Even though companies are facing a continuously changing environment, far from all businesses manage to succeed with their organizational changes. (Olson, 2008) If wanting to meet market demands and avoid unnecessary costs it is important to ask the question if we can, in some way, predict, understand or influence the process of change. (Ahrenfelt, 2001) The purpose of this thesis is to determine if life-cycle theories can be used exclusively when planning and managing a process of change. To answer the purpose, the thesis is based upon a qualitative case study at Consafe Logistics group. Theobjective with the empirical studies, executed through nine interviews with various managers, was to determine whether or not life-cycle models and organizational culture can be of assistance when managing change. The studies showed that the opinions differ between the respondents and that the topics internal communication and documentation were frequently brought up during the interviews. Theoretically, this thesis addresses different life-cycle change theories and an alternative model for implementing change through organizational culture. Furthermore the theoretic section considers the areas Project organization, Leadership in processes of change, Knowledge, competence & education, Internal communication and Documentation. The thesis showed that applying life-cycle theories to a change can be of limited use since there are big difficulties in placing the different activities throughout the change in achronological order. The theories can be used however to highlight the relationship between activities which can be useful for making time savings. Irrespective of the order activities are managed in a process of change, measurable goals, feedback and support throughout the process are central for the change’s outcome. This thesis has resulted in a general life-cycle model for managing organizational change based upon existing theoriesand empirical studies. Finally, culture and inertia are described as two factors that either facilitate or inhibit the success of the change depending on how they are managed.

This thesis project was conducted to compare the environmental impacts between two types of material for a superstructure of cruising ship (Norwegian Gem) using life cycle assessment (LCA) methods. With the increasing price of industrial raw materials and finite resources, more and more corporations or manufacturers endeavor in seeking more economical materials and less environmental impacts within the ship building field. In recent years, lightweight composite material has been applied in various industrial fields, for instance, green buildings, aircraft and wind turbine blade. In order to study impacts of steel superstructure and composite material superstructure of the ship, a detail study was conducted which using the comparative LCA method and SimaPro software. Two different superstructures are compared, steel superstructure and sandwich material superstructure. The results showed thatover the life cycle the environmental impacts of sandwich superstructure type are much less than for the steel superstructure. The main contribution of impacts over the life time is operation phase due to fuel consumption. When increasing the waste recycling section for composite structure, the influence on environment has an obvious decrease compared to steel superstructure.

Background and Aim: Markets are getting increasingly complex, competitive and changing. A firm’s ability to respond to environmental challenges is a significant factor for its survival and success. To establish itself in the market, a company needs to adjust the product in a way that meets the expectations and required quality of the target market in other words, make relevant product adaptations. Many aspects of product adaptation have been discussed in the literature ranging from small changes in the product such as specification or design to modifying a company’s market strategy depending on which stage the product is in its life cycle. Technology innovation can enable a firm keep the market share and retain customers especially in a mature and technology driven industry where the market is saturated and consumers diffuse to competitors who easily copy the product. However, the role of technology innovation to adapt a product in the growth stage to mature markets is missing from the present literature. This present thesis will investigate the role of technology innovation in product adaptation and the factors to consider thereof the Swedish high tech company Saab will be used as the case study. Methodology: Research method for the present thesis includes the qualitative approach with the case study design. For the purposes of this thesis the Swedish high-tech company Saab will be studied to explore the practices of adapting product (field hospital) to different markets. Completion and results: Result of the study showed that there are similarities and differences between what literature provides and Saab does to adapt a product in markets. Analyzing the theory and practice recommendations for Saab were concluded. Suggestions drown for Saab can be useful for other high technology companies as well.

