<p>Godkänd; 1999; 20070403 (ysko)</p>

Industries of today are constantly making changes and advancing towards a future with the purpose of innovation, improvement and sustainability. New technologies give the opportunities to make advantages in a number of fields and adapt new methodologies to their processes and products; in this project, we are going to study the application of digital twins in the automotive sector, focusing on the ergonomic evaluation of an interior truck cabin by using motion capture system and DHM tools.A number of 6 participants have been tested with Xsens motion capture performing different tasks related to reachability, storage and comfort inside the truck cabin. Their actions get recorded and implemented in an evaluation software called ScaleFit, which provides numerical results for several parts of the body in terms of position and force. Selecting the appropriate criteria for evaluating the ergonomics is essential to make a proper analysis of how the workplace affects the user and vice versa. On the other hand, the DHM software IPS-IMMA has been employed to simulate the exact postures adopted by the participants with a digital truck model and mannikins with the same dimensions. Both methods are compared to study to what degree they are able to give the necessary feedback to evaluate in a realistic and accurate way.The results obtained show an advantage for motion capture systems rather than DHM tools. However, by getting improvements in the software and new types of data to implement, we could be able to state that both technologies are near the same level of accuracy and proper application for a digital twin process in trucks and vehicles. We consider this methodology quite appropriate for companies with the purpose of making ergonomics analyses and other issues that relate to the design and development of trucks and vehicles. Also, different processes and types of digital twin approach have been realised depending on the tool employed and the flow of information, including digital twin itself, digital shadow and digital model. Although these processes have been realised to perform the experimental part in the most optimal way, they can be somewhat abstract to be established for a certain application,so the methodology employed for this project could vary for another company’s purpose. / <p>Utbytesstudenter Universidad de Málaga, Spanien</p>

In this dissertation a study and analysis of seven Development Partnerships, (DP) within the Community Initiative, Equal, is presented. The EQUAL programme ran in every member states of the EU during 2000-2007 and was financed by the European Social Fund. The purpose of the programme was to fight against discrimination and exclusion for a better working life through the work of so called Development Partnerships, (DP). DP's work in collaboration with different organizations from different fields of society all with the purpose to develop innovative methods and models. The seven Swedish DP's in this study all had in their field of work supported youth with problems in school and in their transition to working life. In this study the DP's application documents (realization plans) have been studied in order to analyze their view of the problems with transition from school to working place for Swedish youth and their proposals for solutions of this type of problems. The result of the study is illustrated in an ideal typical four-field model that focuses on two important dimensions of the activities of the DP's. One of these aspects is about whether the DP's is operating within the public or the private sector. The other aspect is about whether the DP's has a focus on individuals or upon systems. As an outcome of these two dimensions four ideal typical DP's are created, in this model called he Pedagogue, the Bureaucrat, the Idealist, the Consultant. The model shows that each one of these ideal typical DP's has to take into consideration some special factors in their programmes, especially the survival of the project or the ideas in the long run. These factors are described in the model as movements and dependences to adjacent DP's. For example it is important for the DP's from the private sector to achieve legitimacy for their programme. The DP's from the public sector has to import alternative ideas into the regular activities. The DP's with individuals in focus are stressing the importance of developing models for new systems, while DP's with systems in focus has the need to have activities that has individual based activity in order to gain credibility. The model illustrates important conditions and requirements that DP's has to take into consideration when developing supporting