This work presents an analysis of arrival sequencing at Stockholm Arlanda airport. Thesequencing of arrivals is very important part of air traffic control management and assuressafe space and time distancing of arriving aircraft. In this work we use historical flight datafrom Opensky Network database. The historical flight data contains the information about allthe arrivals of the year 2018. The aim of this work is to propose the key performanceindicators (KPIs) for evaluation of the arrival sequencing at Stockholm Arlanda airport. Thethree KPIs we are considering in this work are the minimum time to final, spacing deviationand sequence pressure. We choose data subsets of different size representing different trafficsituations. We visualize the results and summarize them in tables which assures better clarityfor the comparison of the same KPIs for different data subsets. In addition, we demonstratehow the proposed KPIs can be used for evaluation of optimization results from related study.We conclude that the proposed KPIs are very useful for analysis of the arrival aircraftsequencing and help to uncover inefficiencies within the terminal manoeuvring area (TMA).

Currently, manufacturing companies/organizations are exceedingly focused on the reverse logistics since it has its own share in the overall profitability and development of the organization. Proper management of the product returns are considered inevitable factor for success by many companies. Warehouses are important part of the reverse logistic chain where major part of the logistic management often require. In order to manage the product returns in an efficient manner in a warehouse, it is very important to have proper planning and proficient method to deal with any uncertain situations. Along with this updating technology, better staff allocation, proper communication etc. are considered as very important for the better function of the product returns management in an organization.  The study was conducted in returns management section of a warehouse facility. The aim of the thesis is to tackle the uncertainty with the help of an efficient forecasting method to predict rate of product returns and further to understand the importance of forecasting in upbringing the performance of the warehouse. The first phase of the study also investigates through the current trend of the rate of reverse flow and proposal of the best suited method for forecasting of the future state. The second aim of the thesis is to improve the current method utilized for managing the product returns in the warehouse and improve the overall cycle time of the system under study. Second phase of the research also focuses towards lean warehousing by eliminating the warehouse wastes in the return management section. Finally, the results obtained in the study is linked with building and improving the key performance indicators (KPI’s) in the return management section of the case company.

Context: Process mining is an approach that exploits event logs to discover real processes executed in organizations, enabling them to (re)design and improve process models. Goal modelling, on the other hand, is a requirements engineering (RE) approach mainly used to analyze what-if situations and support decision making. Problem: Common problems with process mining include the complexity of discovered “spaghetti” processes and a lack of goal-process alignment. Current process mining practices mainly focus on activities and do not benefit from considering stakeholder goals and requirements to manage complexity and alignment. The critical artifact that process mining practices rely on is the event log. However, using a raw version of real-life event logs will typically result in process models being too complex, unstructured, difficult to understand and, above all, not aligned with stakeholders’ goals. Method: Involving goal-related factors can augment the precision and interpretability of mined models and help discover better opportunities to satisfy stakeholders. This thesis proposes three algorithms for goal-oriented process enhancement and discovery (GoPED) that show synergetic effects achievable by combining process mining and goal-oriented modelling. With GoPED, good historical experiences will be found within the event log to be used as a basis for inferring good process models, and bad experiences will be found to discover models to avoid. The goodness is defined in terms of alignment with regards to three categories of goal-related criteria: • Case perspective: satisfaction of individual cases (e.g., patient, costumer) in terms of some goals; • Goal perspective: overall satisfaction of some goals (e.g., to decrease waiting time) rather than individual cases; and • Organization perspective: a comprehensive satisfaction level for all goals over all cases. GoPED first adds goal-related attributes to conventional event characteristics (case identifier, activities, and timestamps), selects a subset of cases concerning goal-related criteria, and finally discovers a process model from that subset. For each criterion, an algorithm is developed to enable selecting the best subset of cases where the criterion holds. The resulting process models are expected to reproduce the desired level of satisfaction. The three GoPED algorithms were implemented in a Python tool. In addition, three other tools were implemented to complete a line of actions whose input is a raw event log and output is a subset of the event log selected with respect to the goal-related criteria. GoPED was used on real healthcare event logs (an illustrative example and a case study) to discover processes, and the performance of the tools was also assessed. Results: The performance of the GoPED toolset for various sizes and configurations of event logs was assessed through extensive experiments. The results show that the three GoPED algorithms are practical and scalable for application to event logs with realistic sizes and types of configurations. The GoPED method was also applied to the discovery of processes from the raw event log of the trajectories of patients with sepsis in a Dutch hospital, from their registration in the emergency room until their discharge. Although the raw data does not explicitly include goal-related information, some reasonable goals were derived from the data and a related research paper in consultation with a healthcare expert. The method was applied, and the resulting models were i) substantially simpler than the model dis-covered from the whole event log, ii) free from the drawbacks that using the whole event log causes, and iii) aligned with the predefined goals. Conclusion: GoPED demonstrates the benefits of exploiting goal modelling capabilities to enhance event logs and select a subset of events to discover goal-aligned and simplified process models. The resulting process model can also be compared to a model discovered from the original event log to reveal new insights about the ability of different forms of process models to satisfy the stakeholders’ goals. Learning from good behaviours that satisfy goals and detecting bad behaviours that hurt them is an opportunity to redesign models, so they are simpler, better aligned with goals, and free from drawbacks that using the whole event log may cause.

