Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento CientÃfico e TecnolÃgico / FundaÃÃo de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Cearà / Esta dissertaÃÃo tem como objetivo investigar os fluxos de materiais e informaÃÃes entre os atores da cadeia de suprimento de portas prontas de madeira. Apesar de a literatura nacional apresentar estudos sobre o mapeamento de cadeias de suprimento na construÃÃo civil, poucos estudos abordam o tema para cadeias de suprimento localizadas na regiÃo Nordeste do paÃs. Essa cadeia de suprimento foi selecionada inicialmente com base em pesquisas realizadas pelo Grupo de Pesquisa e Assessoria em Gerenciamento na ConstruÃÃo Civil (GERCON) em que as esquadrias de madeira de empreendimentos habitacionais de interesse social foram apontadas como um produto problemÃtico. Partindo dessas pesquisas e buscando entender e solucionar os problemas por elas encontrados, esta dissertaÃÃo tem como foco a cadeia de suprimento de portas prontas de madeira que se apresentam como uma alternativa Ãs portas convencionais montadas na obra. As portas prontas de madeira tÃm todos os seus componentes prÃ-montados pelo fornecedor, o que teoricamente reduz a quantidade de atividades realizadas no canteiro de obras e, consequentemente, o tempo de instalaÃÃo das mesmas. Foram conduzidos estudos de casos em um empreendimento residencial e em um empreendimento comercial que adotavam o sistema de portas prontas. Mapas de fluxo de valor foram elaborados com base na observaÃÃo direta do processo de fabricaÃÃo e instalaÃÃo das esquadrias (visitas a fÃbrica da madeireira e ao canteiro de obras), registro fotogrÃfico e entrevistas com os diversos profissionais das empresas que fazem parte desta cadeia. EvidÃncias sugerem que as vantagens dos elementos prÃ-fabricados foram perdidas devido à falta de integraÃÃo entre os empreiteiros e fornecedores. A falta de troca de informaÃÃes entre os dois lados impediu uma utilizaÃÃo mais eficiente dos elementos prÃ-fabricados e a falta de padronizaÃÃo da espessura das paredes de alvenaria e tolerÃncias resultou em uma sÃrie de soluÃÃes de qualidade inferior durante a fase de instalaÃÃo. / This masterâs thesis investigated the flows of material and information among participants of the supply chain of pre-fabricated wooden doors. The Brazilian literature on the topic presents different studies on supply chain mapping, however, few of them discuss issues related to supply chains on the countryâs Northeastern region. The supply chain investigated was choosen based on previous research projects carried out by the Grupo de Pesquisa e Assessoria em Gerenciamento na ConstruÃÃo Civil (GERCON), a construction management research group at the Federal University of CearÃ, Brazil. Previous studies carried out by GERCON researchers, on low-income housing projects, had revealed numerous problems related to wooden doors and windows. Using the results of previous studies as a starting point, this thesis studied the pre-fabricated wooden doors and their supply chain which have all of its components pre-assembled by the supplier. The use of pre-fabricated wooden doors would theoretically reduce the number of activities performed at the construction site, and would result in a shorter installation time. The two-phase research comprised a preliminary study and two in-depth case studies about pre-fabricated wooden doors. The author carried out the case studies in two high rising buildings (one residential and one commercial) in the city of Fortaleza, Brazil, in order to investigate the supply chain of pre-fabricated wooden doors. Value stream maps were developed based on direct observation of the processes involved to fabricate and install the product at the supplierâs plant and the construction site respectively, photos, and interviews with different professionals at the plant and at the site. Wooden doors presented problems related to the installation and final product quality regardless of the type of project. Some advantages of prefabricated elements were lost due lack of trust between contractors and suppliers, lack of consideration of preconditions necessary for successful site installation, and lack of standardization and tolerance management resulted in suboptimal solutions during the installation phase. Special attention should be paid to the interfaces between the prefabricated element and the other parts of the project, current means and methods should be revisited if the project is to fully take advantage of prefabrication. The lack of open communication and low levels of trust amongst the supply chain actors result in enormous amounts of waste (e.g., rework, wasted time, unnecessary handling, unnecessary use of resources) and diminished value to the client.