activities for youths. / I denna licentiatavhandling presenteras en studie och analys av sju utvecklingspartnerskap (UP) inom Europeiska Socialfondens gemenskapsinitiativ Equal. Equalprogrammet bedrevs inom EU:s alla medlemsländer under perioden 2000-2007 med syfte att motverka diskriminering och utestängning inom arbetsmarknaden. Detta mål skulle främst förverkligas genom den verksamhet som bedrevs i de s.k. utvecklingspartnerskapen, (UP). I UP samarbetade ett antal organisationer från olika samhällssektorer i ett eller flera projekt med syfte att utveckla framgångsrika metoder och modeller. De sju svenska UP som studerades har alla utvecklat stödjande verksamhet till ungdomar med problem inom skolsystemet och i övergången till arbetslivet. I avhandlingsarbetet har UP:s ansökningshandlingar (genomförandeplaner) studerats med syftet att analysera deras syn på dels den etableringsproblematik som finns bland svenska ungdomar, dels de förslag till lösningar på denna problematik som de presenterar. Resultatet av studien utmynnar i en idealtypisk fyrfältsmodell som främst illustrerar två viktiga dimensionella aspekter av UP verksamhet. En av dessa aspekter är inom vilken samhällssektor UP främst rör sig inom, offentlig eller privat. Den andra aspekten handlar om verksamheten har ett individ- eller systemfokus. Utifrån dessa två dimensioner skapas fyra olika slags idealtypiska UP, i modellen benämnda Pedagogen, Byråkraten, Idealisten och Konsulten. Resultatet visar på att var och en av dessa idealtypiska UP har särskilda faktorer att ta hänsyn till i sin verksamhet, inte minst projektets eller idéernas överlevnad på lång sikt. Dessa faktorer beskrivs i modellen som rörelser och beroenden till de i modellen angränsande UP. Det är alltså viktigt för UP från den privata sektorn att uppnå legitimitet för sin verksamhet. För UP från den offentliga sektorn är behoven större att finna alternativ till den ordinarie verksamheten. De UP som har ett in- dividfokus betonar vikten av att utveckla modeller med systemfokus, medan UP med fokus på system upplever behovet av att ha en individförankrad verksamhet för trovärdighetens skull. Modellen illustrerar de viktiga förutsättningar och krav som utvecklingspartnerskap har att ta hänsyn till för att framgångsrikt kunna utveckla stödjande verksamhet till ungdomars etablering till arbetslivet. / Godkänd; 2008; 20080416 (ysko)

In focus in this licentiate thesis is academia as a workplace. The aim is to explore possible relations between working conditions, career possibilities and health and ill-health, respectively. It is a case study inspired by Grounded Theory and based upon sixty in-depth interviews with doctoral students and academic staff such as lecturers, senior lecturers and professors at three universities. Both men and women participate in the study, and half of them are or have been on long-term sick leave. Two models are used in the analysis; Karasek and Theorell's (1990) model "demand-control-support" in the analysis of working conditions, health and ill-health in an academic context and Kanter's (1977) structural model, based on possibilities, power and relative numbers, in the analysis of career possibilities. The results show that both teachers and doctoral students think of it as a privilege to work within academia, since it is associated with freedom, autonomy, inspiration and good career possibilities. In contrast, they view their work load as high, work tasks as fragmented combined with constant audits, lack of time and lack of support, the study shows that these conditions might lead to stress and ill health. In spite of relatively low sick leave numbers in academia, there is reason to believe that university staff tends to work when sick and that this is a growing problem. One reason to this development is the fact that, because of the way work is organized, it is possible to work at home when sick and to compensate for loss of working hours by working during evenings and weekends. This means that signs of warnings of possible future sick leave do not fail to appear, which might be one of the reasons to increased numbers of long-term sick leave. In this context, there is reason to apply a gender perspective, as women doctoral students are overrepresented among staff on long-term sick leave. In Karasek and Theorell's model, there is no gender perspective, which is made evident when it is combined with Kanter's model. One of the conclusions of this study is that working conditions of men and women, career possibilities and health and ill-health are related. By using these two models in the analysis these connections are demonstrated. Hopefully the results of this study might serve as a basis