The Environmental Policy Deployment (EPD) process is identified as the heart of an Environmental Management System. Since so little is known about EPD, the aims of this thesis is to characterise the EPD process and identify factors of importance, with focus on the processes of identification and assessment of environmental aspects, and deployment of environmental goals. This new knowledge constitutes the basis for development of new methods within EPD. The empirical base for this thesis is taken from 46 organizations from three counties in Sweden and from 14 business units within the integrated forest product company Stora Enso in Sweden. Six major areas where the process of identification and assessment of environmental can be improved are identified: the definition of environmental aspects, the procedures for update of aspects, the aggregation of aspects, the exclusion of business considerations in the assessment, employee and stakeholder participation and the competence levels of people involved in the process. In addition to these six problem areas, results from the study within Stora Enso also indicate great problems with subjectivity in the identification and assessment process. It is concluded that the subjectivity has negative effects on the stringency and transparency of the process. This thesis includes an approach for a new method based LCA methodology, with focus on the identification of aspects. The goal deployment process within EPD was also characterized. This process is strictly controlled by specifications in ISO 14001/EMAS. Many organizations find it hard to measure their environmental goals and to set long-term horizons for their goals. In addition, the organizations usually do not involve their employees in the process. / Godkänd; 2001; 20070313 (ysko)

The growth of global competition caused remarkable changes in the way manufacturing companies operate. These changes have affected maintenance and made its role even more crucial in business success. In order to stay competitive, manufacturing companies need to continuously increase the effectiveness and efficiency of their production processes. Further, by introducing lean manufacturing the concern about equipment availability is increased and so, the demand for effective maintenance. Despite the increasing demand on reliable production equipment, few manufacturing companies work with strategic maintenance development. Moreover, conventional maintenance strategies such as corrective maintenance are not sufficient today to fulfill the industrial needs on maximum reduction of failures and degradations of manufacturing systems. The concept of maintenance has evolved over the last few decades from a corrective attitude (maintenance intervention after a failure), to a predictive attitude (maintenance intervention fixed to prevent the fault). Strategies and concepts such as Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) have thus evolved to support this ideal situation. CBM is a set of maintenance actions based on real-time or near real-time assessment of equipment condition, which is obtained from embedded sensors and/or external tests and measurements taken by portable equipment and/or subjective condition monitoring. CBM is becoming recognized as the most efficient strategy for carrying out maintenance in a wide variety of industries. However, the practical implementation of advanced maintenance technologies, such as CBM, in manufacturing industry is more scarce. Therefore, the objective with this research is to study on how to implement and develop an effective and efficient CBM strategy in manufacturing industry. This thesis will start with an analysis of the overall maintenance management to illustrate how to formulate a maintenance strategy, following with the focus on CBM; cost effectiveness of implementing CBM; an introductory review of applied CBM practices and CBM implementation process, all in manufacturing industry. The data was collected through case studies mainly at one major manufacturing site. The main part of the data was collected during a pilot project to implement CBM. As the result, a formulated maintenance strategy has been developed and presented. Factors to evaluate CBM cost effectiveness have been assessed. These factors indicate the benefits of CBM mostly in reducing probability of having maximal damage in production equipment and reducing production losses particularly in high production volumes. Further, a process of CBM implementation has been presented. Some of the main elements in the process are selection of the components to be monitored, techniques and technologies as well as installation of the technologies and finally how to analyze the results from the condition monitoring.

