

Background: The purpose of the safety stock is to compensate customers uncertain forecasts. The task of operations is to be able to cover up customers fluctuations in demand. By being able to maintain a stable and competition strong delivery performance results in a safety stock to be used, however, it entails tied-up capital. The case the company has an ambition to produce larger quantities and then store it on an external warehouse that the authors have chosen to call the safety stock.  

Purpose: The problem of actual demand is that research questions usually take into account normal demand. By trying to fill the knowledge gap, we arrive at this purpose. The purpose is to investigate how actual demand influences the design of stock layout in order to achieve the desired delivery reliability.

Method: To be able to answer the purpose and our questions, an abductive approach has been used where theory collection has taken place from literature and articles while empirical data is collected from the case company Smurfit Kappa. During the collection of empiricism, interviews and observations have been carried out. The collected findings have been discussed with the theory to answer the purpose and questions and lead to our conclusions.

Findings: In the current situation, the case produces the company only against client orders and that there are no products in stock. This will result in delivery times of between 8 – 9 weeks and delivery security. An existing surface is available today to create a safety layer, there is also the possibility of a larger space if desired.

Conclusion: With a safety stock, the case company will be able to deliver the actual demand while reducing its delivery times and increasing delivery reliability.

Keywords: safety stock, demand, external inventory.

The thesis this report refers to has been carried out in one of Volvo Group truck operation’s(GTO) foundries in the engine factory in Skövde. Sandcasting is used to manufacture components for truck engines of cast iron. In the casting process, sandcores are manufactured according to the Epoxy-SO₂-process. The sand cores are handled by robots in closed cells. The maintenance department experiences tha tcomponents on the robotic tools that move the cores have a short service life. One theory is that this is due to exposure to SO₂. According to research, certain materials exposed to SO₂ can corrode or become brittle. The corrosion process for metals can increase if SO₂ react with water and oxygen to form sulfurous acid (H₂SO₃) or sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄). In order for thischemical process to begin, a relative humidity of at least 60% is required. Polymers such as plastic and rubber may swell, dissolve or become brittle upon exposed to SO₂, H₂SO₃ or H₂SO₄. The final goal with this thesis is to define suitable components for the maintenance department that will be used in the renovation of the robotic tools. Before this can be done the tools need to be broken down to component level and be registered in a maintenance system. Furthermore, measurements of concentration of sulfur dioxide, humidity and temperature will be performed in the robotic cells. The results from the measurements are used as a basis for finding out if there are similar components that can withstand the environment better. When the tools are finally renovated, hopefully the unplanned stops will decrease. If the unplanned stops decrease, the maintenance costs associated with the robotic cells will also decrease. According to the measurements, the humidity was not high enough for the components in the robotic cells to risk corroding due to exposure to SO₂. However, many pneumatic components are partly made of plastic that does not tolerate SO₂. Many of these components are available as alternatives made of, for example, nickel-plated brass or stainless steel that can withstand the gas. The thesis has provided answers to the issues and led to concrete improvements. It has also created new ideas for continued improvement work.

BRP+ is a framework created to measure Swedish regional development from a quality of life and sustainability perspective. BRP + is compiled of several thematic areas which respectively include numerous aspects and indicators. To study how the regions have developed over time BRP+ uses an index year five years back in time as reference point. The first BRP+ composite index was released in 2018. This thesis is a decision-analytic review of the aggregation of aspects and indicators in BRP+. Focus lies on how the increase or decrease within one indicator corresponds to the increase or decrease within another indicator and the consequences of changing the reference year used when assessing development over time. This review has been limited to study the thematic area of Civic Engagement and Democratic Participation. The results show that the construction of BRP+ in conjunction with a change of reference year for assessing development over time has an impact on how the increase or decrease within one indicator is valued in relation to the increase or decrease within another indicator and leads to a rank reversal issue. Therefore, decision-makers may find a somewhat limited support from BRP+.

Direct georeferencing of airborne mobile mapping systems is developing with unprecedented speed using GNSS/INSintegration. Removal of systematic errors is required for achieving a high accurate georeferenced product in mobile mappingplatforms with integrated GNSS/INS sensors. It is crucial to consider the deflection of verticals (DOV) in direct georeferencing dueto the recently improved INS sensor accuracy. This study determines the DOV using Sweden’s EGM2008 model and gravity data.The influence of the DOVs on horizontal and vertical coordinates and considering different flight heights is assessed. The resultsconfirm that the calculated DOV components using the EGM2008 model are sufficiently accurate for aerial photogrammetrypurposes except for the mountainous areas because the topographic signal is not modeled correctly.

