Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T18:40:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Gilberto de Souza Oliveira.pdf: 829463 bytes, checksum: cedc06d34a48cf6b7aa1b457064ce388 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-05-11 / This thesis begins with a systematic analysis of the electrical sector in Brazil and the main risks inherent to such sector. Then, it discusses certain information of the five largest publicly-held electric power distribution companies, based in the State of São Paulo, namely: Bandeirante Energia S.A.; Companhia Paulista de Força e Luz.; Companhia Piratininga de Força e Luz.; Elektro Eletricidade e Serviços S.A.; Eletropaulo Metropolitana Eletricidade de São Paulo S.A. It presents all the mandatory disclosure of financial statements under the Brazilian corporate law, as well as those required by the Granting Authority ANEEL, subsequently it presents a collection of indicators for analysis of financial statements, as well as the calculation methodology and interpretation and, finally, it presents a selection of indicators used in the study of five companies. The study is aimed to evaluate the economic and financial performance of these companies during the period from 2000 to 2007, focusing on two distinct stages: (i) the rationing of electricity period that lasted from June 2001 to February 2002, which had a huge impact on the financial statements for such periods, and (ii) the post rationing period, which was impacted by new standards established by the Federal Government in connection with the creation of a new model for the Brazilian energy sector, during the years 2004 and 2005. This thesis uses the evolutionary analysis, which evaluates the development of indicators for each of the five companies, checking the performance of their economic situation, financial performance, profitability and allocation of cash generated and consumed between two thousand and two thousand and seven / Esta dissertação inicia com a descrição da sistemática de funcionamento do setor elétrico no Brasil e os principais riscos inerentes ao setor. A seguir, discorre sobre as informações principais das cinco empresas distribuidoras de energia elétrica, de capital aberto, sediadas no Estado de São Paulo, que são: Bandeirante Energia S.A.; Companhia Paulista de Força e Luz; Companhia Piratininga de Força e Luz.; Elektro Eletricidade e Serviços S.A.; Eletropaulo Metropolitana Eletricidade de São Paulo S.A. Apresenta todas as demonstrações contábeis de divulgação obrigatória por força da legislação societária Brasileira e aquelas de exigência do poder concedente a ANEEL, na seqüência expõe uma coletânea de indicadores para análise das demonstrações contábeis, assim como a sistemática de cálculos e interpretação e apresenta a seleção destes indicadores utilizados no estudo das cinco empresas. O estudo objetiva avaliar o desempenho econômico e financeiro dessas empresas no período de 2000 a 2007, com ênfase em duas fases distintas: a) O racionamento de energia elétrica que vigorou de junho de 2001 a fevereiro de 2002, e impactou fortemente os balanços destes dois exercícios, e b) A fase pós racionamento que foi influenciada pelas normas editadas pelo Governo Federal para a criação de um novo modelo para o Setor Elétrico Brasileiro durante os anos de 2004 e 2005. O método utilizado foi a análise evolutiva, em que se avalia a evolução dos indicadores de cada uma das cinco empresas, verificando o desempenho de sua situação econômica, financeira, rentabilidade e a destinação do caixa gerado e consumido no período de 2000 a 2007

A artroscopia e a artrocentese são procedimentos considerados minimamente invasivos utilizados para o tratamento das disfunções temporomandibulares (DTM) e são métodos considerados intermediários entre a terapia conservadora e a cirurgia aberta da articulação temporomandibular (ATM). Apresentam como vantagem, em relação a cirurgia aberta, a pequena morbidade e o breve tempo de recuperação necessária aos pacientes. Desde o início do desenvolvimento da artroscopia esteve presente a preocupação com a possibilidade de danos a estruturas internas da ATM, com essa finalidade vários estudos em animais foram desenvolvidos evidenciando que realmente podem ocorrer lesões iatrogênicas as estruturas internas desencadeando processo degenerativo na articulação. A avaliação do mesmo potencial de lesão para artrocentese não existe, assim o objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o trauma operatório da artrocentese comparativamente a artroscopia aos tecidos da ATM em suínos. Realizou-se experimento em vinte ATM de dez cabeças de suínos sendo seis artroscopias; seis artrocenteses e oito ATM utilizadas como controle. Após a realização dos procedimentos as ATM foram