for measures aiming at creating healthier workplaces within academia. / Denna licentiatuppsats handlar om akademin som arbetsplats. Syftet är att undersöka samband mellan arbetsförhållanden, karriärmöjligheter och hälsa respektive ohälsa inom akademin. Licentiatuppsatsen har karaktär av en fallstudie och har inspirerats av grundad teori (grounded theory). Studien baseras på sextio djupintervjuer med doktorander och universitetslärare bestående av adjunkter, lektorer och professorer, vid tre lärosäten. Både kvinnor och män medverkar i studien, varav nästan hälften av intervjupersonerna är, eller har varit, långtidssjukskrivna. Två modeller fungerar som analysverktyg för att beskriva och analysera det empiriska materialet. Karasek och Therorells (1990) "krav-kontroll-stödmodell" används för att analysera arbetsförhållanden, hälsa och ohälsa i en akademisk kontext, medan Kanters (1977) strukturmodell, som baseras på möjligheter, makt och antalsfördelning mellan könen, används för att analysera karriärmöjligheter inom akademin. Resultaten visar att både lärare och doktorander på många sätt upplever det som ett privilegium att ha akademin som arbetsplats, eftersom den förknippas med frihet, hög autonomi, stimulans och goda karriärmöjligheter. Däremot upplevs arbetsbelastningen inom akademin hög, arbetsuppgifterna splittrade och studien visar att detta i kombination med ständiga utvärderingar, tidsbrist och otillräckligt stöd leder till stress och ohälsa. Trots relativt låga ohälsotal inom akademin är dold sjukfrånvaro och sjuknärvaro växande problem. En förklaring till den dolda sjukfrånvaron kan vara att arbetets karaktär gör det möjligt att arbeta hemifrån vid sjukdom, eller att kompensera förlorad arbetstid på kvällar eller helger. Frekvent sjuknärvaro och dold sjukfrånvaro medför att den varningssignal som korttidssjukfrånvaro kan fungera som uteblir, vilket kan vara en bidragande orsak till den ökande långtidssjukfrånvaron. Här finns anledning att anlägga ett genusperspektiv, eftersom kvinnliga doktorander är överrepresenterade bland de långtidssjukskrivna. Karasek och Theorells modell saknar genusperspektiv, vilket blir uppenbart när modellen används tillsammans med Kanters modell. En slutsats av studien är att det finns samband mellan kvinnor och mäns arbetsförhållanden, karriärmöjligheter hälsa och ohälsa. Genom att använda dessa två modeller som analysverktyg synliggörs dessa samband. Målsättningen är att resultaten från denna licentiatuppsats kan ligga till grund för åtgärder som skapar friskare universitet. / Godkänd; 2008; 20080520 (ysko)

Sensor networks are being deployed to monitor physical surroundings in a wide range of applications including healthcare, agriculture, education, transportation, home automation, industry, and they are bringing revolutionary change in the innovation area. Wireless Sensor Network (WSNs) offer tremendous potential for increasing the efficiency of many systems. The transmitting of information during an event of an emergency from the physical environment is most important in monitoring applications where the network of sensors is placed. In order to react in a fraction of second in the event of critical situations such as fire, toxic gases leak, or flood, a quick enough system is required. One of the biggest challenges when building a wireless network is choosing a good protocol for the desired application. What are we trying to accomplish? What is the proper protocol for that? There are several communication protocols, and each has a specific focus.The main focus of this thesis is to build a sensor network for measuring air temperature using a wireless communication protocol for said application. Based on the results a conclusion is reached about the energy yield, the communication range, and the connection strength, considering how they affect obstacles, such as the weather conditions or different objects. / <p>Utbytesstudent Universidad de Granada, Spanien</p>

The report describes the process of designing a new tool to help the workers in Aurobay in the storage section. Nowadays, Aurobay also imports their engine parts from Asia and America, although previously, they imported engine parts from Europe only. This change has created a problem to establish good working conditions due to the material of those boxes, which is cardboard. Now comes two different types of boxes, i.e., the previous ones (in plastic, which are reusable) and the new ones in cardboard (that are no reusable), which led to an increment of effort in workers' muscles during the performance in their job taking the boxes. This degree project aims to create a new tool, which should be possible to perform the handling task in a way that