Introduction and purpose: Traceability is central for the identification of the root cause(s) behind a product deviation and thus to achieve a product and process quality that is both high and even. Continuous processes contain several characteristics complicating traceability which are not usually discussed in the scientific literature. The overall purpose of this thesis is to provide a theoretical framework for traceability and to test and develop methods for traceability in continuous processes. Design/methodology/approach: A literature review and interviews with engineers in continuous processes were performed in order to identify existing traceability theories and applications as well as characteristics complicating traceability in continuous processes. In addition, experiments evaluating traceability applications in three continuous processes were conducted at the Swedish iron ore refinement company Loussavaara Kiirunavaara AB (LKAB). Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), chemical tracer, and ideal flow simulations were, for example, used within the studied applications.Findings: A theoretical framework for traceability in continuous processes is outlined based on existing scientific literature. Several traceability methods suitable for continuous processes are described and illustrated within the framework. Furthermore, the complicating characteristics in continuous processes that each method may deal with are described. This thesis also presents and illustrates how traceability may be achieved in three continuous processes operating within ore refinement industries.Research limitations/implications: The presented research gives an insight into traceability theory and more specifically into traceability problems in continuous processes. However, the empirical results from the experiments are based on three specific processes, and research in other processes should be performed to validate the results.Practical implications: The presented results illustrate how to increase the ability to trace, track, and predict the product location in processes where traceability previously has been difficult.Originality/value: Prior research has primarily focused on discontinuous processes. By contrast, this thesis presents traceability from a continuous process perspective as well as the design and development of traceability applications for three of these processes. / Introduktion och syfte: Spårbarhet är centralt för identifiering av rotorsaken(erna) bakom en produktavvikelse och därmed förmågan att uppnå en hög och jämn produkt- och processkvalitet. Kontinuerliga processer inrymmer ett flertal egenskaper som försvårar spårbarhet och som vanligtvis inte diskuteras i den vetenskapliga litteraturen. Det övergripande syftet med denna avhandling är att utveckla en teoretisk referensram för spårbarhet och att testa samt utveckla metoder för spårbarhet i kontinuerliga processer. Design/metod/forskningsansats: En litteraturstudie samt intervjuer med ingenjörer i kontinuerliga processer genomfördes i syfte att kartlägga befintliga spårbarhetsteorier och tillämpningar samt egenskaper som komplicerar spårbarhet i kontinuerliga processer. Dessutom utfördes experiment för att utvärdera spårbarhetsapplikationer i tre kontinuerliga processer inom det svenska järnmalmsförädlingsföretaget Loussavaara Kiirunavaara AB (LKAB). Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), kemiska spårämne och ideal flödessimuleringar är exempel på metoder som användas inom de studerade applikationerna.Resultat: En teoretisk referensram för spårbarhet i kontinuerliga processer baserad på befintlig forskningslitteratur har utvecklats. Flera spårbarhetsmetoder lämpliga för kontinuerliga processer beskrivs och illustreras inom den framtagna referensramen. Vidare beskrivs vilka komplicerande egenskaper i kontinuerliga processer som varje metod kan hantera. Denna avhandling presenterar och visar också hur spårbarhet kan uppnås i tre kontinuerliga processer som återfinns inom malmförädlingsindustrier.Forskningsbegränsningar/konsekvenser: Den presenterade forskning ger en inblick i spårbarhetsteorier och mer specifikt den spårbarhetsproblematik som återfinns i kontinuerliga processer. De empiriska resultaten från experimenten bygger dock på tre specifika processer, och fortsatt forskning kan med fördel utföras i andra processer för att validera resultaten.Praktiska konsekvenser: De presenterade resultaten visar hur man kan öka möjligheten att spåra, följa och prediktera en produkts position i processer där spårbarhet tidigare varit komplicerat.Originalitet/forskningsvärde: Tidigare forskning har främst fokuserat på diskontinuerliga processer. Denna avhandling presenterar dock spårbarhet utifrån ett kontinuerligt processperspektiv samt utvecklar och skapar spårbarhetsapplikationer för tre kontinuerliga processer. / Godkänd; 2010; 20101020 (bjokva); DISPUTATION Ämnesområde: Kvalitetsteknik/Quality Technology & Management Opponent: Professor Josse De Baerdemaeker, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium Ordförande: Professor Bjarne Bergquist, Luleå tekniska universitet Tid: Onsdag den 24 november 2010, kl 13.00 Plats: D770, Luleå tekniska universitet