cuidadosamente dissecadas, examinadas e fotografadas com registro de alterações traumáticas ao disco articular e as fibrocartilagens da fossa articular e da cabeça da mandíbula. As imagens das estruturas foram analisadas por outro examinador que não tinha conhecimento prévio de qual procedimento havia sido realizado em cada ATM classificando as lesões de acordo com o número e localidade em: ausente (sem alteração visível); leve (descolamento de fibrocartilagem da fossa ou cabeça da mandíbula isoladas e únicas), moderado (perfurações do disco e mais de um descolamento de fibrocartilagem da fossa ou cabeça da mandíbula) e severo (lacerações do disco e lesões múltiplas em mais de uma estrutura). Os dados também foram classificados em ausente e presente para uma comparação direta. Foi realizada análise estatística dos dados. No grupo controle ocorreram danos em duas das oito ATM durante a dissecção, que apresentaram características distintas das lesões constatadas após os procedimentos, nas outras seis nenhuma alteração traumática pode ser evidenciada. No grupo submetido a artrocentese os danos foram ausentes, leves e moderados em 16.7% respectivamente e severos em 50% da amostra. No grupo submetido a artroscopia ocorreram danos moderados em 66.7%, severos em 16.7%, ausentes em 16.7% e não ocorreram danos leves. Em ambos os grupos foram evidenciadas a presença de lesões em 83.3% das amostras. Apesar de não haver diferença estatisticamente significativa entre os danos verificados, em uma análise direta, a severidade das lesões constatadas após artrocentese foi maior. Conclui-se que a artrocentese e a artroscopia não são isentas de morbidade aos tecidos articulares e independentemente de serem procedimentos considerados minimamente invasivos não se pode desprezar o potencial de danos as superfícies articulares. / Arthroscopy and arthrocentesis are considered minimally invasive procedures for the treatment of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) and are situated between conservative therapies and open surgery of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). When compared to open surgery they present the advantages of having a brief post operatory recovery time for the patient and little morbidity. Since the beginning of the development of arthroscopy the possibility of damage to the inner structures of the TMJ was a concern, as a result a series of studies in animals were made and it became clear that iatrogenic damage can really happen and trigger degenerative alterations in the joint. Considering that there are no studies that investigate the potential of causing structural damage to the TMJ during arthrocentesis the objective of this study was to evaluate the operative trauma of arthroscopy and arthrocentesis to the tissues of the TMJ using swine heads. Twenty TMJ of ten swine heads were used for six arthroscopies; six arthrocentesis and eight that were used as a control group. After the procedures the TMJ were carefully dissected, examined and photographed. Traumatic alterations to the articular disk and to the fossa and head of the mandible fibrocartilage were recorded. The images of the structures were analyzed by other examiner that did not had previous knowledge of witch procedure each TMJ was subjected to. The lesions that were identified were classified according to the location and number as: absent (no visible alteration); light (one isolated scuffing of the fibrocartilage of the fossa or the head of the mandible); moderate (disk perforation or multiple scuffing of the fibrocartilage of the fossa or head of the mandible) and severe (disk laceration or multiple lesions in more than one structure). The obtained data was also classified as absent or present for a direct comparison. Statistical analyses of the obtained data were made. In the control group damage to two of the eight TMJ was perceived during dissection, the characteristics of those lesions were clearly different from those observed after the procedures, in the other six none traumatic damage could be noticed. In the arthrocentesis group the damages were absent, light and moderate in 16.7% respectively and were severe in 50% of the sample. In the arthroscopy group damage was moderate in 66.7%, severe in 16.7%, absent in 16.7 and no light damage occurred. In both groups damage was present in 83.3% of the sample. Even though the difference between the groups was not statistically significant, making a direct analysis of the data, the severity of the lesions found in the arthrocentesis group was higher. It was concluded that arthrocentesis and arthroscopy are not absent of morbidity to the TMJ tissues and regarded of being minimally invasive procedures the potential of damage to the structures of the TMJ should not be minimized.

