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abstract: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have become readily available for both the average consumer and professional due to decreases in price and increases in technological capabilities. This work ventured to explore the feasible use of UAV-technology in the area of roof analysis for facilities management purposes and contrast it to traditional techniques of inspection. An underlying goal of this work was two-fold. First, it was to calculate the upfront cost of investing in appropriate UAV equipment and training for a typical staff member to become proficient at doing such maintenance work in the practice of actual roof inspections on a sample set of roofs. Secondly, it was to compare the value of using this UAV method of investigation to traditional practices of inspecting roofs manually by personally viewing and walking roofs. The two methods for inspecting roofs were compared using various metrics, including time, cost, value, safety, and other relevant measurables. In addition to the study goals, this research was able to identify specific benefits and hazards for both methods of inspection through empirical trials. These points illustrate the study as Lessons Learned from the experience, which may be of interest to those Facilities Managers who are considering investing resources in UAV training and equipment for industrial purposes. Overall, this study helps to identify the utility of UAV technology in a well-established professional field in a way that has not been previously conducted in academia. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Construction Management 2020

This thesis is an analytical examination of the inspectorates established by the British and Foreign School Society and the Anglican National Society between c. 1826-1870. Its aim is to demonstrate the important role their officials played in the development of a nation-wide system of elementary education in England and Wales. The thesis is divided into six chapters. The Introductory Chapter places the study in context by considering the concept of inspection in the nineteenth century. It examines 'state' inspectorates other than those for education, school inspection abroad and the long tradition of visitation and inspection by the Established Church. Chapter Two considers the appointment and development of HMIs between 1840-1870, providing an essential foundation and context for the subsequent chapters. Chapter Three examines the BFSS system of inspection. All aspects of this branch of the Society's work are considered including the reasons for the establishment of an inspectorate, the social backgrounds of the men appointed, the work they carried out and their changing and developing roles during this period. It not only reveals their important contribution to the work of their Society but also to national educational developments. Chapter Four focuses on the National Society's system of inspection and visitation. It considers the development of a three tier system during the 1840s with centrally appointed Inspectors, Diocesan Inspectors and Organising Masters. The issues central to the National Society's Inspectors' reports are also considered in detail. Chapter Five assesses the contribution made by the BFSS and National Society officials to the establishment of other school inspectorates. It then offers final analysis in Chapter Six on the significance of the work of the Agents and Inspectors of the two major Societies, not only for their respective organisations, but also for the development of nineteenth century elementary education.

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Title: Control over and inspections of the incoming flow of deliveries Background: Staples experiences difficulties to get their incoming flow of deliveries to deliver on time. This is because Staples has a poor control of its suppliers in the current situation. Another problem that Staples experience is that their inspection of the incoming flow is taking too long time. These problems can lead to unnecessary tied up capital, backlogs and rest orders. Staples would like to explore the possibility of improving the control and inspection of the incoming flow. Purpose: To identify the amount of late and early incoming flow of deliveries and describe how Staples could control them in order to receive more on-time deliveries. Moreover to describe how Staples could improve the inspection process in order to make the incoming flow of deliveries flow faster into storage. Methodology: The study is a case study in Staples central warehouse in Växjö, Sweden. Results: Suggestion has been made for how Staples could improve the control over the incoming flow of deliveries, and the inspections of the incoming flow of deliveries. The suggestions made are based on how Staples could control deliveries in advance in order to receive more on-time deliveries. Moreover specific requirements could be made towards the suppliers to improve the inspections in order to reduce the flow time into storage.

Abstract Bachelor’s thesis, Enterprising and Business Development, Linnaeus University School of Business and Economics, 2EB00E, VT 2015 Authors: Jesper Gunnarsson and Mathias Holst Tutor: Maria Persdotter Isaksson Title: ”They get breakfast and transportation. What else could they need?”. An exploratory study of how to improve ethical labour standards in Sri Lankan companies. Background: The globalization has led to an increase in movement of goods and capital across national borders. This has contributed to an increase in overseas manufacturing in low-wage countries, meaning a decrease in costs and improved profits for western companies. Since the ethical standards generally are lower in developing countries numerous NGOs have launched awareness campaigns for CSR. In Sri Lanka there are issues regarding ethical labour. There is a concern that the government are not committing enough towards the improvement of these standards. The improvement of ethical standards has the potential to improve the quality of life and the entire economy which makes it interesting to see how the government in cooperation with other stakeholders can improve the situation. Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to explore how ethical labour standards can be improved in Sri Lankan companies. Method: The study uses a general inductive approach where two main themes are extracted from seven interviews with representatives from the Sri Lankan government, Labour Department, ILO and employers. The study is of a qualitative character and its hermeneutic approach allows the subjective opinions of the respondents to affect the direction of the study. Conclusions: Through this study it has been explored that ethical labour standards in Sri Lankan companies can be improved through two categories: 1) The role of the government and through 2) communication and cooperation. The most prominent conclusions are that the Sri Lankan government have to increase their commitment in the ethical labour discussion and the social dialogue, that promotes the interests of all the stakeholders within the debate, is required. Through a stronger ethical labour legislation further social initiatives can have better conditions through out the Sri Lankan society and through ICT-implementations the monitoring of ethical labour can increase in efficiency, hence increase the ethical labour standards in Sri Lankan companies.

