Today’s rapid growth in population on sub-urban areas has caused an increase in fecal coliforms to be discharged to down-streams and lakes. The unaffordability of conventional sewerage systems makes it inaccessible to big part of the population of rural communities to receive proper sanitation. Since population growth is only projected to increase during the next few years, action is necessary to change the course of the future of rural communities, more specifically described on this report, Louisiana’s communities. One option to offer affordable sewerage systems to the Louisiana region is that we utilize of the Simplified Sewerage technology. Simplified Sewerage has been tested on several municipalities around the globe, especially in Brazil. The results of its application have proven to be conclusive and beneficial to communities.

The focus of this thesis is to analyze the management of supplier relationships in a supply chain and develop cost-effective processes for manufacturing of a finished product at a global company in Sweden. The study was initiated when the application of literature was of interest to one of the company's products that is under development. So far, the company's great focus has been on developing the product and getting as close to the finished product as possible. Equal focus has not yet been focused on managing suppliers and on defining the processes that arise after the finished product. The intention has been to facilitate decision-making in supplier management and manufacturing that will arise when the prototype will become a finished product and will be launched on the market. The aim for this study is to analyze the value chain in order to develop and check various production facilities to create opportunities for cost savings. -          RQ1. How does a good manufacturing strategy help in developing cost efficient products? -          RQ2. What are the challenges in developing a value chain containing several external suppliers? The approach applied in the study has been a review of scientific literature that provides a basis for answering the purpose and the questions that have been created. Data collected from the literature have been critically reviewed and adapted based on the purpose of the work and the empirical findings collected from the company. Data collected from the company in the form of interviews and observations have been regularly analyzed. The differences and similarities that exist between the empirical data and the literature have been elucidated by adapting the analysis to a pattern. The analysis provided a basis for the results where the development of two different concepts that can be used as an approach in the future could be created. The concepts were created and analyzed based on the company's prerequisites for applicable solutions. The results from the analysis were then summarized in results and recommendations with the categories: Value Stream Map, Hypothetical Production Line and Recommendations related to the modules of the product. These categories will facilitate decision-making regarding the choice of production in the future. Concepts that will facilitate decision-making for economic factors and process factors have also been developed as a “guideline” for approaches to supplier management and management of financial aspects.

Background: The National Institute Mental Health (2015) estimated there were about 44.7 million people diagnosed with a serious mental illness and 62.9% of those diagnosed were without mental health services. The loss of services was due to unemployment, reoccurring hospitalization, inabilities to care for themselves, and lack of participation in societal norms (World Health Organization [WHO], 2014). According to Insel (2011/2015), the U.S. cost of mental healthcare was an estimated $57.5 billion in 2006. This cost was not due to actual care but associated with the economic burden of job loss and the excessive use of community resources. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Mental Health Equality and Parity Act (MHEPA) has positively influenced access to mental healthcare, but healthcare coverage continues to be deficient. Insufficient clinical documentation practices decrease insurance reimbursement potential. Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement project was to enhance the current clinical documentation practices and policies and increase insurance reimbursement in an adult psychiatric inpatient unit in a private, non-profit mental and behavioral health organization. Theoretical Framework: The Kurt Lewin’s 3 Step Change Management Theory Methods: A quantitative design guided this project utilized an investigator-developed tool modeled from the CMS Inpatient Unit Worksheet as a data collection tool from the clinical chart documentation reviews. Results: Fisher’s Exact and Chi square tests measured the cross tabulation of pre and post comparison sample frequency of staff’s integration of an evidence-based descriptive documentation method into practice. The results presented with statistical significance of the progress narrative notes. The declined chart claims a p <0.001, and the numbers related to case scenario utilization of the documentation method was p = 1.00. Conclusion: The relationship between descriptive clinical documentation and insurance reimbursement was evident in the usage of the Data, Assessment/Action, Response, and Plan (DARP) method in the clinical documentation progress narratives notes. There was a 24% improvement in insurance reimbursement claims and a 17% decrease in charts declined for the study period.

