Trots den samhälleliga utvecklingen av teknologin, digitalisering och globalisering som har resulterat i en ny modern arbetsmarknad där tillfälliga arbetskontrakt blir alltmer vanligt, finns det bristande forskning kring hur dessa arbetskontrakt påverkar organisationers förbättringsarbeten. Tidigare forskning kring tillfälliga arbetskontrakt har studerat hur engagemang kan påverka produktivitet hos en organisation ur ekonomisk synvinkel, och har genererat värdefull statistik kring forskningsområdet. Tidigare forskning har dock inte tagit hänsyn till hur enskilda individer med tillfälliga arbetskontrakt påverkas på en individuell nivå och hur detta påverkar deras attityder, närmare bestämt deras motivation och engagemang. Syftet med föreliggande examensarbete är att undersöka hur tillfälliga arbetskontrakt kan påverka organisationers strävan efter ständiga förbättringar. Mer specifikt undersöks om den tillfälligt anställdas attityder till ständiga förbättringar motsvarar de förväntningar som organisationer har på dessa individer i förhållande till ständiga förbättringar. I studien definieras ständiga förbättringar som förmågan att generera nya arbetsmetoder för att skapa betydande förbättringar gällande kvalitet och effektivitet på operativ nivå. Studiens empiriska data erhölls genom en kombinerad forskningsansats, vilket inkluderar triangulering för att stärka validiteten av insamlade data. Två webbenkäter har distribuerats till tillfälligt anställda samt till ledare med ansvar för tillfälligt anställda. Vidare har semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförts med tillfälligt anställda, ledare med ansvar för tillfälligt anställda samt fackliga ombud. Respondenternas svar analyserades och tolkades för att skapa djupare förståelse kring forskningsämnet. Resultaten i studien tyder på att ständiga förbättringar kan få negativt utfall som följd av bristande motivation och engagemang hos de tillfälligt anställda, samt att de organisatoriska förväntningarna inte uppfylls. / Despite the societal developments of technology, digitalisation and globalisation that has resulted in a new modern labour market which features an increased demand for temporary contracts, there is a lack of research regarding how these employment contracts are affecting organisational improvement processes. Previous research regarding temporary contracts has primarily focused upon how engagement may affect organisational productivity from an economic aspect and has generated valuable statistics regarding that research area. However, previous research has been conducted without considering how the temporary employees are being affected on an individual level and how this is affecting their attitudes, more specifically their motivation and engagement. The aim of this master’s thesis is to investigate how temporary contracts may affect the organisation pursuit of continuous improvements. More specifically, investigating whether the temporary employees’ attitudes towards continuous improvements correspond to the expectations organisations have regarding these employees in relation to continuous improvements. In this context, continuous improvements are defined as the ability to generate new working methods to create valuable improvements regarding quality and efficiency at an operational level. The empirical data for this present research was obtained through a mixed method approach, which includes triangulation to strengthen the accuracy of collected data. Two online surveys were distributed to temporary employees as well as leaders with responsibility for temporary employees. Furthermore, semi-structured interviews have been conducted with temporary employees, leaders with responsibility for temporary employees as well as union representatives. The responses were analysed and interpreted to generate a deeper understanding of the research subject. The results indicate that continuous improvement may indeed be inadequate because of a lack of motivation and engagement in the temporary employees and that the organisational expectations are unfulfilled.

Background: The European Union’s (EU) food and drink industry has faced declining competitiveness over the past two decades. Methodologies associated with the quality improvement has been recognized as a possible solution to increase competitiveness of the industry. However, there are uncertainties among researchers and practitioners of how to implement these quality improvement methodologies and researchers of today requests further understanding in why some firms perform better than others when applying the same practices. Objectives: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if the concept of ‘individual readiness for organizational change’ can be used as a measurement to better understand why some firms perform better than others when applying the same quality improvement initiations within the EU food and drink industry. Methods: The researcher of this thesis uses secondary data from existing literature on quality improvement imitations, according to Luning and Marcelis (2009) definition of quality improvement as a part of the food quality management system (FQMS), to justify the need for ‘individual readiness for organizational change’ measurements, defined by Holt et al. (2007), and uses primary data from the conduction of a single-case study, of an Swedish fruit and vegetable operating organization that were about to embark a Lean manufacturing piecemeal approach implementation, to validate the need for assuring individual readiness for change before any food and drink industry invests in quality improvement implementations. Results: The findings of the primary data collection are accordant with existing literature where individual employees were found to display lower levels of ‘individual readiness for organizational change’ perceived the organization to have lack of proper communication or were more resistant towards the implementation. Employees whose daily activities were more orientated around other FQMS practices such as quality assurance and quality control, displayed lower levels of individual readiness than employees whose activities are less associated with these systems. Furthermore, trust in management was identified as a key determinant of the employees’ individual readiness for the Lean manufacturing implementation. Conclusions: The findings of this thesis indicate that the usage the concept of ‘individual readiness for change’ as a measurement before a quality improvement implementation within the EU food and drink industry could increase researches’ and practitioners’ understanding why some firms perform better than others when applying the same practices.