I examine how risk-based inspections influence auditor behavior in a multi-client setting. I conduct an experiment using an abstract setting that captures the theoretical constructs present in the audit ecology. I manipulate the presence of risk-based inspections between-participants and the level of client risk (higher vs. lower) within-participants. Consistent with the theoretical predictions, under conditions of high resource pressure, I find that auditor effort is higher under a regime with risk-based inspections as compared to a regime without inspections, and the auditor effort increases more for higher-risk clients than for lower-risk clients. More notably, following attentional control theory, I predict and find that risk-based inspections diminish the quality of auditor decision performance for lower-risk clients. Specifically, auditors' decision performance is worse (i.e., more suboptimal) for lower-risk clients than for higher-risk clients (ceteris paribus), but only under a risk-based inspections regime. Likewise, auditors' decision performance for lower-risk clients is worse in a regime with risk-based inspections than in a regime without inspections. I theorize that accountability pressures from PCAOB inspections combined with pressures from high resource constraints (that naturally occur in the audit environment) induce task-related anxiety on auditors. Following attentional control theory in a multi-task setting, I predict anxiety interrupts auditors' decision-making processing shifting attention toward higher-risk clients contributing to the anxiety, and away from lower-risk (untargeted) clients, thereby decreasing the quality of decision performance for lower-risk clients. I perform several supplemental analyses to test the underlying theory. First, I conduct a second experiment where auditors operate under relatively lower resource pressure and find that auditors’ decision performance is no longer worse for lower-risk clients in an inspections regime. The results support the theory that it is the combined pressures of inspections and high resource constraints causing the negative effects. Second, I conduct a supplemental experiment and measure participants' levels of anxiety. In support of the underlying theory, participants' reported anxiety levels are higher under a regime with versus without inspections. Third, I perform several robustness checks to rule out alternative explanations of the findings. The findings of this study contribute to the auditing literature, and they have practical and regulatory implications. First, by identifying higher auditor effort in a regime with inspections, I join others in documenting potential benefits of inspections on auditor behavior, and thus audit quality. Second, by examining the effect of risk-based inspections on auditor effort in a multi-task setting, I extend prior research by providing evidence that inspections increase auditor effort more for higher-risk clients than for lower-risk clients. Third, and most notably, by identifying diminished auditor decision performance for lower-risk clients under a risk-based inspections regime, this is the first study to provide theory and evidence on how risk-based inspections can lead to potential negative consequences on audit behavior, and thus audit quality.

An experiment replication comparing the performance of traditional structural code testing with inspection meeting preparation using scenario based reading. Original experiment was conducted by Per Runeson and Anneliese Andrews in 2003 at Washington State University. / En experiment-replikering där traditionell strukturell kod-testning jämförs med inspektionsmötesförberedelse användandes scenario-baserad kodläsning. Det ursprungliga experimentet utfördes av Per Runeson och Anneliese Andrews på Washington State University år 2003.

Software Inspection is an effective and efficient method aiming at discovering faults within software artifacts early in the development lifecycle. The success of software inspections is highly dependent on reading techniques that guide the reviewer through the individual inspection. In other words, reading techniques help the reviewer during the inspection process. In this thesis a quite new reading technique, namely usage-based reading, is further evaluated. A reviewer who applies usage-based reading is guided by a set of prioritized use-cases. Hereby the use-cases are ranked according to their importance from the point of view of the user. Thus, the reviewers inspection effort is focused on the parts of the document that concern the most important functionality from the user’s perspective. The particular goal of this study is to figure out whether time-budgets assigned to each use-cases lead to improvements in inspection performance expressed in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and fault content. This concept is called time-controlled reading. The time-budget determines that a particular use-case must not be inspected longer than a certain number of minutes. Initially the assumption was made that time-budgets lead to performance improvements because the reading process can be better planned in forehand, that means most time is spent on the most important use-cases and all use-cases are utilized within the given inspection time. However, the result of this study contradicts that assumption. I found that both techniques are equally efficient and effective and that they find the same fault content. The reason for this is that the techniques are still quite similar and that the timebudgets assigned to the use-cases did not allow the subjects to thoroughly investigate the use-cases because they struggled with the unknown application domain. This is at least the case for lower ranked use-cases with smaller time-frames. As a consequence of this, one can claim that the results might have pointed in favor for time-controlled reading when people familiar with the application domain would have done the same experiment. / kai-petersen@gmx.de

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