leads to better ergonomics (i.e., good performance and little risk of disorders). To develop this improvement this thesis is divided into the following main aspects: an initial prestudy of Aurobay work environment, the development of concepts, election of the best concepts, development of designs, and the evaluation of the new designs. Achieving these objectives was complicated but with a lot of hard work, the results were successful. After the physical prototypes were made, the results were positive. And also,with these results, some future improvements were collected for the final prototype to reduce risks for muscular disorders of the workers. / <p>Utbytesstudenter, Universidad de Málaga, Spanien</p>

Access to human resources is a crucial factor in most cases of business and regional development. Due to demographical changes, urbanization and new values among the next generation, the competition to find the right workforce is likely to increase. Reports have stressed that the difficulties for companies to find the right labor can become a hindrance to sustainable business and regional development. Considering the low proportion of women in the field of engineering, only 20 percent, one must ask; Why are WE (Works in Engineering) not more attractive for women? The purpose of this thesis is to describe the collaboration between an expanding enterprise in a semirural area and a gender research project, from three different perspectives in order to find some answers for the overarching question. In the first paper, the purpose is to describe and analyze the creation of a process model for gender awareness within an enterprise. The second paper will, with the same empirical data, focus on the interdependence between enterprise and region. Finally, the last paper, written for a conference in India, addressing readers unfamiliar with the gender equality issue in the Swedish context, describes how a male facilitator combines disclosing personal life experiences with other methods, as a strategy to inspire men to consider a gender perspective, to use gender glasses. Gender equality has been a topic on the political agenda in Sweden for a long time. Although much progress has been made, many obstructive structures remain. Sweden is one of the European countries that have the highest participation rate for women in the labor force. However, the labor market is highly gender-segregated, both horizontally, which refers to the concentration of women and men in different types of jobs, and vertically, the concentration of women and men in different jobtasks and positions. Due to this background, the innovation system, Triple Steelix, was granted funding by VINNOVA for the project “Gender Perspective for Attractive Work”, in the fall of 2008. The purpose of the research project was to develop methods and knowledge that would contribute to increased gender awareness in order for employers to become more attractive to current and potential staff. The framework for the collaboration is action research in combination with feminist theory, the concept of “doing gender”, theories of masculinity, and attractive work theories. Different approaches and methods, such as analogies, anecdotes, and pictures, have been used during workshops with the organization, in order to nourish the joint learning process.Findings are that in an industrial environment with an “engineering discourse”,driven by a technical-economic rationality that prioritizes market demands, gender issues are not often seen as a parameter for sustainable business or regional development. Nevertheless, the project demonstrates that with an interactive approach and an open dialogue that considers the company's needs, arguments, and intervention for more gender-equal workplaces do not necessarily meet resistance. In this case, the concept of employer brand was the admission ticket for the collaboration. The combination of different participatory methods that were adapted to the context made it possible to counter resistance from individuals and to discuss gender from different perspectives and ways of reasoning. Another conclusion is that when launching long-term transformational processes in an organization, gender should not remain a “non-issue”. When gender issues are integrated, it will contribute to examining the organization from a new perspective regarding issues such as power, symbols, and relations. In the described collaboration, gender perspective was integrated and the enterprise became more aware of gender issues as an important component of strengthening the employer brand. The principle of the described process model can probably be used in similar cases if adapted to a local context.