Detta arbete har utförts på avdelningen för produktion av brandglas hos en av Sveriges främsta glasleverantörer, Martin G Anderson. Företaget upplever i dagsläget låg lönsamhet för deras brandglasprodukter. Anledningen till detta beror på problem i form av långa ledtider, stökiga arbetsutrymmen och allmän oreda på avdelningen. Målet med arbetet har således fokuserat på att kartlägga slöserier i tillverkningsprocessen för brandglas som ger upphov till dessa problem, samt reducera ledtiden och samtidigt kvalitetssäkra processen. Arbetets metodgång är av en analyserande karaktär, där en stor del av tiden ägnats åt insamling av data i form av observationer, intervjuer samt litteraturstudier.  Arbetet initierades med att undersöka nuläget och utföra en nulägesanalys. Manuella tidtagningar utfördes under fyra veckor i syfte att få en bild över hur ledtiden ser ut i dagsläget. Därefter användes verktyg inom Lean för att analysera den information som sammanställts i nulägesbeskrivningen. Exempel på verktyg som tillämpats är styrdiagram, 7+1 leanslöserier samt rotorsaksverktyget 5 varför.  När nuläget var känt och insamlad data analyserad, tillämpades Lean verktyget 5S för att reducera de slöseri som identifierats i processen. En ny manuell tidtagning utfördes där resultatet visar en 19% reducering av ledtiden. Slutligen presenteras förslag till fortsatt arbete. Dessa förslag består bland annat av fortsatt tillämpning av verktyget 5S, men även hur en mer hållbar process kan åstadkommas utifrån social hållbarhet. / This project has been carried out in the department for the production of fire-resistant glass products at one of Sweden's leading glass suppliers, Martin G Anderson. The company currently experiences low profitability for their fire-glass products. The reason for this is due to problems in the form of long lead times, messy areas and general disorder in the department. The goal of the project has thus been focused on locating wastes in the production process for fire-resistant glass that causes these problems, as well as reducing lead time and at the same time assuring a high process quality. The methodology of the work is of an analytical nature, where a large part of the time has been devoted to the collection of data in the form of observations, interviews and literature studies. The project was initiated by investigating the current situation and performing a current situation analysis. Manual timings were carried out during four weeks in order to get a picture of what the lead time looks like today. Subsequently, tools within Lean were used to analyze the information compiled in the current description. Examples of tools used are control diagrams, 7 + 1 lean waste and the root cause analysis 5 why. Once the known state and collected data were analyzed, the Lean tool 5S was applied to reduce the waste identified in the process. A new manual timing was performed where the result shows a 19% reduction in lead time. Finally, proposals for further work are presented. These proposals include, among other things, continued application of the 5S tool, but also how a more sustainable process can be achieved based on social sustainability.

