<p>International Marine Group, IMG AB, was established in year 2000, and became the parent company of the three sister companies, Momec AB, Isolamin AB and Premec AB. The IMG – group supplies complete marine/offshore interior accommodation and tailor-made system supplies to the Building/Industrial sector. With a starting point to develop IMG AB’s logistic and distribution the company has decided to survey the present logistic at their subsidiaries, mainly concentrated on the goods for delivery. The purpose is to allocate the processes inside the IMG – group which have direct develop potential. To be able to satisfy the new requirements on logistics in the future, IMG – group has presented a new proposal including a warehouse to consolidate gods for delivery. The warehouse would enable consolidation of all orders which are supposed to be delivered to the same destination.</p><p>The purpose with this bachelor’s thesis is to serve as basis in a discussion about IMG AB’s future development. The future development will include a consolidation point for distribution and an automatic line for wall and ceiling panels. The methods which were used to obtain information for the thesis were: data-collection, litterature reviews, benchmarking and actual visits at the subsidiaries’ plants, Isolamin AB, Momec AB and Premec AB. The purpose is also to create a survey of the logistic flows inside the supply chain of the subsidiaries. The sister companies were also compared in a benchmarking with three different external companies. The purpose is also to appoint the requirements which are of most significance for the supply chain, with the aspect on consolidation.</p><p>Momec AB is located in Bottnaryd and offer marine door sets in two different types, A and B. The location of Isolamin AB is Överkalix and the company is a supplier of products and customized solutions in the area of insulated panels for the Marine/Offshore and Building/Industrial sector. Premec AB is located in Dals Ed and manufacture prefabricated bathrooms for offshore-, shipping- and building industry world wide. Premec AB can supply already made (assembled) wet units for new buildings or flat packed (knock-down) units for refurbishment/renovation. All of the sister companies have potential for development in many areas inside their order to delivery process. There are also potential for development in the distribution and logistic aspects.</p><p>The authors of this bachelor’s thesis consider the prerequisite to build the warehouse a reality is to have a well implemented ERP-system. It is also of significance that the exchange of information is fluent, that all sister companies have a high delivery precision and great coordination and organised systems. Further requirements are: to make the order to delivery process more efficient, to minimize the lead-time and to give the possibility to calculate the throughput time as an order is set.</p><p>The warehouse and the subsidiaries, Isolamin AB, Momec AB and Premec AB, have both strengths and weaknesses. The authors of this bachelor’s thesis consider that the warehouse will open up for more possibilities in the future, but it will also include some threats to the IMG-group.</p><p>If the proposal of a new warehouse and a new automatic line turns into reality a careful risk-management analysis should be done to minimize the risk in the investment. A comparison against a proposal with outsourcing to a Third Part Logistic – company, TPL-company, should be considered. A TPL-company might be more cost effective.</p><p>The conclusion is that IMG –group’s project plans of a warehouse and an automatic line should be realised with the prerequisite that all the factors that today are considered to be a problem for the IMG – group are sorted out and that the ERP- System Jevees is fully implemented.</p>

