Revenue Management (RM) is the practice of managing perishable assets by control-ling their availability and/or prices with an objective to maximize the total revenue. Seat inventory allocation falls in the purview of quantity-based RM. The liberalization of the aviation sector and the subsequent entrance of the low-cost carriers saw an ever-increasing customer base for the airline industry. Given the large number of buyers, firms were free to decide the price at which they would sell tickets. The low-cost carriers started to follow a third degree price discrimination and segmentation of the market, charging a higher price to the market with a relatively inelastic demand. Although a lot of work has been done in the area of seat inventory allocation under a monopolistic market scenario, we realized that not a lot of work had been done in a competitive market scenario. This thesis considers the problem of seat inventory allocation and pricing in a duopoly where each of the competing airlines have two fare-classes. We consider the possibility that the same fare-class may be priced differently by the two competing airlines and allow for the over flow of passengers between the airlines in the same fare-class. In the first part of our work, we develop a non-linear mathematical model for setting the booking limits for one of the two competing air-lines such that the revenue earned is maximized. We consider over flow of passengers from one airline to another in the same fare-class in response to a price differential and compare the results obtained from our model with the standard Expected Marginal Seat Revenue (EMSR) model under a monopolistic scenario. The results show that our model gives higher revenues than that obtained from the EMSR model. In the second part of our work, we consider a non-cooperative game between two competing airlines with price cutting as the strategy to increase their demand. Through numerical computations, we identify the pure strategy Nash equilibrium. From the results, we conclude that Nash equilibrium is achieved only when both the airlines follow the same pricing strategy indicating that individual price cutting will not be beneficial. This also indicates that unless the competitors enter into a cooperative coalition with each other, they would not benefit from deep discount offers. In the third and final part, we prove theoretically the existence of pure strategy Nash equilibrium in a two airline, two fare-class problem with price sensitive over flow of customers in the same fare-class that was computationally analysed earlier. The strategy / strategies at which Nash equilibrium is achieved are identified. We show that Nash equilibrium is only achieved when both the airlines price identically. Hence, our thesis concludes that differential pricing does not hold any significance for the competing airlines from an operational perspective.

The world is continuously moving, and so are the life on it. As our society is constantly evolving and the width of human needs are rising, do organization need to provide new solutions that can satisfy our needs. Consequently, every designer is going to meet new challenges whenever the situation calls for it. This is the situation that CEVT’s engineers have found themselves in and the reason as to why this engineering project has become relevant for their industrial development and innovation. The seatbelt designers at CEVT’s Restraints department have encountered a situation where it forces them to change their product as it can no longer be installed in the cars’ B-pillars. The company must investigate alternative positionings with regard to the car's new design criteria in order to recreate or improve the functionalities in both safety and comfort of their seatbelt system. My project objective is to investigate alternative positionings and components that are part of the classic three-point seatbelt system with an aim to ensure good user experience in the area of comfort. By the end of this thesis I ought to have answered the following Mission Statement: “Determine the most optimal positioning and components of the seatbelt system to reduce inertia for a fontal Belt-in-Seat, where the system’s performance should be comparable to the users’ experience from an installation of a seatbelt in a B-pillar.” To establish the best component combination out of the parts delivered from Autoliv AB and secure an optimal placement for the involved parts, have I followed the three-stage process described by IDEO (2015). The Inspiration phase has included a Literature study, benchmarking, analytical assessments of user needs as well as prepared and performed of a test on the seatbelt system. The Ideation phase was focusing on establishing a placement for the system's components through a brainstorming so that it could be mounted in a seat prototype prepared for the user experience tests performed. The last phase, Implementation, consisted of an analysis that was focusing on the feedback received from users of different anthropometry. But also concentrated on summarizing all data collected throughout the project to select the final concept for this assignment. / Världen och allt liv på jorden är i ständig rörelse. När samhället strävar efter utveckling uppkommer samtidigt nya behov hos människan och dess omgivning, vilket gör att olika organisationer och företag behöver leverera nya lösningar och designa artefakter för att tillfredsställa människans behov. Varje designer kommer att möta nya utmaningar när en situation tvingar dem att ändra sina produkter. Detta är en situation som CEVT:s bilbältesdesigners står inför och anledningen till att detta arbete blivit aktivt för företagets industriella utveckling inom innovation. Situationen som tvingar konstruktörerna att ändra bältessystemets design är att systemet inte längre kan monteras i passagerarbilens B-stolpar. Därför måste företaget undersöka alternativa positioneringar som överensstämmer med bilens designkriterier för att återskapa bältets funktionalitet som berör både säkerhet och komfort av deras bältessystem. Arbetets syfte är att undersöka alternativa positioneringar och de inkluderade komponenterna som utgör ett klassiskt tre-punkts bälte med målet att säkerställa en god användarupplevels inom området komfort. I slutet av projektet skall jag ha uppfyllt följande Mission Statement: “Bestäm den mest optimala positioneringen och komponenter av ett säkerhetsbältes system för att reducera krafterna från ett bältes-integrerat framsäte, en ’Belt-in-Seat’, där systemets prestandard skall vara jämförbart med användarens upplevelse av en installation av bältet i bilens B-stolpe.”   Jag har följt IDEOs (2015) tre-stegs process för att säkerställa den bästa kombinationen av komponenter som har tillhandahållits av Autoliv AB samt fastställa en optimal placering av varje komponent i systemet. Inspirationsfasen har inkluderat en litteraturstudie, benchmarking, analytiska bedömningar av användarens behov samt förberett och genomfört ett test på bältesystemets prestandard. Ideationsfasen fokuserade på att etablera en placering för systemets komponenter genom en brainstorming så att dessa kunde monteras i en sätesprototyp som förberetts inför testerna för att evaluera användarens komfortupplevelse. Den sista fasen, Implementation, bestod av en analys som fokuserade på feedbacken från testpersonerna som erhöll olika antropometri. Fasen kretsade kring att sammanfatta all data som samlats in genom hela projektet för att välja det slutliga konceptet för uppgiften.

