This diploma thesis is focusing on analysis of indebtedness and productivity at company level. The main aim is to analyse these two variables and find their relationship. The thesis is divided into two main parts, theoretical and practical. The theoretical part includes information about indebtedness and productivity issues, whereas the practi-cal part is focusing on analysing of these two variables and finding their relationship. It is focused on companies producing furniture. In the introduction of the practical part is a characteristics of furniture manufacturing industry according to the CZ-NACE and a summarization from a macroeconomic perspective. These companies are than cate-gorized by their size into micro, small, medium and large companies. The following chapters are aimed on a produc-tivity and indebtedness analysis according to each category and on analysis of their relationship. The last chapter is aimed on hypothesis that is supposed to find out, if the companies, that have long-term asset and indebtedness growth, have also a productivity growth. The conclusion includes a summary of all the analysis. According to the analysis was found out, that in some small groups of companies exist a significant relationship between productivity and indebted-ness. It is mainly about a medium and large companies.

During the last decades, the U.S. wood products (NAICS 321) and furniture manufacturing (NAICS 337) industries have been greatly affected by economic cycles, rising production and transportation costs, changing buyer habits, and, arguably, most powerfully, increasing global competition. As a result, tens of thousands of jobs were lost and a large number of companies in the industry experienced bankruptcy, closed operations, or relocated to other countries. However, theories exist stating that the use of management systems, such as, for example, Lean management, allows companies to become more competitive and enhance the likelihood of survival. A mail survey was conducted to investigate companies in Virginia's wood products and furniture manufacturing industries as to their awareness of Lean management, the implementation of Lean practices, as well as the companies' need for support in Lean implementation efforts. Findings indicate that a majority of Virginia's wood products and furniture manufacturing industries have heard about terms like, for example, Lean management, Lean manufacturing, or Lean thinking, but are rarely aware of individual Lean elements of which Lean consists. Few businesses thus have implemented Lean. However, findings show that Lean awareness and Lean implementation status differs between individual industry sub-segments. The group of industry segments with the highest Lean awareness and Lean implementation status were "engineered wood products," "manufactured homes," and "household furniture manufacturing," as opposed to industry sub-segments such as "sawmill" and "wood container and pallets," which had lower Lean awareness and Lean implementation status. The study also revealed that smaller companies (less than 50 employees) have a lower level of Lean awareness and implementation status than do larger companies (50-499 employees). Despite the low level of Lean implementation across the wood products and furniture manufacturing industry in Virginia, less than one-fourth of all respondents indicated a need for Lean implementation support. / Master of Science

Denna studie undersöker de estetiska värderingarna av materialet trä i möbelproduktion och hur det påverkar materialåtgången. Tidigare forskning har främst undersökt träslaget furu och det estetiska urvalet som händer redan i träproduktion. Resultat i denna studie har visat att ett så homogent material som möjligt är att föredra, utan kvistar, färgförändring och ojämn fiberriktning. Större produktionsbolag ser till att spillmaterial som blir över efter sortering blir pappersmassa eller spån. Möbeltillverkare har inte resurser för att ge sitt spill ett andra liv utan eldar upp det. Liknande studier har kommit fram till att det finns estetiska preferenser på trä men inte hur man kan påverka konsumentens val. Hur kan man genom design förändra den estetiska värderingen kring valet av material och förhindra onödigt svinn? Syftet med detta projekt är att genom kritisk design belysa problematiken kring hur vi konsumerar material utifrån estetiska värderingar och konsekvenserna det medför. Kvalitativa metoder i form av expertintervjuer har gjorts för att samla information om hur möbelproducenter väljer sitt material utifrån estetiska preferenser. Resultatet påvisar att en möbel kan generera spill på upp till 70 procent av en planka. Ur ett hållbarhetsperspektiv är det viktigt att visa på de negativa följderna som kommer av att välja bort ett värdefullt material för att det inte är estetiskt tilltalande. / This study examines the aesthetic values of the material wood in furniture manufacturing and how it affects material consumption. Previous research has mainly examined the wood species pine and the aesthetic selection that occurs in wood production. Results in this study have shown that a homogeneous material as possible is preferable, without knots, irregular coloration, and uneven grain. Larger production companies ensure that waste material that remains after sorting becomes pulp or flakes. Furniture manufacturers do not have the resources to give their waste another life, instead they burning the wood for heat. Similar studies have concluded that there are aesthetic preferences on wood but not how to influence consumer choice. How can design change the aesthetic value of the choice of material and prevent unnecessary waste? The purpose of this project is to shed light on the problem of how we consume materials based on aesthetic values and the consequences it has through a critical design perspective. Qualitative methods in the form of expert interviews have been made to gather information on how furniture manufacturers choose their materials based on aesthetic preferences. The results show that a piece of furniture can generate wood waste up to 70 percent of a plank. From a sustainability perspective, it is important to point out the negative consequences that will opt out of a valuable material because it is not aesthetically pleasing.