<p>Vibration control has been and still remains a subject of primary importance in modern manufacturing industry. To be able to remove high volumes of material in shorter time as well as to be able to get the right quality of the parts at the first time are goals that many shops would like to achieve. Tooling systems, and especially cantilever tools, and cantilever structural units of machine tools are the least rigid components of machining systems and therefore the most prone to vibration. Boring tools are often encountered as rotating tools in machining centres or as stationary tools in internal turning. In this thesis the focus is on internal turning. Internal turning is widely known as a very delicate operation and it is often carried out with cutting parameters far from optimal, from a productivity point of view, due to limitations imposed by vibration. Another type of tooling system whose functionality is impaired by vibration is the parting-off tool. The design of damped parting-off tool is one of the focus of this thesis as well. Vibration control has the purpose to achieve an efficient energy dissipation of a vibrational system. Basically this is achieved by controlling the damping of the system. Since damping involves the conversion of energy associated with a vibration to other forms, there are several mechanisms to remove energy from a vibrating system. Typically these mechanisms are divided in two classes:</p><p> 1. Mechanisms that convert mechanical energy to heat, i.e. passive damping.</p><p> 2. Mechanisms that transport energy away from vibrating systems, i.e. active damping.</p><p> Both these techniques have been used during the years and both have been giving excellent results. The active vibration control mechanisms are more expensive and not suitable for machining due to the cables they necessitate that could interfere with the machining operation. This work proposes an original approach to vibration damping in machining systems, the objects of vibration dissipation being the structural components on the link between turret and cutting insert. The idea is to use composite materials to create damping interfaces between and within the different structural components. Different clamping system designs are being compared in order to see how these influence the performance of the machining system and different cutting inserts have been compared for machining hardened steel. The newly designed components have been going through both extensive off-line (modal analysis) and on-line dynamic testing (machining test) and the results show that the new tool holders used in combination with hydrostatic clamping system are the most optimal solution among the tested ones. The new design for the turret has been giving promising results and more can be achieved by bringing minor changes to it, these changes are being implemented at the time of writing this thesis.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 295-321). Also available on Internet.

The study was carried out to examine the effect of economic factors on stock price in a global economy - a case study of the Nigerian stock market. The main objectives of the study was to examine some peculiarities or differences in terms of economic variables that influence stock prices in the Nigerian stock market from those of the global economy. The study makes use of regression analysis and analysis of variance to analyze the secondary data obtained from the Nigerian Stock Market. There are numerous variables that can be identified to determine stock prices in any economy. / Mjeramgatan 2 lag 231 412 76 Göteborg

In addition to labor market factors, the informal economy in Latin America is explained as a product of a weak state capacity to enforce regulation and a networked and resourceful community that enables self-sustained economic activities. Theoretically,informal self-employment flourishes where these conditions prevail. However, as urban renewal advances and business chains expand thorough the city, street trade, one of the most typical informal occupations is persecuted more aggressively, questioning its legitimacy as a spatial practice and source of employment for the urban poor. This dissertation examines the changes in the conception of street trade as a subject of policy, by analyzing closely how current transformations in the urban structure, ideologies of urban development and planning have impacted in the way policy makers intervene in public space and have redefined practices of street trade. It compares the cities of Bogotá and Lima, contributing respectively, to the understanding of progressive and neoliberal styles of urban planning. Using a mixed methods research design, it articulates citywide trends with local conditions and individual experiences, following three stages of analysis: (1) A comparative policy analysis based on a descriptive analysis of its evolution across scales and a spatial analysis of the local variability of enforcement patterns, identifying not only vendors’ agglomeration factors but also where enforcement matches the expansion of large retailers; (2) a comparative analysis based on public officials interviews of current rationales behind placemaking strategies at the city and local level; and (3) a comparative analysis of street vendors spatial practices as well as economic and political choices given the different city policy frameworks and their exposure to distinctive enforcement patterns as identified in the spatial analysis. The findings of this study provide a baseline for further theorization of the role of spatial dimension as it relates to the informal sector. The systematic comprehension of the relationship between city regulation of space and its actual use aims to contribute to a more integrative approach to policy making seeking to ensure that regulation and commercial growth complement and do not burden opportunities for self-employment among the urban poor. / text

The primary concern of this dissertation is to give historical perspective to the idea of the creative city and the creative, or "new," "knowledge," or "postindustrial" economy that has produced this new form of urban space. Austin, Texas, one of the developed world's premiere creative cities, is used as a test case. Like many urban scholars, I focus on the manifestation of the city as a unique material expression of the capitalist order, and also on the city as a symbolic discourse that has helped to generate its material conditions, including consistent socioeconomic unevenness. In broad outline I am interested in the forces of capitalism that cause cities and regions to grow. I begin with a basic question asked by geographer Allen J. Scott: "How do competitive advantages (including capacities for creativity) of cities emerge, and how might they be enhanced by public action?" In the case of Austin, I argue that the city's competitive advantage was engendered by an ethos that valued free market competition and a focus on the dual economic engines of technology and leisure which city and university leaders identified during World War Two. Austin's economic ideology, which consciously eschewed fordist modes of production in favor of knowledge-based growth associated with the University of Texas, was poised to blossom when macroeconomic ruptures forced massive restructuring associated with globalization during and after the 1970s. The city's inherent advantage as a site of surplus knowledge production for Texas and the Southwest created a highly paid, educated labor market that business people and politicians viewed as the core element of a non-industrial city. Even before the 1970s Austin was well on its way to economic growth through technological accumulation and modes of production that took advantage of skilled labor markets. The creative city thus has a history that must be understood before policy is adopted based on non-transferable conditions of growth. / text