The thesis deals with the global information flows and its aim is to find factors which influence them. Firstly, the visibility of the country in international news is explored, i.e. which countries are dominantly represented in the international news. Secondly, the exposure of the country towards international news is observed, i.e how countries vary in the openness towards the international news. The thesis also seek to reveal factors which have an impact on the visibility of the country and on the exposure. The thesis consists of a recherche part with the theory of globalization and a quantitative analysis based on the dataset from 2014-2017. The thesis concludes that countries are represented unevenly with few dominant countries (the most dominant country is China, followed by USA and Ukraine) in the international news and that the most exposed countries have been found small developing countries (Saint Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, etc.) from South America. Regarding the factors of visibility of the country, the highest impact has the size of population,and also GNI and the presence of violent correlated. On the contrary, all factors impacting the exposure of the country were found statistically insignificant.

During the last decades organizations have made large investments in Information Technology (IT). The effects of these investments have been studied in business and academic communities over the years. A large amount of research has been conducted on the relation between the investments in IT and productivity growth. Productivity is a central measure of national and organizational success and is often considered in economic decisionmaking. Researchers have however found it difficult to present a clear-cut answer to the effect of IT investments on productivity growth; an inability defined as the productivity paradox. Within the Impact of IT on Productivity (ITOP) research program the relevance of the productivity measure as an indicator of the value of IT is questionned. IT has over the years replaced physical interfaces with digital and in this way enabled new ways to process information. A retrospective research approach is therefore applied where the effects of digitized information flows are studied within specific organizational settings. In this thesis the effects of digitized information flows within Swedish grocery distribution are studied. A comprehensive presentation of the development is first conducted and three focal areas are thereafter presented. These describe supply chain information flows including order information, information on new items and analysis of point-of-sales information. The presentation of the focal areas identifies a number of effects from the digitization of information flows. The effects are analyzed according to a predefined analytical framework. The effects are divided into five categories and are thereafter evaluated when it comes to potential for generating value. The study shows that the digitization of information flows has generated numerous, multifaceted effects. Automational, informational, transformational, consumer surplus and other effects are observed. They are difficult to evaluate using a single ndicator. Specific indicators that are closely related to the effects can however be defined. The study also concludes that the productivity measure does not capture all positive effects generated by digitized information flows. / <p>ISRN/Report code: LiU-Tek-Lic-2005:39</p>