Since the emergence and the subsequent evolution of lean manufacturing concepts, numerous enterprises of different scale and specialties have adopted lean tools and techniques in their facilities with varying success. In general, lean manufacturing related studies have been conducted on large manufacturing firms, such as the automotive industry. Yet, lean manufacturing tools and techniques are also suited for small enterprises. Thus, the main concern of this study is to investigate the success of set-up time reduction efforts (one of the steps needed to achieve 'one-piece flow') in secondary wood products manufacturing facilities on four woodworking machines (moulder, shaper, table saw, and band saw) based on firm size. The first objective of this research is to explore the results of the implementation of set-up time reduction efforts on selected woodworking machines in enterprises of varying size. It is assumed that company size is a major factor influencing the rate of set-up time improvements. To that end, the first hypothesis, which states that 'Small firms are less successful in reducing set-up time through set-up time reduction efforts than are large firms,' has been developed and supportive questions have been corresponding created. While statistical testing of the hypotheses created for this is not possible due to the limited number of participants, speculations about the possible outcome can be made. Thus, for hypothesis one, the data obtained does not show any sign of a relationship between a firm size and the success rate of set-up time reduction efforts. The second objective of this study is to investigate how a firm's productivity is affected by set-up time reduction efforts as related to firm size. With regards to some of the weaknesses of typical small manufacturing firms (e.g. having limited budget and resources, intuitive management strategies including lack of strategic planning), large firms, by and large, are expected to be more successful in increasing productivity through set-up time reduction. To that end, the goal is to investigate results of the set-up time reduction efforts in terms of productivity improvement in manufacturing facilities. With this in mind, the second hypothesis was proposed, which reads 'Small firms achieve lower productivity gains through set-up time reduction than do large firms.' For the second hypothesis, while no conclusive proof can be offered, no sign of a relationship between firm size and productivity gain through set-up time reduction could be found. Another objective of this study is to explore the success rate of set-up time activities on the four types of woodworking machines in industry facilities considering the training activities provided by manufacturers. The aim is to compare set-up time improvement performance of manufacturers between enterprises which trained their workers/operators and enterprises which did not train their employees. To understand the relationship between the scale of firms (and/or facilities) and training activities to improve set-ups, the third hypothesis, which reads 'Small firms are less concerned with set-up time reduction through training than are large firms,' has been developed. For the third hypothesis, while testing is not possible, it appears that there is no relationship between firm size and the level of concern for set-up time reduction through training activities. The final objective of this research is to investigate whether the secondary wood manufacturing firms studied experienced a bottleneck in their production due to the long set-up actions of machines. In order to accomplish this objective, the final hypothesis, 'In both, large and small firms, bottlenecks occur at machines with high set-up times,' has been developed. The final hypothesis cannot be accepted or rejected due to the limited number of responses obtained, set-up time was a frequently indicated explanation for the occurrence of production bottlenecks in secondary wood products manufacturing firms. / Master of Science