The subject of this thesis is to design safety components for the Formula Student car. The aim is to handle the driver’s safety proposals regarding the competition rules. The main point of interest is focused on the impact attenuator issue, which is designed and tested by appropriate method. In addition are designed other security features such as seat belts, seat belts installation and driver equipment are.

The first chapter of my thesis defines the key terms necessary for understanding the concept of mobility of companies in the private international law. The fundamental difference between lex societatis and the nationality of company are terms which are not identical, despite their frequent confusion. It is the lex societatis which is defining for the inner organisation of the company. According to the reasoning of the Court of European Union, in the cross border transfer of the statutory seat should inevitably lead to change of lex societatis. However, in order to decide on which legal order is applicable for defining the lex societatis of a company, we have to look into the international private rules of a particular country. There are two major theories from which stem the legal orders of all member countries, the real seat theory and incorporation theory. This chapter explores their pros and cons, as well as practical consequences of their application on the possibility of cross-border transfer of a seat of a company. The second chapter of my thesis outlines relevant European Union law which lies behind the concept of cross border mobility of companies. The Treaty provisions on freedom of establishment are reviewed in the light of the Court case law. The most relevant decisions of the Court are...

COMPANIES IN PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW - ABSTRACT The aim of this thesis is to familiarize the reader with the regulation of companies in private international law, with special regards to status of the company. The topic is mainly overtaken by the conflict between the incorporation principle and real seat principle. This conflict is reflected in the legal regulation of companies in private international law on both national law level and European law level. It is also connected to the question of competition between legal systems, which the thesis also deals with. Considering the globalizing world we live in and in which the perpetual need to reduce costs plays more and more important role, the topic is highly current. The thesis is divided into 7 chapters. The introductory chapter introduces the topic and points out the objectives of the thesis. The second chapter explains the basic concepts it is going to work with, namely the concept of a company and private international law (conflict of laws). The following chapter discusses the question of status of the company. It explains the definition of status of the company and afterwards describes the individual theories of determining it, i.e. incorporation theory, real seat theory and a few other rarely used theories. In the fourth chapter, the author pays...