In today's society, organisations are exposed to stiff competition, and wants and expectations might change rapidly. In order to survive, all organisations must meet wants and expectations from a number of actors who can cause the organisation to fail. These actors are called stakeholders. At the same time as organisations are struggling to survive and prosper, it has become increasingly important for everybody to act in a way that does not endanger global sustainability. In the last few decades a number of management systems have been introduced in order to facilitate for the management of organisations the task of promoting both organisational and global sustainability. In the present study, quality management, environmental management systems and stakeholder theory have been investigated in order to contribute to the knowledge of how an organisation can be managed in order to achieve both organisational and global sustainability. In order to conduct the research, an archival analysis of nine manufacturing Swedish companies was made in order to find out if their environmental performance had improved during the last decade and if such improvements could be linked to the certification of an environmental management system. A case study was also made in order to explore how organisations may be managed in order to achieve both organisational and global sustainability. The results of the research show that the investigated companies have improved their environmental performance, but the connection to the certification of the EMS is not apparent. The results also include a stakeholder model that could be suitable in order to integrate stakeholder theory and quality management. Organisational sustainability is argued be achieved if the organisation manages to endlessly satisfy or exceed the demands of its stakeholders. Where stakeholders are considered to be actors that: (i) provide essential means of support required by an organisation; and (ii) could withdraw their support if their wants or expectations are not met, thus causing the organisation to fail, or inflicting unacceptable levels of damage. The aim of a third generation of quality management could then be for the organisation to satisfy, or preferably exceed, the wants and expectations of its customers subject to meeting the demands of its other stakeholders, in order to fulfil the aim of the organisation. To also promote global sustainability, the organisation should aim to satisfy, or preferably exceed, the wants and expectations of its stakeholders without compromising the ability of other parties to meet their needs, both present and future. It is to be hoped that the proposed stakeholder model can be used in both existing and future management concepts in order to help companies to promote both organisational and global sustainability. / I dagens samhälle agerar många organisationer i en miljö med stark konkurrens, där krav och förväntningar snabbt kan ändras. För att överleva måste alla organisationer tillfredsställa krav och förväntningar från ett antal aktörer som, om deras krav inte uppfylls, kan få företaget att misslyckas. Dessa aktörer kallas för "stakeholders" (förutsättningsskapare). Samtidigt som organisationer kämpar för att överleva har det blivit allt viktigare att alla agerar på ett sätt som inte motverkar global hållbarhet. Under de senaste årtiondena har en rad ledningssystem introducerats för att underlätta ledning av organisationer mot både organisatorisk och global hållbarhet. I den här uppsatsen har offensiv kvalitetsutveckling, standardiserade miljöledningssystem och stakeholderteori undersökts för att bidra till kunskapen om hur organisationer kan ledas för att uppnå både organisatorisk och global hållbarhet.För att genomföra forskningen har en arkivanalys med nio tillverkande svenska företag genomförts för att undersöka om deras miljöprestanda har förbättrats under det senaste årtiondet och om eventuella förbättringar kan kopplas till certifieringen av ett miljöledningssystem. Även en fallstudie har genomförts för att undersöka hur organisationer kan ledas för att uppnå både organisatorisk och global hållbarhet.Resultaten från forskningen visar att de undersökta företagen har förbättrat sin miljöprestanda, dock är kopplingen till certifieringen av miljöledningssystemet inte uppenbar. Resultaten innehåller även en stakeholder-modell, bland annat bestående av nedanstående formuleringar, vilken skulle kunna vara användbar för att integrera stakeholdersynsättet i offensiv kvalitetsutveckling. Organisatorisk hållbarhet uppnås om organisationen kontinuerligt kan uppfylla eller överträffa krav från sina stakeholders. Stakeholders är de aktörer som: (i) bidrar med nödvändiga förutsättningar och, (ii) om deras krav och förväntningar inte uppfylls, kan dra tillbaka dessa förutsättningar och därmed orsaka oacceptabel skada eller får organisationen att misslyckas. Målet för offensiv kvalitetsutveckling skulle därför kunna bli för organisationen att uppfylla, eller helst överträffa, krav och förväntningar från kunder samtidigt som organisationen även uppfyller krav från övriga stakeholders.För att inte motverka global hållbarhet borde alla organisationer agera för att uppfylla, eller helst överträffa, krav och förväntningar från stakeholders utan att minska möjligheten för andra aktörer att tillfredsställa sina behov, varken nuvarande eller kommande behov. Förhoppningen är att den framtagna stakeholdermodellen ska kunna användas både i befintliga och kommande managementkoncept för att leda företag mot både organisatorisk och global hållbarhet. / Godkänd; 2007; 20070122 (ysko)