Determination of the Earth’s gravity field and geopotential value is one of the fundamental topics in physical geodesy. Traditional terrestrial gravity and precise leveling measurements can be used to determine the geopotential values at a local or regional scale. However, recent developments in optical atomic clocks have not only rapidly improved fundamental science but also contributed to applied research. The latest generation of optical clocks is approaching the accuracy level of 10−18 when facilitating atomic clock networks. These systems allow examining fundamental theories and many research applications, such as atomic clocks applications in relativistic geodesy, to precisely determine the Earth’s gravity field parameters (e.g., geopotential values). According to the theory of relativistic geodesy, the frequency difference measured by an optical clock network is related to the gravity potential anomaly, provided that the effects of disturbing signals (i.e., tidal and non-tidal contributions) are filtered out. The relativistic geodesy principle could be used for a practical realization of global geodetic infrastructure, most importantly, a vertical datum unification or realization of height systems. This paper aims to review the background of relativistic (clock-based) geodesy and study the variations of optical atomic clock measurements (e.g., due to hydrology loading and land motion).

Purpose

Government-owned companies (GOCs), such as ports, have engaged in efforts to become more sustainable. Most of such efforts have been technological and policy ones and mainly focusing on the environment, with limited research on organisational change management. This paper aims to provide insights into how ports have been addressing sustainability change forces and pressures.

Design/methodology/approach

Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted with top-level directors and sustainability managers, representing ports across Europe’s maritime regions and a range of port types and sizes. The interviews were analysed using grounded theory’s constant comparative analysis.

Findings

The findings highlighted that the ports’ success in their process to become more sustainable depends on how they take advantage of the thrust forces and reduce the drag ones. The findings serve to develop the “ports’ sustainability change management framework”, with five stages: reactive, proactive, transactive, interactive, and sustainable port.

Practical implications

Ports, and other GOCs, should capitalise on their private–public nature in their contribution to making societies more sustainable by adopting a holistic perspective and interactive changes.

Originality/value

This paper provides a dynamic perspective on corporate sustainability efforts, particularly on GOCs, through organisational change management complementing technocentric and managerial approaches.

Firms are increasingly involving and relying on networks of suppliers and other external partners in their innovation processes. A successful exploitation of suppliers' technology and competencies is however challenging, not least in situations characterised by technological uncertainty. The main purpose of this study is to analyse how supplier innovativeness may be leveraged through internal knowledge integration capabilities in involving suppliers. The analysis is based on a survey of firms in Europe and North America. The study shows that innovative suppliers do contribute to a firm's innovation performance in terms of time–to–market and level of innovation in products/services. The main result is that an internal knowledge integration capability in terms of proficiency in supplier management and cross–functional decision making boosts innovation performance, in particular when technological uncertainty is high.

In spite of the growing interest in open innovation, one of the core questions that remain unanswered is how different kinds of openness affect innovation performance. Moreover, the impact of the geographical dispersion of partners also needs further investigation, while there is a tension between the motives for global search and the needs for proximity in innovation processes. In this paper we will research the relationship between openness and performance outcome in manufacturing companies when taking the localisation of partners into account. The study is based on survey data from 415 companies. The openness is defined by three dimensions: partner breadth, partner depth and phase depth. Performance is measured in terms of cost, risk and time-to-market, innovativeness and economic performance. The results of this study confirm and illustrate the localisation dilemma. For manufacturing companies using a global approach, it seems advisable to collaborate more intensively with a reduced number of partners. In contrast, the companies applying a more spatially balanced approach could collaborate with an increased number of partners and still be innovative and cost efficient. This implies that different localisation strategies for external partner collaborations require different integration approaches in order to be successful.

Cost innovation has been used to describe how firms offer a variety of customised and high-tech products at low prices. Insights into how this trade-off is overcome by supply chain design are lacking. This paper analyses the global supply chain strategies and practices of Huawei Technologies, and specifically how these contribute to cost innovation capability. The paper is based on interviews with managers at Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen, plus managers at two European supply chain centres. The case study shows that even though Huawei does not possess specifically unique supply chain solutions, there are some features that drive Huawei towards cost innovation in its supply chains. Some of them concern low-cost operations based on the location of main R&D, manufacturing and suppliers to China, in combination with a strong customer orientation, an integrated supply chain organisation and a balanced outsourcing strategy.