A system of systems (SoS) framework is proposed for policy design that takes into account the value systems of multiple participants, harnesses the complexity of strategic interactions among participants, and confronts the risks and uncertainties present in participants’ decision making. SoS thinking provides an integrative and adaptive mindset, which is needed to tackle policy challenges characterized by conflict, complexity, and uncertainty. With the aim of putting SoS thinking into practice, operational methods and tools are presented herein. Specifically, SoS engineering methodologies to create value system models, agent-based models of competitive and cooperative behaviour under conflict, and risk management models are developed and integrated into the framework. The proposed structure, methods and tools can be utilized to organize policy design discourse. Communication among participants involved in the policy discussion is structured around SoS models, which are used to integrate multiple perspectives of a system and to test the effectiveness of policies in achieving desirable outcomes under varying conditions. In order to demonstrate the proposed methods and tools that have been developed to enliven policy design discourse, a theoretical common-pool resources dilemma is utilized. The generic application illustrates the methodology of constructing ordinal preferences from values. Also, it is used to validate the agent-based modeling and simulation platform as a tool to investigate strategic interactions among participants and harness the potential to influence and enable participants to achieve desirable outcomes. A real-world common pool resources dilemma in the provisioning and security considerations of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore is examined and employed as a case study for applying strategic conflict models in risk management. Overall, this thesis advances the theory and application of SoS engineering and focuses on understanding value systems, handling complexity in terms of conflict dynamics, and finally, enhancing risk management.

The last decade has created an increasing pressure on companies to decrease their impact on the environment and to increase their effectiveness of recycling the company’s resources, especially for the steel industry. Companies have also started to realize the economic aspects of an effective internal reverse logistics. In the past the value of an effective internal reverse logistic was something that companies tend to underestimate and there are few academic studies done in this area.   The purpose of this essay has been to identify key factors to create an effective in plant storage, transport, sorting and handling of returned steel. From these factors a generalized model for creating an effective return steel flow will be developed. The model will then be adjusted to fit a case company, which in this case is Sandvik Materials Technology (SMT) on Sandvik.   The purpose is answered by detailed studies of the literature in the subject combined with interviews and observations on SMT. Through this the key factors have been identified and a model has been developed. The factors that were seen as most crucial were sorting, tied up capital, transport cost and handling cost. These factors have a strong connection between each other and it is important to strike a balance.   By the investigation carried out on SMT it is clear that sorting is the essential factor on the case company, and have the biggest impact on the effectiveness of the returned steel flow. Without functioning sorting there will be a large increase in the quality defect costs. Another factor that was considered important is the number of storage places, where a decrease in the storage places would reduce the tied up capital.

Relative global positioning system (GPS) navigation is currently used for autonomous rendezvous and docking of two spacecraft as well as formation flying applications. GPS receivers deliver measurements to flight software that use this information to determine estimates of the current states of the spacecraft. The success of autonomous proximity operations in the presence of an uncertain environment and noisy measurements depends primarily on the navigation accuracy. This thesis presents the implementation and calibration of a spaceborne GPS receiver model, a visibility analysis for multiple GPS antenna cone angles, the implementation of four different extended Kalman filter architectures and a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of each filter used for relative GPS navigation. A spaceborne GPS model is developed to generate simulated GPS measurements for a spacecraft located on any orbit around the Earth below the GPS constellation. Position and velocity estimation algorithms for GPS receivers are developed and implemented. A visibility analysis is performed to determine the number of visible satellites throughout the duration of the rendezvous. Multiple constant fields of view are analyzed and results compared to develop an understanding of how the GPS constellation evolves during the proximity operations. The comparison is used to choose a field of view with adequate satellite coverage. The advantages and disadvantages of the relative navigation architectures are evaluated based on a trade study involving several parameters. It is determined in this thesis that a reduced pseudorange filter provides the best overall performance in both relative and absolute navigation with less computational cost than the slightly more accurate pseudorange lter. A relative pseudorange architecture experiences complications due to multipath rich environments and performs well in only relative navigation. A position velocity architecture performs well in absolute state estimation but the worst of the four filters studied in relative state estimation.