Miljömedvetenheten och ökat intresse för energieffektiva hus har gjort att byggnader isoleras som aldrig förr. Oftast är det på lång sikt ganska så lätt att räkna hem en ökad isoleringsmängd och det är just den ekonomiska vinsten som brukar lyftas fram som det främsta argument varför en beställare bör välja den tjockare isoleringen. För en beställare av hyresfastigheter är det oftast ekonomin som avgör ifall ett projekt ska påbörjas eller inte och denna studie ska därför vara en hjälp till att välja den mest ekonomiska isoleringstjockleken i väggar. Syftet med denna studie är att utreda var den optimala väggisoleringstjocken hamnar på en hyresfastighet med flerfamiljsbostäder som byggs på en begränsad byggyta. Inte sällan finns det krav på maximal byggyta från kommunen och då innebär det att ju tjockare isoleringen är desto mindre blir den uthyrningsbara boytan. Kvalitativa intervjuer låg till grund för att bestämma några vanligt förekommande ytterväggskonstruktioner som isoleringen sedan skulle optimeras på. Dessa ytterväggar placerades på en teoretisk referensbyggnad som därefter energiberäknades med hjälp av handberäkningar där matematiska uttryck för en varierande isoleringstjocklek användes. De teoretiska ytterväggarna kalkylerades därefter med hjälp av kalkylprogrammet Sektionsdata.  En livscykelkostnadsanalys utfördes sedan där historisk statistik på hyror, energipriser och räntor utnyttjades. Slutligen kunde en optimal isoleringstjocklek hittas för varje väggtyp. Väggkonstruktionerna som valts var två betongväggar och två träregelväggar, båda med puts respektive tegel. Optimal isoleringstjocklek för väggkonstruktionen betongstomme med tegel hamnade på 84mm. För väggkonstruktionen betongstomme med puts hamnade optimal isoleringstjocklek på 88mm. För väggkonstruktionerna med trästomme kunde en optimal isoleringstjocklek inte hittas eftersom väggarnas uppbyggnad med två respektive tre isoleringsskikt gjorde att väggarna förblev överisolerade i ett ekonomiskt perspektiv även vid minsta möjliga tjocklek på isoleringsskiktet som skulle optimeras.  Studien visar på att det med dagens byggregler ger en stor vinst att hålla nere på väggisoleringstjockleken på flerfamiljsbostäder som byggs på en begränsad byggyta. / Environmental awareness and increased interest in energy-efficient housing have made the buildings more insulated in Sweden. Usually, it is quite easy to calculate a profit from a greater amount of insulation, in the long term. This is usually the seller’s main argument to why the client should choose the thicker insulation. For a client that wants to build a rental property, it is usually the economy that determines whether a project should be started or not. Hopefully this study will be a help to choose the most economic insulation thickness in walls. The purpose of this study is to investigate where the optimum of wall insulation thickness is in an apartment building for renting which is built on a limited area. Quite often there are requirements for a maximum building area from the municipality, which means that the rentable living space will come smaller when the insulation gets thicker. Qualitative interviews were used to determinate the common wall constructions which the insulation would be optimized for. These walls were placed in a theoretical reference building in which the energy use were estimated using hand calculations where mathematical expressions of a variety of insulation thickness were used. Thereafter, the prices of the walls were calculated using a spreadsheet program called Sektionsdata. A life cycle cost analysis was performed in which the historical statistics on rents, energy prices and interest rates were used. Finally, the optimal insulation thickness was found for each wall type. The wall types chosen were a wall of concrete and brick, a wall of concrete and rendering, a wall of wood and brick and a wall of wood and rendering. Optimal insulation thickness of the wall with concrete and brick ended up at 84mm. For the wall of rendered concrete, the optimal insulation thickness ended up at 88mm. The optimal insulation thickness of the walls of wood could not be found as the wall structure with two and three insulation layers made the walls too isolated in an economic perspective even at a minimal thickness of the layer that was going to be optimized. The study shows that with current building codes in Sweden it is profitable to keep down the wall insulation thickness in an apartment building for renting, built on a limited area.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the life cycle stages of the chosen gazelles in Sweden and identify their effectiveness related to the stages. Furthermore, we study whether the given characteristic of the gazelle companies correspond to the suggested characteristics of the given theoretical framework. Gazelles, as the outstanding performers of both financial profits and job creators of our society, they are always struggling to sustain growth and satisfy market needs in order to maintain their prestigious status. Therefore, it is critical for them to access their abilities as well as constraints of the current organizational structures and we seek the solutions to these problems through the organizational life cycle theory perspective. Our study focuses on the Dagens Industri’s gazelle award winners that are carefully evaluated by the strict criteria it provides. Also, we revisit the various previous studies in the field of the organizational life cycle and effectiveness in order to provide the foundation for our analysis. In order to serve our purpose, we study 26 gazelles from Sweden in dept by reviewing their annual reports and official websites and provide the reader with quantities data research that are self-administrated concerning the different attributes of the life cycle stages and effectiveness. In conclusion, we find that the majority of the Swedish gazelle companies we have studied correspond to the second stage of the life cycle model which focuses on human relations model as an effectiveness area. However, these firms demonstrate unique effectiveness that genuine SMEs do not have, such as high focus on R&D and harmony between flexibility and control in their organizational structure.