Issues related to quality have received more attention in both society at large and higher education during the last decades. Concepts such as ‘Total Quality Management' and ‘continuous improvement' have become prevalent terms in the discussions around quality issues. The overall intention of this thesis is to study quality management in higher education, and more specifically, to see if and how perspectives with their origin outside higher education could provide means to improve the activities in that setting. The first element in the thesis is an attempt to formulate a general framework for quality management as it refers to higher education. Secondly, three specific investigations into quality issues in higher education are described. The first of these is a study of how self-assessments according to criteria in the Swedish Quality Award could be used in higher education. The second is a study of the use in higher education of quality systems and the ISO 9000 set of standards for such quality systems. The third is a discussion of similarities between developments in trade and industry on one hand and higher education on the other. As a very general conclusion, perspectives such as ‘Total Quality Management' are argued as being both relevant and meaningful in higher education. Interpreted comprehensively, this perspective and other related concepts seem not only valid, but also a means to find possible improvements. The areas which are discussed are both administrative or support activities and academic areas. As for results from the studies of self-assessments according to quality awards and of quality systems, both these instruments seem valid and useful in higher educational settings. The main intention with the actual kind of assessment which has been studied is that it could result in an understanding of possibilities for improvements. Even though the assessment method comprises some perspectives which are not common in higher education, it seems reasonable to assume that the intended result could be attained. The study of quality systems indicates that this kind of instrument can also provide a basis for improvements, although from another starting point. Implementations of such systems have in several cases resulted in a structure for quality management, whereby possibilities for improvements are more easily discerned. Both studies suggest, however, that use of instruments such as those considered is not unproblematic. Underlying motives and resource issues are some examples of possibly problematic aspects. The discussion of similarities between higher education and developments in trade and industry is finally an attempt to show that a TQM perspective is valid not only as means for improvement in areas such as administrative affairs, but also in core activities such as teaching and learning. However, even if the adoption of this perspective could result in improvements, there are obstacles to such an adoption. Change is seldom achieved in a straightforward manner in any kind of organisation. Besides any general obstacles, higher education also seems to bear a number of characteristics which may be particularly significant. Two such impediments which are discussed are the organisational structure and the use of grades. / <p>Godkänd; 1997; 20070408 (ysko)</p>

Quality management is continuously evolving and the progression so far is frequently described in terms of four stages. According to these descriptions, Total Quality Management (TQM) constitutes the currently highest level, or fourth stage, of quality management. Despite the divergence of views on what constitutes TQM, it is commonly described as a number of diverse activities, here designated as quality practice, performed to display and embody a certain set of values. One of these values, acknowledged as central to TQM, is to focus on the customers. This value basically implies that a TQM organization should adapt its operations to what creates value for its customers. Hence, there is ideally a strong linkage between the application of quality practice and the creation of customer value. In a wider perspective, this linkage fundamentally determines the vital contribution of quality practice to competitiveness. However, this linkage has so far been given poor attention among quality researchers. Furthermore, differences of opinions exist regarding its strength. It has for instance been argued that quality practices commonly included in TQM lack a linkage to customer value, decrease the competitiveness of the organization in which they are implemented, and hinder the organization's ability to create customer value. The aim of this thesis is accordingly to examine the ideal linkage between quality practice and customer value in order to increase its strength. In accordance to the idea of continuous improvement, the aim is to improve the reflection of the value ‘focus on the customers' in quality practice. The research process described in this thesis has started by examining and developing the current theoretical foundation and models of TQM concerning customer value, in terms of the theory of attractive quality. Furthermore, an affective conceptualization of customer value has been used as a basis for an initial examination of the ideal linkage. Among the presented results it is indicated that quality practice, including the measures currently used to capture customer perceptions, is more or less restricted to negative motivations of external customers. Negative motivations basically stem from the customers strive to avoid and reduce negative emotional states. The linkage to positive motivations of the external customers is seemingly much weaker or even absent. The indicated focus can be seen as a reflection of early theories of motivation emphasizing negative motivations as the governing principle. Modern theories emphasize, however, both negative and positive motivations. The sole emphasis on negative motivations indicated in current quality practice would imply that external customers prefer to exist in a state of boring neutrality. A dual emphasis recognizes that while our customers want to minimize pain and disappointment, they want to maximize pleasure as well, to make life interesting and stimulating. An extension of quality practice, including the use of multiple output measures, is suggested to increasing the reflection of this duality of customer value in TQM. As a foundation for such an extension, a two-dimensional perspective on the mechanisms involved in the strong positive emotional state associated with attractive quality elements has been proposed. The proposed perspective points at two separate mechanisms in terms of the satisfaction of high-level needs and latent needs. / Godkänd; 2005; 20061218 (haneit)