In the face of 21st century economic challenges, community colleges must contend with complex pressures on their mission. The dueling missions of academic transfer and workforce preparation must sustain and grow the American economy in a global market and simultaneously meet the promise to community college students— open access to quality higher education for all. In the midst of this challenging environment, community college faculty attitudes and awareness to mission challenges are often ignored. This study examined the macro-level effects of external pressures of the 21st century economy at the micro-level of full-time faculty at Texas community colleges. The study design followed a post-positivist paradigm and sought generalizeable data about full-time faculty from Texas community colleges. Quantitative data from an online survey were analyzed to determine faculty awareness of and attitudes toward the community college mission. The findings of the study show that faculty blur the boundaries of what traditionally have been considered workforce and academic roles. They are not well- informed about the range of pressures on the community college, but they are willing to integrate the academic and workforce mission and change in other ways to respond to challenges. They are generally supportive of the community college mission. Faculty teach with their students’ long-term interests in mind, including career preparation and lifelong learning, more than they teach to prepare their students for immediate work in the community. / text

The flooring industry is a market that constantly changing every year with new products and improvements. The purpose of this report is to uncover which of the floors, linoleum and vinyl with or without PUR reinforced surface has the lowest life cycle cost for the customer over a 30-year period. The scope of the study is to investigate the three different floors in the public sector in Sweden, Norway, and Finland. A similar study was made many years ago where remarkable result was uncovered. The way used to determining the result in this study is made by two different methods within the LCC. The LCC calculations in this study are based on the primary data collections; qualitative interviews, time study, and observations. Secondary data have also been used in the report. When a customer invests in a floor there are three major costs purchasing, installation, and maintenance. Maintenance will ultimately be the biggest cost because it extends over the entire life cycle while the others are two fixed costs. The analysis uncover that the amount of water and chemical usage to maintain the floors has reduced since the old study. The consumption that has increased is the energy, a result from the increase usage of cleaning machines in the public sector. The most profitable floor to invest in is the vinyl with PUR reinforced surface. This floor has in Sweden and Norway a higher purchasing price than linoleum and vinyl without PUR reinforced surface but in the long run (30 years) its total life cycle cost are lesser than the two others. If the public sector in Sweden invests in a vinyl floor with reinforced PUR surface instead of a vinyl without PUR, the life cycle cost at a hospital or municipality will be reduced by 16,3 percent.

This thesis examines Alutiiq stories of loss, disempowerment and distrust in the aftermath of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill crisis. It examines Alutiiq responses to the oil spill in relation to how, twenty-five years earlier, members of the same communities experienced the impacts of an earthquake crisis. The thesis describes how the 1989 oil spill crisis was associated with experiences of loss of cultural livelihoods, loss of cultural identities, environmental distrust, enhanced distrust of governments, and experiences of disempowerment, while, in contrast, responses to the earthquake were characterised by resilience and adaptability. Using evidence derived from discussions, interviews and participation in community life, as part of 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in two Alutiiq communities between September 2006 and September 2008, I argue that differences in Alutiiq responses to the two crises can be partly attributed to socio-political factors that characterised the aftermath of each of the disasters, in addition to the absence of culturally-specific knowledge and experientially-based adaptive strategies in the aftermath of the oil spill. Unlike earlier anthropological studies of the oil spill, this study compares Alutiiq responses to the oil spill with their responses to the earthquake crisis.

This dissertation consists of three essays concerned with coordination, cooperation and the governance of institutions. / Economics