<p>The main objective of this thesis is to investigate the energetic, economic and environmental impact of utilizing a novel Run-Around Membrane Energy Exchanger (RAMEE) in building HVAC systems. The RAMEE is an energy recovery ventilator that transfers heat and moisture between the exhaust air and the fresh outdoor ventilation air to reduce the energy required to condition the ventilation air. The RAMEE consists of two exchangers made of water vapor permeable membranes coupled with an aqueous salt solution.</p> <p>In order to examine the energy savings with the RAMEE, two different buildings (an office building and a health-care facility) were simulated using TRNSYS computer program in four different climatic conditions, i.e., cold-dry, cool-humid, hot-humid and hot-dry represented by Saskatoon, Chicago, Miami and Phoenix, respectively. It was found that the RAMEE significantly reduces the heating energy consumption in cold climates (Saskatoon and Chicago), especially in the hospital where the required ventilation rate is much higher than in the office building. On the other hand, the results showed that the RAMEE must be carefully controlled in summer to minimize the cooling energy consumption.</p> <p>The application of the RAMEE in an office building reduces the annual heating energy by 30% to 40% in cold climates (Saskatoon and Chicago) and the annual cooling energy by 8% to 15% in hot climates (Miami and Phoenix). It also reduces the size of heating equipment by 25% in cold climates, and the size of cooling equipment by 5% to 10% in hot climates. The payback period of the RAMEE depends on the air pressure drop across the exchangers. For a practical pressure drop of 2 cm of water across each exchanger, the payback of the RAMEE is 2 years in cold climates and 4 to 5 years in hot climates. The total annual energy saved with the RAMEE (including heating, cooling and fan energy) is found to be 30%, 28%, 5% and 10% in Saskatoon, Chicago, Miami and Phoenix, respectively.</p> <p>In the hospital, the RAMEE reduces the annual heating energy by 58% to 66% in cold climates, and the annual cooling energy by 10% to 18% in hot climates. When a RAMEE is used, the heating system can be downsized by 45% in cold climates and the cooling system can be downsized by 25% in hot climates. For a practical range of air pressure drop across the exchangers, the payback of the RAMEE is immediate in cold climates and 1 to 3 years in hot climates. The payback period in the hospital is, on average, 2 years faster than in the office building). The total annual energy saved with RAMEE is found to be 48%, 45%, 8% and 17% in Saskatoon, Chicago, Miami and Phoenix, respectively. The emission of greenhouse gases (in terms of CO₂-equivalent) can be reduced by 25% in cold climates and 11% in hot climates due to the lower energy use when employing a RAMEE.</p>

The degradation of aging energy infrastructure systems has the potential to increase the risk of failure, resulting in power outage and costly unplanned maintenance work. Therefore, the development of scientific and cost-effective life cycle management (LCM) strategies has become increasingly important to maintain energy infrastructure. Since degradation of aging equipment is an uncertain process which depends on many factors, a risk-based approach is required to consider the effect of various uncertainties in LCM. The thesis presents probabilistic models to support risk-based life cycle management of energy infrastructure systems. In addition to uncertainty in degradation process, the inspection data collected by the energy industry is often censored and truncated which make it difficult to estimate the lifetime probability distribution of the equipment. The thesis presents modern statistical techniques in quantifying uncertainties associated with inspection data and to estimate the lifetime distributions in a consistent manner. Age-based and sequential inspection-based replacement models are proposed for maintenance of component in a large-distribution network. A probabilistic lifetime model to consider the effect of imperfect preventive maintenance of a component is developed and its impact to maintenance optimization is illustrated. The thesis presents a stochastic model for the pitting corrosion process in steam generators (SG), which is a serious form of degradation in SG tubing of some nuclear generating stations. The model is applied to estimate the number of tubes requiring plugging and the probability of tube leakage in an operating period. The application and benefits of the model are illustrated in the context of managing the life cycle of a steam generator.