When managing cooperation between municipalities, it is crucial to agree on the objectives of the cooperation and to have a common understanding of how the goals are to be achieved. This is important not least in order to be able to take rational joint decisions. Municipal executive directors from six collaborating municipalities have participated in the study, which examines how two methods, taken from value-focused thinking and from theory of change, can be used to develop different partners' individual goals for collaboration, merge these into a common goal structure and then use the common goal structure to create theories of change that describe how collaborative goals can be assumed to be achieved. One purpose of the study is to carry out the process and produce this material, for the benefit of the municipal executive directors and the municipalities' collaboration going forward. The scientific purpose is to see if the methods under these conditions are usable together, above all by analyzing the work process itself and the results produced in form of theories of change. The study is a case study conducted through action research, where the municipal executive directors' natural roles and forms of meeting are the arena where the joint activities and the academic study are developed together. The study describes how six individual goal structures are united in a common goal structure for collaboration. Two theories of change are then created regarding certain parts of the common goal structure. The analysis of the implementation and the material produced suggests that there is potential in combining the two methods that have been used. In value-focused thinking there is a big focus on formulating and structuring goals, in theory of change a focus is on identifying groups' common perceptions and assumptions regarding the mechanisms and processes that need to take place for change to occur and goals to be realized. Even though this is a single and limited study, it is still clear that value-focused thinking and theory of change have elements that complement and strengthen each other.

Since the CO

2-emissions and electricity prices are ever increasing many companies have tried to reduce their energy consumption in order to reduce both CO2-emissions and the cost of using energy. Therefore, in this article an office building situated in Sweden have been investigated with its current ventilation flow and what saving poten-tials can be made from heat recovery and a different ventilation flow in regards to health, energy and cost. Empirical data have been collected to be able to calculate ener-gy savings made by heat recovery and new ventilation flow. A ventilation flow of 25 l/s per office were chosen and that the conference room should have at least 3 l/s per m² the dining room and locker was not investigated thoroughly and therefore a ventilation flow from the recommendations of Sweden was followed. The total flows became, 530 l/s respectively 630 l/s for the top and bottom floor. A rotating heat exchanger with an es-timated efficiency of 80% was used for heat recovery and through the two methods combined an energy reduction up to 96,4 % for heating and 83,4 % from the electricity could be reduced.

Att tillhandahålla vuxenutbildning är en skyldighet som Sveriges kommuner åläggs enligt Skollagen. I samma lag anges att inriktningen på det systematiska kvalitetsarbete ska vara att de nationella målen (som uttrycks i Läroplan för Vuxenutbildningen) uppfylls. Denna översiktliga formulering gör att det i stor utsträckning blir upp till varje enskild kommun att utveckla egna rutiner för arbetet med kvalitet inom vuxenutbildningen. I Västerås genomförs varje år en kvalitetsgranskning av de skolor som verkar inom den kommunala vuxenutbildningen. Granskningen omfattar bland annat strukturella förutsättningar, uppnådda resultat och efterlevnad till lag- och förordningskrav. Västerås kommun skapar och skickar ut en kvalitetsmall som fylls i av respektive skola. Detta material utgör sedan en grund (av flera) för den granskning av tjänstekvalitet som varje skola årligen genomgår. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur tjänstekvalitet inom vuxenutbildningen i Västerås har operationaliserats till mätbara indikatorer inför kvalitetsgranskningen 2021.Utifrån teorin om mellanbegrepp analyseras vilka aspekter kommunen har bestämt ska ligga till grund för tjänstekvalitet inom Vux Västerås och också vilka följder det får om en skola inte lever upp till det kommunen betraktar som tillräcklig kvalitet.

I den här uppsatsen identifieras mål och en målstruktur föreslås för beslutsmöjligheten avseende hur man ska arbeta med Arbetsmiljö i Byggnadsinformationsmodellering (BIM) för verksamhetsområde Stora Projekt på Trafikverket. Syftet med uppsatsen är att utifrån Keeney:s (1992) teori om värdefokuserat tänkande identifiera mål och strukturera dessa i målstrukturer. Underlagen till uppsatsen kommer från olika dokument på Trafikverket, intervjuer och personal på Trafikverket samt deltagande i utbildningsinsatser som Trafikverket har avseende BIM. En målstruktur föreslås samt diskuteras. Den målstruktur som presenteras är ofullständig och därmed förloras en del av den fulla potentialen med värdefokuserat tänkande, men det kan ligga till grund för fortsatt arbete hos Trafikverket. Rekommendationen är att målstrukturen utvecklas.