For the most recent contemporary art no art historical or price records exist that can testify of its value. However, the market for contemporary art is enormous and the art historical interest in it is equally important. If we can find out how to evaluate contemporary art, it will further the art historical understanding, the market transparence and the sales of contemporary art thus having an influence also on the creation of art (William Grampp). The art historical verdict and the market verdict are linked. This has been proven by a number of economists (Frey, Galenson, Grampp). The question is how they are linked. Basically, both art history and the market contribute to the creation of value in art. What is it that makes art valuable? What are the criteria used in art history and in the market to evaluate art? The focus is on European and US American art between 1970 and today. Evaluation, be it aesthetic or financial, is a process of decision making. Decisions are based on criteria that must be conscious at least after the decision is made (Clement Greenberg). In the art world, certain decision makers are more influential than others. Therefore the dissertation analyzes the most influential positions in art theory and in the art market and distills the essential criteria used. The dissertation seeks to advance the research on this fundamental question of the evaluation of art through a more comprehensive and interdisciplinary study than those previously undertaken. It presents a model that integrates the most important criteria from both sides and allows a more reliable evaluation of contemporary art. The 3C Model explains the ensemble of Quality-Value-Price through three criteria: Change, Connectivity and Context (Time, Space, People). The 3C Model can be used as a general basis in the discourse on value and quality. It is a structural method that can be applied to almost any art from any period. The model is exercised here using Gerhard Richter, François Morellet, Julian Schnabel, Jeff Koons, Sophie Calle and Pipilotti Rist as examples. / text

Lietuvai atkūrus nepriklausomybę, staiga keitėsi gyvenimo būdas, atsirado naujų gyvenimo iššūkių - atviresnių tarpusavio santykiai, vis atsinaujinančios technologijos, įvairios reformos, reorganizacijos ir pan. Daug ką kopijuojame ar tiesiog perimame iš kitų šalių, nes mąstymas, sąmonė, tradicijos, įpročiai nespėja keistis. Mokykla pasuko vakarietiško demokratėjimo kryptimi. Todėl keičiasi mokyklos klimatas, kartu keičiasi ir mokyklos bendruomenės narių tarpusavio santykiai, kuriamos sąlygos asmenybės ugdymui. Visuomenė mokyklai iškelia dvejopą vaidmenį: mokyklą turi suteikti mokiniams kokybišką išsilavinimą ir ugdyti laisvai bei kritiškai mąstančius asmenis, gebančius priimti savarankiškus sprendimus ir mokančius prisitaikyti kintančiame pasaulyje. Kiekvienam vaikui įgimtas noras eiti į mokyklą, kur įgyjama pirmoji patirtis. Šalia esantys žmonės mokykloje sukuria sąlygas vaikams, kad šie „judėtų reikiama kryptimi“. Mokinių pasiekimų tyrimai rodo, kad prastėja mokymosi kokybė, dažniau mokiniai paliekami kurso kartoti, daugiau mokinių praleidžia pamokas be pateisinamos priežasties ar iš vis nustoja lankyti mokyklą. Pirmuosius sunkumus mokiniai patiria jau III-IV klasėje ar anksčiau. Vadinasi, ugdymo proceso organizavime yra trūkumų. Todėl tyrimo objektas - mokyklos vadovų ir mokytojų pradinių klasių mokinių mokymosi motyvacijos skatinimas, o tikslas - išsiaiškinti pradinės mokyklos ugdymo organizavimo ir valdymo galimybes bei įtaką pradinių... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / After Lithuanian going independence our may of life changed, we met have more open relationship, new technologies, different reforms, reorganization and etc. Our way of thinking, consciousness, traditions and habits are slowly changing that’s way a lot of things we just copy from other countries. School has turned to western democracy. With this turn school’s climate is changing together with school’s community member’s relationship and growing conditions for personality development. Society raises dual task for school. Firstly school has to give qualified education, then develop free and critical thinking, also persons who can take independent decisions and adopt in changing world. Every child has innate desire go to school, where he gets his first experience. School’s personal create circumstances, which lead children. Pupil’s achievements research shows that studying quality is decreasing; more children miss classes without just fictive reasons or stop attending school at all. Every child has innate desire so know and learn, but already in 3rd and 4th forms they experience first studying difficulties. It means that there are some defects of development process management. The object of this survey is learning of the motivation school’s heads, teachers and pupils of primary school. To reach the purpose these methods were chosen theoretical (pedagogical, psychological, social, philosophical) literature, educational system documents studies; comparative conception and... [to full text]

A system of systems (SoS) framework is proposed for policy design that takes into account the value systems of multiple participants, harnesses the complexity of strategic interactions among participants, and confronts the risks and uncertainties present in participants’ decision making. SoS thinking provides an integrative and adaptive mindset, which is needed to tackle policy challenges characterized by conflict, complexity, and uncertainty. With the aim of putting SoS thinking into practice, operational methods and tools are presented herein. Specifically, SoS engineering methodologies to create value system models, agent-based models of competitive and cooperative behaviour under conflict, and risk management models are developed and integrated into the framework. The proposed structure, methods and tools can be utilized to organize policy design discourse. Communication among participants involved in the policy discussion is structured around SoS models, which are used to integrate multiple perspectives of a system and to test the effectiveness of policies in achieving desirable outcomes under varying conditions. In order to demonstrate the proposed methods and tools that have been developed to enliven policy design discourse, a theoretical common-pool resources dilemma is utilized. The generic application illustrates the methodology of constructing ordinal preferences from values. Also, it is used to validate the agent-based modeling and simulation platform as a tool to investigate strategic interactions among participants and harness the potential to influence and enable participants to achieve desirable outcomes. A real-world common pool resources dilemma in the provisioning and security considerations of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore is examined and employed as a case study for applying strategic conflict models in risk management. Overall, this thesis advances the theory and application of SoS engineering and focuses on understanding value systems, handling complexity in terms of conflict dynamics, and finally, enhancing risk management.