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Date:    4th June 2023 Level:    Master Thesis in Product- and Process Development, 30 ECTS Authors:   William Reimer   Noah Paillon Title:    Redesigning automated production cell for increased efficiency - Discrete-Event Simulation as a tool to evaluate system designs Keywords:   Discrete Event Simulation (DES), Redesign, Production process, Automated Manufacturing System (AMS), Automated production cell, Robotics in production, Simulation, Key Performance indicators (KPIs), Decision-making, Redesigning production systems, Bottlenecks, Deadlocks, Production system development (PSD). Aim:    The aim of this study is to evaluate and redesign an automated production cell at a Swedish manufacturing plant using DES with KPIs, with the goal of increasing the efficiency. Research question:  “When redesigning, what factors influence production efficiency within an automated production cell?”, “What are the challenges when redesigning and increasing efficiency within an automated production cell?” and “How can such challenges be surpassed through the usage of DES with KPIs?” Methodology:   This study is a quantitative research with an inductive approach, including simulation as an experimental tool. In order to identify reliable knowledge, the literature review compared books and scientific publications. The empirical results were obtained by observation and data collection at the production site of the case company, which also involved frequent meetings with company supervisors and production engineers. In order to assess the situation and make conclusions, the empirical results were evaluated and experimented using DES.  Conclusion:   The need of identifying a problem's underlying causes in order to improve efficiency was one of the conclusions made. This was additionally mentioned as one of PSD's primary challenges in redesigning an automated production cell. This implies that in order to increase production efficiency, bottlenecks and deadlocks must be appropriately addressed and adjusted to meet the demands of a production. In order to improve the production efficiency of an automated production cell, DES with KPIs is considered to be a useful approach.

Background and problem: Earlier research within the change management field suggests that implementation of new projects have a high rate of failure. This is problematic considering that successful implementation of projects correlates well with an organization's long term survivability. The lack of consensus among academics regarding which are the crucial factors for successful change management have inspired the authors to study this phenomenon further. Purpose: The aim of the study is to define underlying success factors and improvement potentials within change management projects with a high staff impact. Method: A qualitative case study has been the method of choice to answer the research questions. To gather empirical evidence, nine middle managers at Systembolaget AB were interviewed. The interviews were constructed in a semi-structured way. Conclusion: One of the most prominent findings in this study is the importance of having a dedicated management and senior managers during the whole change management process. Their ability to communicate a clear goal is crucial for, in our case, store managers to steer their businesses in a united direction.

[pt] A PETROBRAS, maior empresa brasileira e uma das doze maiores empresas de petróleo do mundo, está ampliando a sua presença na área internacional, como forma de atender aos objetivos estabelecidos em seu Plano Estratégico. Atuando em países ricos em recursos minerais, porém, alguns deles, sem dispor da necessária tecnologia e mão-de-obra especializada, a empresa vêm utilizando a sua expertise de mais de 50 anos na indústria do petróleo, para garantir um alto padrão de eficiência, rentabilidade, rapidez e segurança em suas operações. O perfeito funcionamento e integração de todos os elos que constituem a sua complexa cadeia de atividades, que abrange desde a exploração da jazida de petróleo até a entrega do combustível ao consumidor final, requer uma elevada competência em termos tecnológicos e logísticos. De modo a permitir que os gerentes da Área Internacional da PETROBRAS possam exercer um sistemático monitoramento das operações realizadas pelas Unidades de Negócio da empresa localizadas no exterior, é necessário que se desenvolvam adequados mecanismos de controle e de avaliação de desempenho. A presente dissertação pretende buscar fundamentação teórica, estudar a aplicabilidade dos modelos de avaliação de desempenho existentes, e propor a utilização de indicadores de desempenho que possibilitem avaliar, sob uma ótica logística, a atuação internacional da referida empresa. / [en] PETROBRAS, the greatest brazilian company and one of the twelve world´s biggest oil companies, is extending its presence in the international area, as a way to pursue the objectives established in its strategical plan. Acting in countries rich in mineral resources, some of them, however, lacking the necessary technology and specialized man power, Petrobras uses its expertise of more than 50 years in the oil industry, to guarantee a high standard of efficiency, yield, rapidity and security in its operations. The perfect functioning and integration of all the links that constitute its complex chain of activities, that encloses from the exploration of the oil deposit to the delivery of the fuel to the final consumer, require a high ability in technological and logistics terms. In order to allow the managers of Petrobras´s International Area, to exert a systematic control of the operations carried through for the Business Units of the company located abroad, are necessary to develop adequate mechanisms of control and performance evaluation. This work intends to search theoretical basis to study the applicability of the existing performance evaluation models, and to consider the use of performance indicators, that would make possible to evaluate, under a logistics concept, the international performance of the mentioned company.