<p>Title: Creating high awareness – A study in how a company can create awareness with cost efficient marketing methods. (Skapande av hög medvetenhet – En studie i hur ett företag kan skapa medvetenhet med kostnadseffektiva marknadsförings metoder).</p><p>Authors: Alexander Edlund and Fredrik Hansson</p><p>Aim: Our aim is to reveal the pros and cons of cost efficient marketing and decide which cost efficient method works best in creating awareness. We also want to determine if the methods can be integrated in a successful way to achieve greater awareness.</p><p>Method/Material: We have made a qualitative approach by conducting three in depth interviews with the company Bluetooth SIG’s marketing director Anders Edlund. Our theoretical foundation is mainly built on theory from the databases and library supported by Uppsala University.</p><p>Main results: We discovered that co-branding and PR are the two most cost efficient methods in creating awareness for the company Bluetooth SIG. We also found the possibility of integrating the methods in a way that effectively strengthens and reinforces the awareness. We recommend future research in both areas to further examine our results.</p><p>Number of pages: 32 pages including abstract and references</p><p>Course: FEK C, Bachelors thesis</p><p>University: Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University</p><p>Period: 2007, Spring semester</p><p>Tutor: Olivia Kang</p><p>Keywords: Awareness, cost efficient marketing, integrating, Bluetooth, co-branding, PR, online-marketing, word-of-mouth/buzz marketing</p>

Title: Creating high awareness – A study in how a company can create awareness with cost efficient marketing methods. (Skapande av hög medvetenhet – En studie i hur ett företag kan skapa medvetenhet med kostnadseffektiva marknadsförings metoder). Authors: Alexander Edlund and Fredrik Hansson Aim: Our aim is to reveal the pros and cons of cost efficient marketing and decide which cost efficient method works best in creating awareness. We also want to determine if the methods can be integrated in a successful way to achieve greater awareness. Method/Material: We have made a qualitative approach by conducting three in depth interviews with the company Bluetooth SIG’s marketing director Anders Edlund. Our theoretical foundation is mainly built on theory from the databases and library supported by Uppsala University. Main results: We discovered that co-branding and PR are the two most cost efficient methods in creating awareness for the company Bluetooth SIG. We also found the possibility of integrating the methods in a way that effectively strengthens and reinforces the awareness. We recommend future research in both areas to further examine our results. Number of pages: 32 pages including abstract and references Course: FEK C, Bachelors thesis University: Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University Period: 2007, Spring semester Tutor: Olivia Kang Keywords: Awareness, cost efficient marketing, integrating, Bluetooth, co-branding, PR, online-marketing, word-of-mouth/buzz marketing

More stringent requirements on nitrogen removal from wastewater are the motivation for this thesis. In order to improve treatment results and enhance cost-efficient operation of wastewater treatment plants, model based control strategies are presented. A Java based simulator for activated sludge processes (JASS) is presented. The graphical user interface, educational experiences and implemented control strategies are discussed. Controlling the addition of an external carbon source is the next topic discussed. A simple model based feedforward controller is derived and evaluated in a simulation study. The controller attenuates process disturbances quickly. Further, two feedforward controllers for adjusting the aeration volume in activated sludge processes are derived. The aim of the volume control strategies was to efficiently dampen the impact of process disturbances without using an excessively high dissolved oxygen concentration. The simulation results are promising and show that the aeration volume may be a feasible control variable. A linearisation method for static input non-linearities is presented. The method gives essentially the same result as the existing standard method, but possesses some implementational advantages. The method is used to linearise the non-linear oxygen transfer function of an activated sludge process in an application study. Multivariable interactions in a process model describing nitrate removal in an activated sludge process are studied using the well known RGA method as well as a relatively novel tool based on Hankel norms. The results of the analysis are compared to conclusions drawn from common process knowledge and are used to design a multivariable control strategy. It was found that process disturbances may be rejected faster using multivariable control. Finally, the operational costs of the denitrification process are investigated and visualised graphically. Cost optimal regions are found by a numerical grid search. Procedures for controlling the denitrification process in a cost-efficient way are described.