A violência e a agressividade fazem são parte integral do comportamento humano. Crianças criadas em ambientes violentos apresentam maior chance de desenvolver psicopatologias como ansiedade e depressão, apresentam menor desempenho escolar e regulação alterada do eixo de resposta ao estresse. Os mecanismos que levam a tais desfechos são complexos e difíceis de estudar em humanos. Até o presente momento, não existem modelos animais especificamente desenvolvidos para estudo do ambiente violento precoce e suas consequências. O presente trabalho objetivou o desenvolvimento e caracterização de um modelo animal para estudo do impacto do ambiente violento precoce sobre o desenvolvimento, com validade de construto, validade de face (aparente) e validade preditiva. Para tal, utilizamos o estresse social durante a lactação pela inserção de um macho intruso na caixa moradia da fêmea e sua prole por 5 minutos durante o ciclo claro nos dias 3, 5, 7 e 9 de vida pós-natal. Os desfechos avaliados para validade de face foram ansiedade juvenil e adulta, resposta ao estresse e capacidade cognitiva. Os desfechos avaliados para validade preditiva foram os efeitos da variação do comportamento maternal sobre os desfechos que conferem validade de face ao modelo. A intervenção com macho intruso teve forte impacto sobre a prole e a genitora. Houve redução do comportamento de amamentação nos 30 minutos após cada intervenção em comparação com ninhadas controles em horário semelhante. As genitoras do grupo violência apresentaram aumento da fração de corticosterona plasmática ligada a proteínas. Filhotes machos do grupo violência apresentaram redução da concentração basal de corticosterona 30-40 minutos após a segunda intervenção, perdurando na idade juvenil e adulta. A intervenção levou ao aumento do comportamento semelhante a ansiedade na idade juvenil em machos e fêmeas. Filhotes machos apresentaram aumento do comportamento semelhante à ansiedade e redução no desempenho cognitivo na idade adulta, além de redução da massa corporal ao longo de toda a vida e resposta exacerbada ao estresse psicológico repetido na idade adulta. Comportamentos maternais tidos como de qualidade (amamentação com dorso arqueado e lambida) foram frequentemente relacionados com proteção contra os efeitos do ambiente violento. Ansiedade da genitora teve correlação direta com os desfechos deletérios sobre os filhotes. Os desfechos de validação esperados foram confirmados. A Intervenção se mostrou um modelo consistente de ambiente violento precoce, com validade de construto, de face e preditiva. / Violence and aggressive behavior are part of human society from the begining. Although there are several public policies for violence control, it is still common and its consequences are present in modern society. Children raised in a violent environment have increased odds of developing psychopathology, like anxiety and depressive behavior, show decreased school performance and poor regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Mechanisms underlying those outcomes are complex and difficult to study in humans. Until present time, there are no animal models developed specifically for the study of early violent environment and its consequences. The aim of the present study was to develop and describe an animal model of early violent environment, with construct validity, face validity and predictive validity. We choose social stress during lactancy by the insertion of a male intruder in the dams home cage in the presence of its offspring as an intervention. A adult male rat was inserted for 5 minutes in dams home cage on post-natal days 3, 5, 7 and 9, during lights-on period. The outcomes assessed for face validity were Anxiety, stress response and cognitive performance. The outcomes assessed for predictive validity were maternal care variation and its impact on anxiety, cognitive performance and stress response regulation. The selected intervention had strong effects on the dams and offspring. Nursing behavior was decreased on the 30 minutes after each intervention. Violent environment dams displayed a shift in plasma corticosterone from the free to the bound fraction. Male pups showed decreased plasma corticosterone 30-40 minutes after the second intruder session, lasting throughout life. Male and female pups had increased juvenile anxiety. Male pups had increased anxiety, decreased cognitive performance and increased response to repeated psychological stress in adulthood. Maternal care quality was frequently associated with reduction better outcomes in the offspring. Maternal anxiety was found to be correlated to deleterious outcomes in the offspring. The intervention proved to be a consistent model of early violent environment, showing strong construct validity, face validity and predictive validity.