En central del i patientsäkerhetsarbetet inom hälso- och sjukvård är att personalen rapporterar risker och avvikelser som upptäcks i verksamheten. En avvikelse är ett faktum när verksamheten inte når upp till satta mål och krav utifrån lagar, föreskrifter och beslut och kan vara allt från småstrul som tar tid från patientarbete till en allvarlig skada som inträffar (SOSFS 2011:9) Att ständigt arbeta med förbättringar är ett måste för att anpassa verksamheten utifrån nya uppkomna behov krav och förutsättningar. Att ständigt identifierade brister och ta tillvara på medarbetares förslag till förbättring, samt sträva efter en samsyn är förutsättningar som krävs för att verksamheten ständigt ska förbättras. Studiens syfte var att undersöka hur man använder rapporterade avvikelser som underlag till att förbättra sin verksamhet samt vilka förutsättningar som krävs för att arbeta med avvikelser på ett systematiskt sätt. Studien utgörs av flervalsmetodforskning där data samlats in via semistrukturerade intervjuer med tre vårdenhetschefer inom en verksamhet för att få en fördjupad förståelse av förutsättningar och utmaningar med att använda avvikelser för att förbättra sin verksamhet. För att få en förstärkt och bredare bild av studiens frågeställningar kompletterades datainsamlingen med en enkät där 60 medarbetare inom fyra vårdenheter svarat. Empirisk data analyserades genom tematisk analys. I resultatet framkommer fem övergripande tema som både chefer och medarbetare identifierat som viktiga förutsättningar för att förbättra sin verksamhet med grund i avvikelser; Samsyn, Struktur, Chefens stöd, Lärande och Medarbetares delaktighet som även inkluderar fler underliggande identifierade subteman. Utmaningar identifierades som tre övergripande tema; Fokus på rätt sak, Prioritering av tid samt Integrera förbättringsarbetet i det dagliga arbetet. En av frågeställningarna handlade också om hur medarbetares förslag till förbättring fångas upp och resulterade i intressanta reflektioner både hos medarbetare och chefer. / A central aspect of patient safety work within healthcare is for the staff to report risks and deviations. A deviation occurs when healthcare fails to meet set goals and requirements according to laws, regulations, and decisions. It may include minor issues that take time away from patient, to serious incidents causing harm (SOSFS 2011:9). Continuous improvements are necessary to adapt the care unit based on new emerging needs and conditions. Constantly identifying shortcomings, make use of employees' improvement suggestions, and striving for consensus are prerequisites for continuous improvement in care units. This study aimed to investigate how reported deviations are utilized as a basis for improving operations, as well as the prerequisites for working with deviations in a systematic manner. The study was designed as a mixed-methods research design, with data collected through semi-structured interviews with three unit managers within a healthcare organization to gain an deepened understanding of the prerequisites and challenges associated with using deviations to improve care units. Data collection was complemented with a survey in which 60 employees from four units responded to enhance and broaden the understanding of the research questions. Empirical data were analyzed through thematic analysis. The results showed five overarching themes that both managers and employees identified as important prerequisites for improving operations based on deviations: Consensus, Structure, Managerial Support, Learning, and Employee involvement, including several underlying subthemes. Challenges were identified in three overarching themes: Focus on the right things, Time prioritization, and Integrating improvement work into daily operations. One of the research questions also focused on how employees' improvement suggestions are captured, resulting in interesting reflections among both employees and managers

The Swedish government supports local government initiatives in an effort to promote societal wellbeing. Municipalities work to improve the quality of life for their citizens while also providing services that are friendly to the environment. One of the major duties for municipalities that need more attention is providing drinkable water and maintaining a reliable sewer system. In order to prevent any contamination of drinking water or any filtration or leakage concerns with sewer systems, they demand significant investment and long-term attention. The VA (stands for water and sewer system in Swedish)is one of the most important infrastructure assets in a functioning society, where disruptions and interruptions risk having far-reaching consequences for people's health. The report outlines the current status of the water and sewage system in Sweden and details how accommodating it is to be improved. The study seeks areas where water and sewage services can be improved through external entrepreneurs that could establish and manage these assets, instead of the local governmental authorities. The report will also look at potential improvements in water and sewage system, through enhanced collaboration and partnership with other municipalities. In order to accomplish this, numerous literature and interviews with municipal representatives have been made, in addition to the inspection of other resources to gather information on how to continue. As a result, the water and sewage infrastructure is currently in a critical state and requires significant investment as well as quick action. The report also discovered that there are numerous legal barriers and limitations for privatizing water and sewerage operations. On the other hand, one of the report's main conclusions is that it is necessary to take into account cooperation and partnerships between municipalities in order to enhance local organizational performance and come up with a joint solution to the financial problems. However, more research must be done, and the business justifications of some municipalities' current partnerships should be looked at.