Abilia utvecklar, tillverkar och säljer tekniska hjälpmedel till personer som antingen har en fysisk eller psykisk begränsning som påverkar deras vardag. För att dra ner på kostnaderna och få en bättre enhetlighet vill Abilia att ytterförpackningarna ska standardiseras samt att ett flexibelt inrede som ska kunna anpassas till många av företagets produkter utvecklas. En förstudie lade grunden för projektet där många olika områden och metoder undersöktes. De existerade förpackningarna utvärderades, deras och produkternas livscykel kartlades varpå det framgick vilka som var projektets huvudanvändare. Dessa intervjuades och en kravspecifikation kunde sedan fastställas. Förstudien resulterade i att det fanns två grupper av produkter som lösningen måste kunna anpassas till. Lösningen måste även vara flexibel både för produkterna och för dess tillbehör. Hjälpmedelscentralerna som visade sig vara projektets huvudanvändare hade krav att lösningen skulle vara hållbar och ge förpackningen en strukturerad insida. Koncept genererades med hjälp av en praktisk idégenerering som resulterade i olika former och konstruktioner. Konceptval genomfördes genom diskussion med personal från Abilia samt genom en viktad konceptvalsmatris. Projektet resulterade i ett flexibelt och hållbart inrede i två lösningar. En produktpresentationsdel som har en konstruktion med nedvikbara flikar som gör det möjligt att kila fast produkter oberoende av storlek samt en flexibel tillbehörsdel som både kan regleras i höjdled och sidled. Lösningen uppfyller kraven från kravspecifikationen och har verifierats av experter inom området att den fungerar i verkliga situationer. Materialet i lösningen är det bäst anpassade för funktionen och är även det material som har lägst miljöpåverkan av de som undersöktes i projektet. / Abilia develops, manufactures and sells aids for people who have either a physical or mental limitations that affect their everyday lives. In order to save money and get a better uniformity Abilia want to standardize the packaging and develop a flexible interior that can be adapted to many of the company’s products. A pilot study laid the foundation for the project where many different areas and methods were examined. The existing packages were evaluated, and their and the products lifecycles were identified and that made it clear who the projects user was. They were interviewed and a product specification could be established. The pilot study resulted that it was two groups of products and the solution must be able to adapt to both. The solution must also be flexible to the products and their accessories. The Hjälpmedelscentralerna turned out to be the users in this project and they had requirements that the solution must be sustainable and provide a more structured inside of the packaging. Concepts were generated with a practical idea generation that resulted in different forms and constructions. The concept selection was made after discussion with the staff from Abilia and through a balanced concept selection matrix. The project resulted in a flexible and durable interior in two parts. A product presentation part which has a design with folddown flaps that allows the product to get stuck no matter which size and a flexible accessory which can be adjusted both vertically and horizontally. The solution fulfills the requirements from the product specification and has been verified by expert that it would work in real situation. The material in the solution is the best suited for the function and it is also the material with the lowest environmental impact of those surveyed in the project.