The perpetual structural pavement design is currently being explored for usage in Canada and worldwide. This thick structural design can provide many potential benefits but it also has associated costs. Cold Canadian winters and warm summers impact pavement performance and make pavement design challenging. This is further complicated by a heavy dependence on trucks to transport imports and exports. Consequently, most Canadian roads are subjected to rapid deterioration due to high fatigue stresses and rapid growth of the traffic loads. The concept of a perpetual pavement design was raised to overcome the limitation of structural capacity of the conventional pavement designs. The concept of perpetual pavement was explained and introduced in this thesis and the benefits behind the perpetual pavement construction were studied. The Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) and the Centre for Pavement and Transportation Technology (CPATT) joined their efforts in partnership with Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Ontario Hot Mix Producers Association (OHMPA), Stantec Consultant, McAsphalt and others to construct three test sections on the Highway 401. The goal was to monitor and evaluate the performance of three different pavement structural designs. Performance evaluation of test section was performed by evaluating the expected ability of pavement section to withstand the traffic loads and climate impact throughout the design life of that pavement section with minimum damage. The minimum damage is expressed as low vertical pressure on top of subgrade, low shear stresses in the surface course and low tensile strain at the bottom of asphalt layers. Perpetual pavement design with Rich Bottom Mix (RBM) layer, perpetual pavement design without RBM and a conventional pavement design were constructed and instrumented with various types of sensors. These are capable of monitoring the tensile strain in asphalt layers, vertical pressure on the subgrade surface, moisture in the subgrade material and the temperature profile in the pavement sections. The test section construction, sensor installation and preliminary modeling are all part of this thesis. Preliminary structural evaluation was performed by analyzing the three designs using a Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) model representing the three pavement designs constructed on the Highway 401. In addition, the WESLEA for Windows software was used to validate the long life performance of the perpetual pavement design. Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) was also performed for the perpetual and conventional pavement designs to evaluate the cost benefits associated with pavement designs for 70 year analysis period. In addition, the perpetual Pavement design philosophy for moderate and low traffic volume roads was also examined in this research. This pavement design involved creating a complete comparison and validation of the benefits of using perpetual asphalt pavements versus the conventional pavements in all road types and traffic categories. Structural evaluation of the pavement sections in moderate and low traffic volume roads was performed. In addition, LCCA was implemented to validate the perpetual and conventional structural pavement designs in moderate and low traffic volume roads.

Environmental metrics play a significant role in behavioural change, policy formation, education, and industrial decision-making. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a powerful framework for providing information on environmental impacts, but LCA data is under-utilized, difficult to access, and difficult to understand. Some of the issues that are required to be resolved to increase relevancy and use of LCA are accessibility, validation, reporting and publication, and transparency. This thesis proposes that many of these issues can be resolved through the application of open frameworks for LCA software and data. The open source software (OSS), open data, open access, and semantic web movements advocate the transparent development of software and data, inviting all interested parties to contribute. A survey was presented to the LCA community to gauge the community’s interest and receptivity to working within open frameworks, as well as their existing concerns with LCA data. Responses indicated dissatisfaction with existing tools and some interest in open frameworks, though interest in contributing was weak. The responses also pointed out transparency, the expansion of LCA information, and feedback to be desirable areas for improvement. Software for providing online LCA databases was developed according to open source, open data, and linked data principles and practices. The produced software incorporates features that attempt to resolve issues identified in previous literature in addition to needs defined from the survey responses. The developed software offers improvements over other databases in areas of transparency, data structure flexibility, and ability to facilitate user feedback. The software was implemented as a proof of concept, as a test-bed for attracting data contributions from LCA practitioners, and as a tool for interested users. The implementation allows users to add LCA data, to search through LCA data, and to use data from the software in separate independent tools.. The research contributes to the LCA field by addressing barriers to improving LCA data and access, and providing a platform on which LCA database tools and data can develop efficiently, collectively, and iteratively.

Although the issue of uncertainties in cost model parameters has been recognized as an important aspect of life-cycle cost analysis, it is often ignored or not well treated in cost estimating. A simulation approach employing kernel estimation techniques and their asymptotic properties in the development of the probability distribution functions (PDFs) of cost estimates is proposed. This eliminates the guess work inherent in current simulation based cost estimating procedures, reduces the amount of data sampled and makes it easier to specify the accuracy desired in the estimated distribution. Building energy costs can be reduced considerably if air duct systems are designed for the least life-cycle cost. The IPS-Method, a simple approach to HVAC air duct design is suggested. The Diameter and Enhanced Friction Charts are also developed. These are charts that implicitly incorporate the LCC and are better than the existing Friction Chart for the selection of duct sizes. Through illustrative examples, the ease and effectiveness of these are demonstrated. For more complex designs, a Segregated Genetic Algorithm (SGA) is recommend. A sample problem with variable time-of-day operating conditions and utility rates is used to illustrate its capabilities. The results are compared to those obtained using weighted average flow rates and utility rates to show the life-cycle cost savings possible by using this approach. Although life-cycle cost savings may be only between 0.4% and 8.3% for some simple designs, much larger savings may occur with more complex designs and operating constraints. The SGA is combined with probabilistic cost estimating to optimize HVAC air duct systems with uncertainties in the model parameters. The designs based on the SGA method tended to be less sensitive to typical variations in the component physical parameters and, therefore, are expected to result in lower balancing and operating costs.