The present thesis aims to provide new insight into the motives and aspirations behind self-initiated renovations of owner-occupied housing by applying a critical perspective to the phenomenon of home improvements. Furthermore, the thesis argues that the concepts of use value and exchange value point to how economic and non-economic factors are interconnected in contemporary home improvement practice. Moreover, by connecting economic and non-economic factors, the thesis goes beyond previous research in the field, which has been preoccupied with either one or the other. An empirical study consisting of eight semi-structured interviews with homeowners in Uppsala was conducted to support the thesis’s theoretical argument. This study found a combination of vagueness and certainty in the motives behind the participants' renovations. The thesis then recontextualized its seemingly paradoxical findings in terms of use value and exchange value, showing how renovating homeowners navigate contradictory considerations in pragmatic ways. In turn, showing how home improvement needs to be understood with reference to structural mechanisms and individual preferences – taking care to centre how these two aspects are interconnected. Additionally, tied to its conclusions, the study shows how homeowners balance ideals of self-expression with a norm of neutrality stemming from the demands of the property market.

Parametric design has proven to be a powerful tool for structural engineers to find innovativesolutions to complex problems more effectively compared to conventional methods. Theflexibility off parametric design is immense since all types of structures depend on a range ofparameters that can be isolated, controlled and altered.In this thesis a parametric model was built with the software Grasshopper to manage thedesign process of a common type of foundation improvement. The technique has beensuccessfully used by Tyréns AB on several 19th century buildings in Stockholm in the pastdecade. The buildings were settling due to decay of the original wooden piles. To stop furthersettlements steel piles are drilled from under the building down to the bedrock. In thebasement of the buildings new and thick reinforced concrete slabs are cast which are connectedto the ground walls with concrete corbels.The available area for the installation of these corbels, the minimum distances between thecorbels and the dimensions of each corbel are all contributing factors that limit the number ofpossible design configurations. The dimensions of the concrete corbels affect the maximumload capacity which will determine their quantity and position. The corbels have to carry thevarying line loads and point loads acting on the ground walls from the structure above.With the plug-in finite element software Karamba, reaction forces in each pile were calculatedwhich also affected the possible designs.A well-functioning and adaptable parametric model presented logical results where decreasingheight of the concrete slab was affecting the capacity of each corbel which in turn generated alarger number of corbels. The model offered both manual control and automatic optimizationwhere real time variations of loads and reactions were shown depending on the changingdesign.In the optimization process which was based on genetic algorithm a cost function to deal withthe numerous contributing parameters was designed.Verification of important results increased the confidence in the model in most cases but thelack of trust in the calculated moments of each shell element created limitations. The thesisdoes not include a complete finite element analysis of the structures generated by theparametric model. However, it presents a simple export process to the third party softwareFEM-Design for verification.The role of the model was therefore not to work as a complete solution but as a powerful andeasy-to-use design tool for the structural designer to get instant feedback of chosen corbelplacements. The model offered a simplified way of achieving more slender and economicstructures both financially as well as environmentally.Parametric design was shown to be successful for solving structural problems if the model wasbased on appropriate engineering judgements.

This study examines the safety effects of the improvements made on multi-lane arterials. The improvements were divided into two categories 1) corridor level improvements, and 2) intersection improvements. Empirical Bayes method, which is one of the most accepted approaches for conducting before-after evaluations, has been used to assess the safety effects of the improvement projects. Safety effects are estimated not only in terms of all crashes but also rear-end (most common type) as well as severe crashes (crashes involving incapacitating and/or fatal injuries) and also angle crashes for intersection improvements. The Safety Performance Functions (SPFs) used in this study are negative binomial crash frequency estimation models that use the information on ADT, length of the segments, speed limit, and number of lanes for corridors. And for intersections the explanatory variables used are ADT, number of lanes, speed limit on major road, and number of lanes on the minor road. GENMOD procedure in SAS was used to develop the SPFs. Corridor SPFs are segregated by crash groups (all, rear-end, and severe), length of the segments being evaluated, and land use (urban, suburban and rural). The results of the analysis show that the resulting changes in safety following corridor level improvements vary widely. Although the safety effect of projects involving the same type of improvement varied, the overall effectiveness of each of the corridor level improvements were found to be positive in terms of reduction in crashes of each crash type considered (total, severe, and rear-end) except for resurfacing projects where the total number of crashes slightly increased after the roadway section is resurfaced. Evaluating additional improvements carried out with resurfacing activities showed that all (other than sidewalk improvements for total crashes) of them consistently led to improvements in safety of multilane arterial sections. It leads to the inference that it may be a good idea to take up additional improvements if it is cost effective to do them along with resurfacing. It was also found that the addition of turning lanes (left and/or right) and paving shoulders were two improvements associated with a project�s relative performance in terms of reduction in rear-end crashes. No improvements were found to be associated with a resurfacing project�s relative performance in terms of changes in (i.e., reducing) severe crashes. For intersection improvements also the individual results of each project varied widely. Except for adding turn lane(s) all other improvements showed a positive impact on safety in terms of reducing the number of crashes for all the crash types (total, severe, angle, and rear-end) considered. Indicating that the design guidelines for this work type have to be revisited and safety aspect has to be considered while implementing them. In all it can be concluded that FDOT is doing a good job in selecting the sites for treatment and it is very successful in improving the safety of the sections being treated although the main objective(s) of the treatments are not necessarily safety related.