I dagens ständigt föränderliga och alltmer komplexa verklighet ställs företag inför utmaningen att tillgodose sina kunders behov innan deras preferenser hinner förändras. För ett företag ska vara tillräckligt flexibelt för att hantera denna situation krävs en sund strategi för kontinuerligt förbättrings-arbete (Kaye & Andersson, 1999). Kvalitetsledning och användandet av ett certifierat kvalitets-ledningssystem anses vara ett sätt att öka ett företags konkurrenskraft. Inom ett företag är dock den allmänna förståelsen och kunskapen kring förbättringsarbete i kvalitetsledningssystem vanligtvis låg eftersom den ofta är isolerad till ett företags kvalitetsavdelning (Bohlin, 2018). Fallstudiens empiri samlades in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer på fallföretaget, med personer verksamma inom EMV-processen inom en av företagets divisioner. Utöver intervjuer användes dokument- och litteraturstudier, ostrukturerade intervjuer samt en fokusgruppsintervju för att verifiera modellen. Utifrån den processbeskrivning som togs fram under studien konstateras att EMV-arbetet drivs sekventiellt, först av den produktnära, tekniska funktionen och sedan de kundnära funktionerna, trots att teorin belyser vikten av en integrerad och tvärfunktionell utvecklingsprocess. Genom att teoretiskt problematisera relationen mellan förbättringscyklerna PDSA och PDCA upp-dagades att PDCA:s förbättringsfokus är inriktat på förbättringar av produkter medan PDSA fokuserar på förbättringar av processens prestanda, samt att de likställs i majoriteten av de undersökta artiklarna. Modellen för förbättringsarbete utvecklades utifrån den av studien framtagna process-beskrivningen och utnyttjar skillnaderna och beskriver hur PDSA och PDCA kan användas vid produkt-utveckling. Dessutom uppfyller modellen kraven i ISO 9001:2015 kapitel 8.3 Konstruktion och utveckling av produkter och tjänster. Modellen består av tre nivåer: Projekt, Process och Förbättring, och utgår från produktutvecklingsprojekt som följer en process i vilken flera företagsfunktioner är involverade. Studiens främsta fynd var den otydlighet som PDSA och PDCA beskrivs med, vilket vid implementering leder till ytterligare förvirring kring begreppen. ISO-standarden, som bygger på PDCA, har utvecklats från att vara produktorienterad till att anpassa sig efter sina kunders krav på mer processinriktning, och befinner sig mellan PDSA:s processinriktade förbättringsfokus och PDCA:s produktinriktade förbättringsfokus. Dessutom uppdagades att inom kvalitetsutveckling och produkt-utveckling beskrivs processer utgå från ett kundbehov och resultera i dess tillfredsställande, men hur kundbehovet ska tas tillvara på besvaras inte inom de teoretiska områdena. / In today's ever-changing and increasingly complex reality, companies face the challenge of meeting their customers' needs rapidly. For a company to be flexible enough to handle this situation, a healthy strategy for continuous improvement is required (Kaye & Andersson, 1999). Quality management and the use of a certified quality management system are a way of increasing a company's competitiveness. However, the general understanding and knowledge of improvement in quality management systems are generally low within a company, as it is often isolated to a company's quality department (Bohlin, 2018). This case study’s investigated data was collected through semi structured interviews at the company, conducted with people working in the EMV process within one of the company's divisions. In addition to interviews, document and literature studies have been performed, as well as unstructured interviews and a focus group interview used to verify the model. Based on the process description presented during the study, it is stated that the EMV work is driven sequentially, first of the productive, technical function and then the customer-close features, although the theory highlights the importance of an integrated and cross-functional development process. By theoretically problematizing the relationship between the PDSA and PDCA improvement cycles, differences in model improvement focus and similarity were noted in most of the investigated articles, where PDCA is focused on product improvements while PDSA focuses on improvements on process performance. The improvement work model was developed based on the developed process description, using the differences between the improvement cycles and describing how PDSA and PDCA can be used in product development. In addition, the model complies with the requirements of ISO 9001: 2015 Chapter 8.3 Design and development of products and services. The model consists of three levels: Project, Process and Improvement, and is based on product development projects that follow a process in which several business functions are involved. The main findings of the study were the ambiguous ways PDSA and PDCA were described by, which upon implementation leads to further confusion about the concepts. Furthermore, the ISO standard, which is based on PDCA, has evolved from being product oriented to adapt to their customers' demands for more process orientation. Now it is positioned between PDSA's process-oriented improvement focus and PDCA's product-oriented improvement focus. In addition, it was discovered that the processes described in quality development and product development are based on customer needs and should result in satisfying the customer need, but how the customer needs are supposed to be used are not answered within the theoretical areas.