The purposes of this study were to develop a notational system to evaluate passing, dribbling, first touch, and individual defensive skills as they relate to success during women's soccer games and to develop a statistical model to weight the importance of each skill on creating scoring opportunities. Sequences of skills in 10 Division I intercollegiate women's soccer games were coded using well defined performance scores and outcomes. The notational analysis system was highly reliable as demonstrated by high test-retest Spearman's correlations (>0.98) between the first and second notation of 3 games for all four skills. The importance scores calculated from a Bayesian model demonstrated that dribbling (0.0127) was the most important skill on creating scoring opportunities, followed by first touch (0.0079), passing (0.0075), and individual defense (0.0050). The notational system developed by this study provides coaches with reliable and objective information in order to improve the specificity of practices and to prepare individuals for optimal performance.

Urbanization and climate change are two of the most important issues of our days. Many attempts have been made to define the most sustainable way to organise cities in order to cope with the increased population, while simultaneously being climate friendly, socially acceptable and economically viable. This master thesis focuses on the comparison of the sustainability performance of two particular theoretically planned urban forms, located in the suburban area of Stockholm – a “compact city”-like neighborhood and a “garden-city”-like neighbourhood. It was decided that the focus would be on the carbon footprint of the representative residences of each urban form, with the help of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA); and that overall sustainability criteria for neighbourhoods would after wards be assessed, having a certification system forsustainable neighbourhoods (CityLab for districts, in particular) as a framework for a – mostly theoreticalassessment. After the exploring of the differences in the sustainability performance(environmental and social) of the two assessed urban forms, a discussion is made concerning the relationship between urban form and sustainability and conditions under which the most sustainable urban form could be achieved. The results of the analysis highlight that the concept “one size fits all” cannot conform to urban planning decisions, since cities should be able to adjust to the needs of each generation.

The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptions that central Florida public high school principals had regarding the Florida School Indicators Report (FSIR) and its usefulness. The FSIR, published by the Florida Education, was designed to be a comprehensive, single source document for parents, lawmakers, and school administrators to compare key performance indicators to similar schools or districts state wide. It provided information on 74 different indicators of school or district performance. A total of 70 public high school principals from 13 central Florida school districts responded to a postal survey and provided their perceptions regarding the importance of indicators in the FSIR, how they used the FSIR at their schools, and what barriers they felt affected the ability of their administrative staffs to collect and analyze data on the FSIR indicators. Eighteen of the 70 principals participated in follow-up telephone interviews. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the postal surveys and interviews revealed the principals perceived FSIR indicators related to Florida's mandated Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) as the most important indictors in the FSIR. The indicators FCAT Results and FCAT Writes were ranked first and second respectively in priority by the participating principals. This finding demonstrated the importance that principals placed on the state's high-stakes test. Other categories of FSIR indicators are were also ranked in the findings reported in this study, along with how the principals used the FSIR at their schools. The data collected from the postal survey revealed there was a statistically significant relationship between the priority principals assigned to the FSIR indicators and their ability to collect and analyze data related to them. In addition, survey data allowed development of multiple regression models that could be used to predict the priority principals assigned to several FSIR categories of indicators based on the ability to collect and analyze data. The study findings indicated that principals perceived lack of time for data analysis as the biggest barrier they faced when evaluating the FSIR indicators. After the lack of time, principals rated lack of administrator training in data analysis as the second biggest obstacle to using the FSIR. The findings indicated that principals felt the availability of data and technology were not significant barriers to their staff's ability to conduct data analysis on the FSIR. The conclusions drawn from the study were that central Florida high school principals perceived the results on the state's mandated Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) to be the most important indicators in the FSIR. In addition, the research identified that the lack of time was the single greatest barrier principals encountered when it came to collecting and analyzing data on the FSIR. A lack of training programs in data collection and analysis for administrators was also noted in the findings.