Syfte – Studiens syfte var att analysera hur uppkomsten av defekta produkter och omarbeten kan minska i kundorderstyrd montering genom effektivare material- och informationsflöden. Som hjälp till att besvara syftet har det brutits ned i två frågeställningar: I. Vilka möjliga orsaker till defekta produkter och omarbeten kan identifieras i kundorderstyrd montering? II. Hur kan förändringar i material- och informationsflöden minska uppkomsten av defekta produkter och omarbeten i kundorderstyrd montering? Metod – Studiens tillvägagångssätt pågick i en iterativ process och innefattade litteraturstudier samt en fallstudie. I samarbete med det kundorderstyrda företaget JELDWEN Sverige AB i Forserum, genomfördes fallstudien på deras monteringsavdelning. Fallstudien innefattade intervjuer, observationer samt dokumentstudier. Resultatet i studien har uppnåtts genom analysering och jämförelse av insamlad empiri och teori. Resultat – Studien identifierar orsaker till defekta produkter och omarbeten i form av brister i material- och informationsflöden. Orsakerna delas in i fyra huvudrubriker; informationsunderlag, rutiner, personal samt material, som i sin tur bryts ned i elva underrubriker. Samtliga orsaker bidrar till icke värdeskapande aktiviteter och bör därför minskas. En kombination av kanban och kittning är ett förändringsalternativ till nuvarande materialhantering, som säkerställer att rätt material är på rätt plats vid rätt tidpunkt. Informationsunderlag och upplärning bör tydliggöras för att minska osäkerheter hos operatörerna inom montering och därmed minska uppkomst av defekta produkter och omarbeten. Implikationer – I denna studie fastställs att förändringar i material- och informations– flöden kan effektivisera kundorderstyrd montering. För att åstadkomma detta måste bristande orsaker specifikt för varje tillverkande verksamhet identifieras. De förändringsalternativ som presenteras kan kräva vissa investeringar för tillverkande verksamheter och aspekter relaterade till kostnad bör därmed beaktas. Begränsningar – Fallstudien som genomfördes var av enskild karaktär vilket innebär begränsningar i studiens generaliserbarhet. Studien hade till avsikt att identifiera möjliga orsaker till problemet som presenterats, kopplat till material- och informationsflöden. Utifrån denna avgränsning kan väsentliga orsaker utöver detta försummats. / Purpose – The purpose of the study was to analyse how the occurrence of defect products and rework can decrease within customer-order-driven assembly through more efficient material- and information flows. In order to help answering the purpose, the purpose has been decomposed into two questions: I. What possible causes of defective products and rework can be identified in customer-order-driven assembly? II. How can changes in the material- and information flows decrease the occurrence of defect products and rework in customer-order-driven assembly? Method – The approach of the study was iterative and included literature studies and a case study. In cooperation with JELD-WEN Sverige AB in Forserum, which has a high degree customer-order-driven manufacturing, the case study was conducted on their assembly department. The case study included interviews, observations and document studies. The result of the study has been achieved through comparison and analysis of empirical data and theory. Findings – The study identifies the causes of defect products and rework in forms of flaws in material- and information flows. The causes are divided into four headlines; information base, routines, employees as well as material which in turn are broken down into eleven subheadings. All causes contribute to non-value adding activities and should therefore be minimized. A combination of kanban and kitting is an alternative to current strategy for handling the material, which ensures that the right material is in the right place, at the right time. Information base and training should be clarified in order to minimize uncertainty among the operators in the assembly, thus minimizing the occurrence of defect products and rework. Implications – This study establish that customer-order-driven assembly can improve efficiency with changes in material- and information flows. To achieve this, the causes for flaws need to be identified for each specific manufacturing business. The possibilities for change that is presented may require certain investments for the manufacturing business, therefore aspects related to cost should be considered. Limitations – The performed case study had a single character, thus limiting the generalizability of the study. The intention of the study was to identify possible causes to the presented problem, connected to material- and information flows. Due to this limitation, other significant causes may have been neglected.

This thesis deals with questions concerning spatial agglomeration of economic activities. The object of study is the Internet industry in central Stockholm. Through the use of statistical data and an interview study the Internet industry is described, measured, and analyzed through theories concerning agglomerations, social network relations, and knowledge and information flows. These theories are interpreted through five agglomeration themes related to the role of customers, subcontractors and partners, competitors, financing, and labour market, respec-tively. The research has recognized the importance of proximity to create and maintain social networks, and to spread information and knowledge, especially tacit knowledge. The thesis also shows how social networks, and information and knowledge flows have an essential role in all the five agglomeration themes that are analyzed. The results of this analysis show that the proximity to customers is the most important factor for the location of the Internet indus-try. Also, the local labour market and access to suppliers and partners are important factors. Competitors and rivals have a role to play when it comes to the diffusion of knowledge and information, although its importance as a location factor is hard to estimate. The analysis of the firms’ financing demonstrate that this factor hardly has been of crucial importance for the location of the Internet industry, but access to (venture) capital might have been of indirect importance for the location and the pace of the development of the Internet industry.