The objective of this study is to examine how Lean can make the utilization of inventory more effective and, from a Lean perspective, examine how the value-adding activities related to inventory can increase. To examine this, a case study was perfomed at Svenska Fönster. The conclusions of this study are that Lean can advantageously be applied on inventory to increase the efficiency. 

Introduction: Handling of materials sets different requirements depending on its characteristics. In order to meet internal demands of high delivery service at a low cost, it is important to design an effective supply of materials. New technology and the application of IT-systems can provide opportunities to streamline materials supply by increasing service levels and reducing costs.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to design and evaluate a working methodology in order to achieve effective internal supply of materials from goods receipt to production.

Methods: A theoretical framework formed the basis to identify significant areas to achieve effective internal materials supply. In parallel, a case study was conducted at a company operating in the elevator industry. Data collection was primarily based on different types of interviews and observations to create an understanding of the company´s materials supply. The data obtained were mainly compared with the theoretical framework in the analysis phase of the developed working methodology. Conclusions was drawn, based on the analysis phase. Ethical aspects were taken into account throughout the work of this study.

The developed working methodology: Based on significant identified areas, from the theoretical framework, a working methodology was developed to achieve effective internal materials supply, consisting of six phases: Prerequisites, Description of the current situation, Analysis of the current situation, Design of improvement proposals, Implementation and Follow-up. Four of these phases were applied on a company with the aim of designing improvements proposals with the potential to achieve effective internal materials supply. Finally, the applied phases of the working methodology were evaluated to highlight its strengths, challenges and possibilities of development as well as the further application.

Conclusion: The significant areas and other supportive digital solutions were not considered sufficient enough to generate effective internal materials supply and thereby there was a necessity for an organized approach to utilize these areas. In order to support this, complements were required in form of a working methodology with a number of structured phases, including important considerations, which must be followed methodically in order to design improvement proposals which can achieve a more effective internal materials supply. The improvement proposals that were designed included, for instance, a new procedure for materials call-off, new principles for buffers, reduction of internal transports and automatic suggestion of place of storage.

Effective and reliable delivery of services provides long-term performance to an organization. Inorder to create effective and reliable deliveries, activities that do not create value for the customer,namely the wastes, need to be reduced or eliminated. Value Stream mapping is a Leanmanagement tool that aims to clean processes from the wastes. With this as a starting point, studieshave previously been conducted to customize the tool for use on service processes. The studyresulted in Service value stream management, a model implemented in six steps. When the modelis applied in service processes, there is a wide variety of problems that may occur, it is therefore considered not possible to collect all problems in order to provide suggestions for improvements.

This study aims to investigate whether the tool can be modified to better suit an internal serviceprocess in the pulp and paper industry. The literature review that has been conducted, revealedthat the existing model does not contain certain, according to the theory, important elementsadapted for Lean service. Beside the waste and tools that the model already consists of, fourrelevant wastes and twelve tools were found during the literature review. Other interestingcomponents that emerged through the literature review, were the views of what an organizationshould learn about and how successes should be measured. In order to fulfill the purpose of ourstudy, the Lean tool Service value stream management, was tested with the additions found duringthe literature review. The test was conducted at an internal service process at a case company tosee if there is evidence to add or remove some of the new wastes, tools or components to themodel. At the case company, data was collected through interviews and observations as well asthrough a survey. The study resulted in the 5K-model which consists five steps to eliminate andreduce wastes. With this model, organizations in the pulp and paper industry should be able tocreate higher efficiency in their internal service processes. To visualize and measure efficiency, amathematical formula was developed that could be considered useful even outside the 5K model.

In recent years, there have been a considerable number of efforts to integrate sustainability into Higher Education Institutions (HEIs); however, there are still challenges that need to be overcome. A process that has received an increasing attention has been the Organisational Change Management for Sustainability. This article is aimed at reviewing the main drivers of the integration of sustainable practices and the barriers to change slowing or stopping it. A systematic literature review was carried out using Web of Science de Thomson Reuters and in Scopus databases focusing on retrieving all papers on sustainability in HEIs published between 2000 and 2016. The drivers of and barriers found for the integration of sustainability in HEIs were compared to those previously described for companies. The similarities on drivers to change found in HEIs and companies were greater for external ones. A lower number of barriers to change were reported in the literature for HEIs than those reported for corporations, nonetheless, it was found that HEIs and companies have several common barriers to change. The article proposes a list of main drivers of and barriers to change, some general and others context specific. The findings on the drivers of the integration of sustainable practices in HEIs can serve to identify additional good practices at companies and vice versa. The barriers to change detected for the process of integration can help into anticipating, preventing and overcoming them. This knowledge can help institutions better plan and use their resources in working to becoming more sustainable.