To decide in advance the amount of resources that is required next week or next month can be both a complicated and hazardous task depending on the situation, despite the known time frame when the resources are needed. Intermittent demand, or slow-moving demand, that is when there are time periods without demand and then suddenly a time period with demand, becomes even more difficult to forecast. If the demand is underestimated it will lead to lost sales and therefore lost revenues. If the demand is overestimated, in the best case the stock is increased or in worst case, the items lie unsold until they become obsolete. The items with intermittent demand can have a value of up to 60% of the total stock value for all items.This thesis addresses the topic of forecasting intermittent demand and how to measure the accuracy of the chosen forecast method or methods. Four forecasting methods are tested on almost 18 months of empirical demand data from a manufacturing company. The tested forecasting method are single exponential smoothing, Croston and two modification of the Croston method, one by Syntetos and Boylan the other by Segerstedt (modified Croston). Four start values and eight smoothing constants are tested. The methods are evaluated with different accuracy measures; variance (MSE and MAD), bias (CFE, the maximum and minimum value of CFE) and sMAPE. In addition with a new complementary measure of bias; Periods in Stock (PIS), PIS considers the time aspect, when the forecast error occurred not just the error size. Also two variants of MAD and MSE are tested. To improve the evaluation of the bias measures, the percentages of demand occasions that can not be fulfilled are used. The relationship between the different errors for a certain method is examined with principal component analysis (PCA). The errors are also examined with logistic regression to find out if a certain forecasting method is favoured by certain accuracy measures. The logistic regression is based on descriptive statistics for time series plus the mean absolute change that considers the sequence of the time series as well as the variation. Ranking and error quotients between different methods are other applied methods. The results of the research both confirm and contradict earlier findings. Among the confirming research results are the bias among the different methods. Croston and Modified Croston are overestimating the demand, Syntetos and Boylan's Croston variant has a tendency to underestimate the demand. Single exponential smoothing is relatively biasfree when low smoothing constants are concerned. The contradictive results are that CFE is not a suitable measure of bias at least when the number of forecasting periods is limited. The value of CFE can indicate a nonbiased forecast when both PIS and the percentage of unmet demands indicate a biased forecast. PIS is also less sensitive to transient demand events that can distort CFE. PIS is recommended as a bias measure for limited time series, especially considering intermittent demand, along with the percentage of unmet demand. Another result is that MAD is not reliable since the method in certain circumstances favours methods that underestimate the demand. / Att på förhand bestämma vilken mängd resurser som krävs nästa vecka eller nästa månad kan vara både en komplicerat och riskfylld uppgift beroende av situation, trots att man känner till när resurserna behövs. Intermittent efterfrågan, eller lågrörlig efterfrågan, är när många perioder saknar efterfrågan och plötsligt sker en efterfrågan en period. Detta gör det svårare att prognostisera. Om efterfrågan underskattas kommer det att leda till förlorad försäljning och därmed förlorade intäkter. Om efterfrågan är överskattad kommer det i bästa fall att bara leda till ökat lager eller, i värsta fall, leda till osålda produkter och till slut inkurans. Artiklar med intermittent efterfrågan kan utgöra upp till 60 % av det totala lagervärdet för samtliga artiklar.Denna uppsats avhandlar prognoser av intermittent efterfrågan samt hur prognosfelen ska mätas för den valda eller de valda prognosmetoderna. Fyra prognosmetoder utvärderas med nästan 18 månaders empirisk efterfrågedata från ett tillverkande företag. De utvärderade metoderna är exponentiell utjämning, Croston och två modifierade varianter av Croston; Syntetos och Boylans metod samt modifierad Croston av Segerstedt. Fyra olika startvärden och åtta utjämningskonstanter används. Prognosmetoderna utvärderas med olika typer av prognosfel; varians (MSE och MAD), bias (CFE samt max- och minvärde av CFE) och sMAPE. Vidare sker utvärdering med ett komplimenterande mått för bias, Lagerperioder (Periods in Stock, PIS). PIS tar tidsaspekten i beaktande och inte bara storleken på prognosfelen. Dessutom undersöks två varianter av MAD och MSE. För att förbättra utvärderingen av biasmåtten undersöks procentantalet av de efterfrågetillfällen som en prognosmetod inte kan uppfylla.Förhållandet mellan de olika prognosfelen undersöks med hjälp av principal component analysis (PCA). Prognosfelen undersöks även med binär logistisk regression för att utröna huruvida vissa prognosmetoder gynnas av vissa prognosfel. Den logistiska regressionen baseras på deskriptiv statistik för tidsserierna samt medelabsolutförändringen som tar ordningen för tidserien i beaktande såväl som variationen. Rankning och kvoter mellan olika prognosfel från olika metoder är andra tillämpade metoder. Resultatet av forskningen både bekräftar och motsäger tidigare