Implementing self-management for enterprise systems is difficult. First, the scale and complexity of such systems makes it hard to understand and interpret system behavior or worse, the root causes of certain behaviors. Second, it is not clear how the goals specified at a system-level translate to component-level actions that drive the system. Third, the dynamic environments in which such systems operate requires self-management techniques that not only adapt the system but also adapt their own decision making processes. Finally, to build a self-management solution that is acceptable to administrators, it should have the properties of tractability and trust, which allow an administrator to both understand and fine-tune self-management actions. This dissertation work introduces, implements, and evaluates iManage, a novel system state-space based framework for enabling self-management of enterprise-scale systems. The system state-space, in iManage, is defined to be a collection of monitored system parameters and metrics (termed system variables). In addition, from amongst the system variables, it identifies the variables of interest, which determine the operational status of a system, and the controllable variables, which are the ones that can be deterministically modified to affect the operational status of a system. Using this formal representation, we have developed and integrated into iManage techniques that establish a probabilistic model relating the variables of interest and the controllable variables under the prevailing operational conditions. Such models are then used by iManage to determine corrective actions in case of SLA violations and/or to determine per-component ranges for controllable variables, which if independently adhered to by each component, lead to SLA compliance. To address the issue of scale in determining system models, iManage makes use of a novel state-space partitioning scheme that partitions the state-space into smaller sub-spaces thereby allowing us to more precisely model the critical system aspects. Our chosen modeling techniques are such that the generated models can be easily understood and modified by the administrator. Furthermore, iManage associates each proposed self-management action with a confidence-attribute that determines whether the action in question merits autonomic enforcement or not.

The topic of this thesis is "Planning, production and distribution in selected company." The aim of this thesis was to recommend some suggestions which could lead to improvements in the selected company. This thesis is composed of theoretical and practical parts. The theoretical part describes the contents of each chapter. This section was written on the basis of domestic and foreign literary sources. This work is focused on analysis of current situation in chosen company for the calendar year 2015 in section of production, planning, capacity utilization, material and information flow, distribution and new product development. At the end of the practical part are recommended the proposals for improvement.

The theme of thesis is an analyse of relations with suppliers and consumers focused on logistic first of all on material and information flows. The goal is to describe and review distribution chain and its parts of trade block Flosman {--} Flop and find generally useful processes leading to the improvement and costs saving. The thesis is devided into six parts. In the first and second parts is focused on development and characteristics and structure of companies. The third and fourth parts deals with distribution focused on material and information flows of companies. Then follows the analyse of competition and in conclusion the proposals for improvement with answers to defined hypotheses are presented.

The Diploma Thesis on “The Studies during the Engagement Organizations” is focused on the course of a contract of a company specializing in the supply and installation of air conditioning technology, heat pumps and air conditioning equipment. The Thesis is divided into three main parts. The first part includes theoretical work solutions. The second part is focused on the analysis of the current state of the company and describes the way the contract is carried out by the company. The third part of the Thesis consists of suggestions for the removal of identified deficiencies within the company. These suggestions should help to improve efficiency of the company’s procedures, increase the business competitiveness and increase the value for a customer.

The focus of this thesis is to study what and how information flows can be used to improve Demand responsive transport (DRT) systems by understanding potential users and how they could be willing to participate in DRT to a higher degree. The viewpoint of this thesis tends to lean towards a DRT service of a public transport type. This thesis studies users in relation to what interaction and information they perceive to be needed in dealing with a DRT service and the different pros and cons with various approaches. The study gathers information by performing adapted qualitative interviews with a select number of users between the ages of 20-35. The participants give their views on three DRT scenarios and reflect on DRT in general as a concept presented to them through a tangible mocked-up interactive prototype.  The thesis makes several distinct findings. The importance of pricing a DRT service correctly is vital to the users, as several participants in the study relied on pricing for decision-making. It also finds that the usage of zones as nomenclature is confusing to many users. The services must be dependable and punctual to both attract users, keep users, and build trust among the general populace. This study shows that DRT services could be a difficult concept to introduce to users. DRT could be introduced as a complement or as an alternative to conventional public transport. An important factor is a well-designed flow of information in the application to keep the user engaged and involved. It is shown that the usability of the application is a cornerstone for a theoretical DRT service to excel. Context is important where DRT and ridesharing would have a higher success rate. Nighttime in urban areas could be a niche market, due to the irregularity, delay, or interruption of regular public transport services at these hours.