Material supply systems have for a long time been regarded as an important function with strong potential to increase the performance of companies in different industries. Consequently, substantial research has been conducted in the field. However, in the pharmaceutical industry within research and development plants, material supply systems have historically not been a prioritized function. Therefore, there is a research gap regarding material supply systems in that peculiar context. This study aims to fill that gap by investigating how a material supply system could be designed and which factors are critical to achieve a cost-efficient service level within a research and development plant in the pharmaceutical industry. To do so, a single case study has been conducted at a Swedish pharmaceutical company’s research and development plant. An abductive approach has been applied to both test if the general design principles developed in other industries and business functions can be applied to this context. Further, context specific factors affecting the material supply system design needed to be identified and investigated to adapt the general design principles to the specific context by generalizing data. The empirical data was collected by utilizing focus groups, interviews, observations and documents. The findings yielded that there is a substantial potential for improvement of material supply systems within the context of this study. The existing decentralized inventory structure at the case company was a particularly vital aspect that hindered the system from operating cost-efficiently in relation to the service level and a centralization is crucial to improve. Further, calibration and a general decrease of safety stocks, order points and order quantities is essential to uphold a consistent service level at a justifiable cost at the case company. The general design principles and formulas retrieved from the theoretical framework was partly applicable in the context of this study but needed some adjustments. Especially the low volume articles with high variety in consumption rate was not suitable to be managed by the existing methods and needed another approach. Further, the context establishes high requirements on system dynamics, it comes with boundaries due to laws regulating the industry, and companies in the context generally need to be better at aligning their design factors to the purpose. The result of this study adds valuable content to the research field and fills the gap for material supply systems in the context of research and development plants in the pharmaceutical industry. Further studies are needed in this field to investigate how articles with low and varying demands can be managed within material supply systems cost-efficiently and with high service levels.

The results of this work show that the cost efficiency of tendered bus services is similar across all Swedish counties, except for the more high-density counties where efficiency is lower. Considerably lower efficiency is also found for contracts with services run in-house by the Public Transport Authority (PTA), compared to when the same service is run by a private actor. With respect to the competitive environment, it was found that many contract design factors have little or no effect on the number of bids that the PTA sees in their tenders. No measure that could be imposed by a single PTA was found to increase the total number of bidders by more than 0.5 bidders. However, the results suggest that PTAs as a collective could try to avoid tendering too many contracts at the same time because this was shown to reduce participation by up to about two bidders. In addition, these studies show that the local competitive environment is important for the PTAs to consider. The way in which contract areas are defined will also affect the participation rate as operators were found to participate in tenders to a lower extent the farther their workplaces are from the contract area. While larger operators appear to be less sensitive with respect to such distances, the fact that smaller operators are, and that they often bid as one unit as members of cooperation companies, makes the competitive environment important. The results suggest that depots could be included in the contract to stimulate participation, but this is by no means the only nor an easy solution. This thesis has also analyzed the entry made in 2015 by MTR Express (MTR) on the Stockholm-Gothenburg railway line. The overall conclusion is that customers are indeed facing lower prices one and a half years after the entry. MTR's prices are on average 100 SEK lower than the incumbent SJ's prices. Furthermore, the analysis shows that the incumbent’s prices have also gone down, by almost 13 percent, following the entry. / <p>QC 20171106</p>

To reach the Swedish goal of reaching a completely fossil-free electricity sector by the year 2040, there is a need for an increased rate of installed renewable electricity sources. Companies have the opportunity to work towards this goal by investing in solar power technologies, which results in a lowered electricity bill, and an additional revenue when electricity is sold to the grid. As a result, the investment usually pays back within a reasonable timeframe. GEHAB is a company located that is located in Alvesta, Sweden, and they are interested in investing in rooftop solar power. This thesis investigates the potential and effects of such an investment at the company through energy simulations. This is done through four different scenarios, which aim at finding the largest possible installation, the most cost-optimal installation, according to the Levelized Cost Of Energy (LCOE), the impact of an added battery installation and finding the current issues with becoming a net-zero consumer of electricity. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was made to investigate how different factors impacted the LCOE. The results showed that the most cost-optimal size for the company to invest in was a 215 kWp installation, which is smaller than the maximum possible size of 335 kWp that can be installed on the rooftop. Such an installation would have an LCOE of -366 SEK/MWh when the avoided costs are included. The discounted payback time of that investment was 11.3 years. The involvement of batteries showed that they would lead to a higher LCOE and for the largest possible solar installation size, including a battery, means that it would not pay back within the lifetime of the PVs. Finally, the net-zero electricity consumption scenario found that currently, the largest issue to reach this scenario is that there is a regulation that limits solar installations to 500 kWp to avoid an energy tax.