Energy use in Sweden and the world is expected to increase and the residential and services account for 40% of total world energy demand. It is important that the energy efficiency of existing buildings and optimizing its systems as a lower energy benefits both the environment and the economy. A building's ventilation system account for a large proportion of a property's energy use, and there is often great potential for the system to be optimized and streamlined.

A property owner does not want properties that are vacant. Vacant premises mean less income in rent and in some cases there will be increased energy costs for the empty space in form of heating and ventilation, for the property owner to pay. Systems that can completely shut off or controlled depending on ventilation requirements needed for the latter cost will be reduced completely when the premises are vacant and that the total energy will decrease when a tenant moves out.

Ventilating purpose is to divert moisture, heat, particulates and carbon dioxide so that a good indoor climate is created for the people staying in the building. The most common ventilation principle for public buildings is to vent air with a constant air flow through a CAV system. With demand-based ventilation in the form of a VAV system, huge savings can be made when one adjusts airflow to the actual ventilation requirement instead of ventilating the building with a constant maximum flow. An installation of a VAV system in the form of CO2 or presence control, reduces ventilation energy consumption, while the quality of the indoor environment is maintained.

The work that has been carried out includes an energy survey of the property Brynäs 12:1 as an energy survey helps to understand a building's energy use, and identifies potential energy savings. The energy use for the building subsystems have been identified and analyzed in order to develop proposals for cost cutting measures. The results of the energy audit revealed that there was great potential for savings for ventilation units TA1, TA2 and TA3's electricity and heat use. If the measures for ventilation as presented in the work, such as flow and time reduction is taken, an energy saving of 333 MWh/year is achieved, which is 28% of the property's total annual energy consumption. 

In this chapter, we perform a conceptual analysis of a household sustainable consumption index, whose construction is based on guidelines in a handbook issued by OECD. We conclude in our analysis that the designers of the index treat the concept 'sustainable consumption' as a descriptive concept, and argue that this interpretation is a conceptual mistake.  A consequence of this mistake is that the construction of the index is treated as a kind of statistical and empirical problem only. Instead, we argue that sustainable consumption is a specific kind of value concept named intermediate concept, whose function is to link descriptive grounds with normative consequences, and thus that the construction of the index is a normative problem. That is, the construction of a sustainable consumption index should be regarded as a normative multi-attribute decision process. A policy implication of our study is that when measuring sustainability, a decision analytic approach based on an adequate interpretation of the concept sustainability as an intermediate concept should be employed. In order to avoid low validity of sustainability indices as a result of making a conceptual mistake, it is possible to explicitly treat the construction of a sustainability index as a normative multi-attribute decision process that can be aided by decision support tools. The relevance of our analysis to policy makers and other stakeholders is that it contributes to a deeper understanding of what kind of concept sustainability is and what it means to measure such concepts. Without a proper understanding of the nature of this concept, there is an obvious risk of low validity of its measurement.

While a well-built index can measure a complex phenomenon and produce an easy-to-digest output, the construction of an index is vulnerable to errors. Already prominent in a wide range of fields, indices are increasingly leveraged in Customer Success (CS), with all major CS software now offering index construction features. This paper analyzes one such software, Gainsight Customer Success, to explore how it can be used to build an index in line with the constructor’s intentions. Concepts from multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) illuminate possibilities and pitfalls in executing key steps of index construction in the software: value functions in exploring normalization; the distinction between “importance measures” and “trade-off ratios” in examining the meaning of the weights; the concept of compensability in guiding our aggregation analysis. Finally, the MCDA concept of value trees highlights both weighting and aggregation approaches. We find that the Gainsight user must possess some index construction expertise in order to control normalization, weighting, and aggregation, or even to understand how settings related to these steps affect the total score of an index built in the software. Importantly, neither the meaning of the weights as applied in the tool, nor the level of compensability allowed for in aggregation, are transparent to the user. In examining these questions of how construction choices affect the meaning of an index’s output, this analysis may be consulted for guidance by CS practitioners looking to build useful indices in any software.