Budgets for transportation improvements are limited so it is important for governments to focus on improving locations most in need of safety funding. The objective of the Two-Output Model for Safety (TOMS) is to provide the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) a reliable method to prioritize safety improvements on state-owned roadways among the different regions. This research will improve the existing Crash Analysis Methodology for Segments (CAMS) and Intersection Safety Analysis Methodology (ISAM) being used to analyze crashes on Utah roadways. The scope of this project is improving on the existing CAMS and ISAM to work together within R, to incorporate segment and intersection severity in safety hot spot analysis, to develop overall severity distributions, and to develop limited recommendations and conclusions related to the research. TOMS uses UDOT data to create a statistical input. Each segment is homogenous with respect to five variables: average annual daily traffic, functional class, number of through lanes, speed limit, and urban code. Intersections are provided as a separate dataset. In the statistical analyses performed on the data, five years of crash data (2016-2020) are used to determine a weighted risk score for segments and intersections of similar characteristics. Those segments or intersections with excess weighted risk scores are designated as crash hot spots. Two-page technical reports with road characteristics and crash data are created for the top 10 hot spots for segments and intersections in Utah. The reports are sent to UDOT where region engineers may review and determine which locations might be addressed.

Epiroc Underground Rock Excavation is a manufacturer of machines that operate in underground mines. The machines are complex and advanced with different functions and systems that interact with each other. Simulations provides a picture of machine design, its functions and how the real-world result would be. This method enables an iterative way of working with several different design solutions. Simulations is a crucial method for reducing cost and time-to-market. Recently, Epiroc has taken initiatives regarding development and continuous improvements within the underground division. Lack of documentation regarding what simulation methods that is used, and its purposes makes it difficult to work with development and improvements. The long-term target for Epiroc is to move the physical verification of machine systems, functions, and components to a digital environment. The mission of this project has been to collect and identify simulation methods used within the division and collect key information for future work. The information has been collected through interviews with simulation experts and the identified information is presented to get an understanding about the current state. Furthermore, waste and improvement areas has been highlighted within this thesis. / Epirocs underjordsdivision tillverkar maskiner som används inom underjordsarbete. Maskinerina är komplexa och avancerade med många olika funktioner och system som skall interagera med varandra. Simuleringar ger en första anblick i hur designen och maskiners funktioner senare kommer att fungera i verkligheten. Simuleringar möjliggör ett itterativt arbetssätt med flera olika designlösningar för att komma fram till den bästa lösningen. Detta är avgörande för att hålla ner kostnaden och att minska tiden-till-marknaden. På senare tid har initiativ tagits för att jobba med bland annat utveckling och ständiga förbättringar inom underjordsdivisionen. Bristande dokumentation gällande vilka simuleringsmetoder som används och syftet med dem gör det svårt att bedriva utvecklingsarbete gällande nya produkter. Det långsiktiga målet för Epiroc är att maskinens delar, system och funktioner skall kunna verifieras i en virtuell miljö istället för på fysisk maskin. Målet för det här projektet har varit att samla och identifiera simuleringsmetoder som används inom divisionen idag, för att förbereda för framtida arbete. Detta har gjorts genom att utföra intervjuer med simuleringsexperter och genom en nulägesanalys. Vidare så har även slöserier och förbättringsområden identifierats.