forskning. Bland de bekräftande resultaten är den bias olika prognosmetoder har. Croston och modifierad Croston överskattar efterfrågan, Syntetos och Boylans metod underskattar efterfrågan. Exponentiell utjämning är förhållandevis fri från bias när utjämningskonstanterna har låga värden. De avvikande resultaten är att CFE inte är lämpligt att använda när antal prognosperioder är begränsat. Värdet för CFE kan indikera att prognosen är fri från bias när både PIS och procentandelen icke mött efterfrågan. PIS är dessutom mindre känslig för transienta efterfrågehändelser som kan förvränga CFE. PIS rekommenderas som ett biasmått när tidsserien är ändlig, särskilt när det gäller intermittent efterfrågan, tillsammans med måttet procentandelen icke mött efterfrågan. Andra resultat är att MAD inte är pålitlig eftersom måttet, under vissa förhållanden, gynnar prognosmetoder som underskattar efterfrågan

Great effort is being made to get Europe out of its economic crisis and prepare the European economy for the next decade. The aims of the Digital Agenda are to give all Europeans basic broadband by 2013 and to ensure that by 2020 all Europeans have access to much higher internet speeds. Can DTN technology contribute to achieving these targets in rural and remote areas? In the N4C project DTN technology has taken a step toward these goals and been proven viable. This licentiate thesis is meant to suggest business and governance models suitable for the N4C DTN-based internet access, the test beds and the applications. The focus is on reviewing and assessing business models for Open Source Software (OSS) and offering solutions for testing whether DTN-based internet access can be governed in an economic association as an ICT commons.Gender and cultural considerations in N4C business and deployment development are analysed. It is shown that to improve the gender balance special measures need to be considered. It is concluded that in countries such as Sweden, where women have almost the same ICT take-up and usage as men, i.e., women are good ICT-consumers, their role as entrepreneurs, developers and participants in governance of ICT infrastructure needs to be improved.Ostrom’s eight design principles for governing, with division of roles into appropriators, producers and providers, have been tested on N4C in the entity of an economic association, with illuminating results. However, when such governance models are used in projects like N4C, they cannot be transferred outright, as the appropriation from the internet is different from withdrawal of resources from other types of commons. It was found that the provision formulas, especially for labour, are important, because in the N4C DTN-based internet access the producer in the model is often acting as a “data mule,” transporting the code. To assure gender-inclusive governance when economic associations are being used, Ostrom’s eight design principles for governing is proposed to be surrounded with special measures.

Driver information is information that a driver needs to fulfil his or her goals of driving. Previously, information supported reliability in order to make the car work safely but, today, other attributes have become equally or more important. Driver information also needs to support safe, efficient, legal, environmentally friendly and enjoyable transportation.Functional growth is expected due to new technology, new purposes of driving and customers' desires. One way to meet functional growth and at the same time improve drivers' situation awareness and optimize workload may be to make driver information adaptive. The information presented, the output factors, could change salience governed by different input factors such as driver state, context, situation etc. However, changing information automatically may cause new types of errors, such as mode error, over-trust, under-trust, vigilance problems or change of locus of control. These types of errors belong to the category automation induced errors. The aim of this thesis was therefore to investigate whether adaptive driver information has a potential to improve driver performance, support goals of driving, improve situation awareness (SA) and optimize workload. This question was decomposed into four more specific research questions. (1) What are the purposes of future driver information and their relations to different functions? (2) What are the potential benefits and negative effects of adaptive driver information? (3) What information do drivers need and want throughout the driving task? (4) How can the negative aspects of adaptivity be avoided by design?In paper A, the purposes of driver information were identified and linked together with future driver information components and, as a result, several new functions were identified. The different benefits and negative effects were identified by literature studies. However, the scope was extended to the aviation and power industry, which has greater experience of automation. In paper B, functions were mapped to different contexts. The results can be used as a guideline for future design. The different negative effects of automation were handled in paper C by applying the "team player" approach to car design. The results showed a potential in the "team player" approach, but it was also clear that the visual impact on driving must be solved. It seems that adaptive driver information has a potential to improve driver performance, support goals of driving, improve situation awareness and optimize workload.