Organisations around the world are today looking for new approaches to maintain or develop competitive advantages, reduce costs, free-up capital and improve quality and service. The traditional customer-supplier relation is characterised by the parties focusing on their own cost reduction, creating win-loose scenarios. Companies today are starting to develop their customer-supplier relations towards more relation-focused approaches. The systems approach is a basis for creating win-win relations between the system components. A win-win relation is looked upon in this thesis as the mutual efforts by customer and supplier in finding and reducing the effect of factors that are causing costs and losses for both customer and supplier. The thesis describes a suggested model for estimating win-win potential for supplier and customer in a maintenance contract regarding civil jet engines. The model is defined as consisting of core values, techniques, and tools for estimating win-win potential. The model is applied in supplier and customer scenario. Findings from applying the model indicate that the supplier's maintenance support performance was a parameter affecting loss factors for both supplier and customer. Investigation pointed out the maintenance supplier's organisation, the supplier's maintenance capacity, and the supplier's spare part inventory as the major causes for problems with maintenance support performance. / <p>Godkänd; 2001; 20070313 (ysko)</p>

The global marketplace is highly competitive and organisations who want to survive long-term, have to continuously improve, change and adapt in response to market demands. Improvements in a company's performance should focus on cost cutting, increasing productivity levels, quality and guaranteeing deliveries in order to satisfy customers. Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is one method, which can be used to achieve these goals. TPM is an approach to equipment management that involves employees from both production and maintenance departments. Its purpose is to eliminate major production losses by introducing a program of continuous and systematic improvements to production equipment. TPM should be developed and expanded to embrace the whole organisation and all employees should be involved in the process as members of improvement teams. This thesis describes the development of TPM and the TPM implementation process. Research is focused on the implementation process of TPM. The author has had the opportunity of both monitoring and steering a company through part of its TPM implementation program and has conducted a longitudinal study. The implementation process takes several years and this thesis focuses on the initial three years of the process. This study demonstrates that driving forces, obstacles and difficulties often are dependent on the organisation, its managers and the individual employees. It also shows that the TPM implementation process has many similarities to the implementation of other improvement concepts. The analysis of these findings forms the basis for recommendations and guidance for organisations, who intend to implement TPM. / <p>Godkänd; 2000; 20070318 (ysko)</p>

Total Quality Management (TQM) is sometimes considered as a management system in continuous change and consisting of values, methodologies and tools, the aim of which is to increase external and internal customer satisfaction with a reduced amount of resources. Whether TQM improves the performance of companies has been discussed for several years. One way to work with TQM and its values, methodologies and tools is to apply for and work with a quality award. Today, there are international, national, regional, branch-wise and in-company quality awards. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate whether and describe how working with quality awards affects the performance of companies. The thesis consists of an extended summary and three appended papers on this subject, each one with a different aim and methodology. Two of the papers study the benefits from in-company quality awards for the performance of units, and one paper studies the financial performance of quality award recipients compared with competitors and branch indices. The main conclusion of the thesis, which strengthens earlier published results, is that working with quality awards affects financial performance positively if companies successfully implement TQM, which is the case for quality award recipients. Moreover, the results of this thesis have not been able to show strong evidence proving that the performance of units which have worked with in-company quality awards, but have not yet successfully implemented TQM, are affected by this work. However, such units experience that working with in-company quality awards has positive effects on the customers as well as the employees. / Godkänd; 2002; 20070222 (ysko)

Quality of embedded systems is often demonstrated by performed tests and guaranteed by the quality of the tools used to perform them. Test automation is important in agile development and test frameworks can be considered mission-critical. Thus, it is important to ensure the quality of tools used for quality assurance.This thesis explores how industries with agile processes can learn from safety-related development with plan-driven processes for increased test framework quality. Safety standards often rely on plan-driven processes, focused on discipline in long term prospects with substantial documentation and extensive upfront plans and designs. Agile approaches instead focus on quick adaptation, where software is evolved, undergoes continuous improvements and is delivered incrementally. A case study was performed as an industry collaboration. A literature study extracted approaches from articles and safety standards. Analysis and processing resulted in candidate solutions, principles and practices iteratively refined for general applicability and the industrial context. Insights on implications and perceived industrial value resulted from a focus group, with qualitative and quantitative data collected through moderated group discussions and complementary activities. Finally, this thesis proposes guidelines intended to be generally applicable, with a suggested augmented agile process of sequential ”mini V-models” inherently controlled by Definition of Dones. A case-specific set of proposed guidelines extends the suggestion while embracing insights from the focus group. Also identified was the importance of perceiving the framework as a tool-chain and not a single tool, where interaction sequences and intermediate results can be identified and utilized for analysis and applicable measures. Future work could refine the proposed guidelines with an industrial dynamic validation, and also extend the literature study and expand the focus group for diverse contexts and industrial perspectives.