This thesis attempts to summarise and analyse a legal treatment of companies in international private law. An important term used throughout the thesis is "personal statute of a legal person". Personal statute of a legal person is an institution that decides whether the organised entity has its own legal presence and which legal system governs its relations. We use two basic theories for determination of a personal statute of a legal person, the incorporation theory and the real seat theory. The incorporation theory is based on an idea that the personal statute of a legal person is a legal system the company is founded in. The real seat theory is related to the problematic idea of an actual residence, a place where the company actually conducts its business, where its management resides or where it is in fact controlled from. Since the consensus in determination of a private statute was not agreed upon, each state uses a different principle. Whilst the incorporation theory in its consequence supports the advancement of trade and is more flexible towards the companies, the real seat theory offers more legal certainties. The so called Delaware effect is considered to be a main weakness of an incorporation theory, which is a situation when the companies are based in states with favourable legislature,...

This project consists of the design of a concept for a portable assistive seat in collaboration with IKEA. The aim of the project is to create a solution that fits within the Omtänksam family of products and shares the company’s values of what is so-called Democratic Design: Form - Quality - Low Price - Function – Sustainability The Omtänksam Family is focused on products that can help the elderly to have a more comfortable life while blending with the home environment. A portable assistive Lifting Seat is a real need for many people that require some extra help when standing up or sitting down. The main goal of this project is to design a cheap, safe, simple and light product that can assist people for reducing the effort that is required from them. The product must be comfortable, easy to transport and friendly to interact with. Considering a mass manufacturing perspective is very important to meet the previously formulated requirements. The force that the assistive seat releases must keep performing efficiently during the product service life. A locking system must be provided for avoiding the lifting force to act when the user is sitting, assisting only when it is demanded. This Thesis describes the process of designing a concept for a Portable AssistiveLifting Seat involving different areas such as ergonomics, semantics, manufacturing, mechanical engineering and materials science. The design approach in this case is driven by the Democratic Design Principles combining the human-centered design with a market perspective. The result takes advantage of form and material for avoiding the need for any extra lifting mechanism. This solution is way simpler than any other one existing in the market and it integrates the solution for many different problems in one single piece. This simplification of the problem allows reducing the production cost and helps to meet the intended requirements creating an innovative product for the market.

In this thesis, the seat inventory control problem is studied for airlines from the perspective of a risk-averse decision maker. There are only a few studies in the revenue management literature that consider the risk factor. Most of the studies aim at finding the optimal seat allocations while maximizing the expected revenue and do not take the variability of the revenue and hence a risk measure into account. This study aims to decrease the variance of the revenue by increasing the capacity utilization called load factor in the revenue management literature. In addition to expected revenue, load factor is an important performance measure the state companies work with. For this purpose, two types of models with load factor formulations are proposed. This thesis is the first study in the revenue management literature for the airline industry that uses the load factor formulations in the mathematical models. It is an advantage to work with load factor formulations since the models with load factor formulations are much easier to formulate and solve as compared to other risk sensitive models in the literature. The results of the proposed models are evaluated by using simulation for a sample network under different scenarios. The models we propose allow us to control the variability of revenue by changing the used capacity of the aircraft. This is at the expense of a decrease in the revenue under some scenarios. The models we propose perform satisfactorily under all scenarios and they are strongly recommended to be used especially for the small-scale airline companies and state companies and for scheduling new flights even in large scale, well established airline companies.

Thèse doctorat : Génie Mécanique. Biomécanique : Villeurbanne, INSA : 2004. / Thèse rédigée en anglais sauf le chapitre VIII. Titre provenant de l'écran-titre. Bibliogr. p. 247-254.

Due to the competitive nature of airline industry and the desire to minimise aircraft weight, there is a continual drive to develop lightweight, reliable and more comfortable seating solutions, in particular, a new generation slim economy seat. The key design challenge is to maximise the “living space” for the passenger, with strict adherence to the ‘Crash Safety Regulations’. Cranfield University is addressing the needs of airliners, seat manufactures and safety regulating bodies by designing a completely novel seat structure coined as “Sleep Seat”. A generous angle of recline (40 degree), movement of “Seat Pan” along the gradient, fixed outer shell of the backrest, and a unique single “Forward Beam” design distinguishes “Sleep Seat” form current generation seats. It is an ultra-lightweight design weighing 8kg (typical seat weight is 11kg). It has to sustain the static (CS 25.561) and dynamic (CS25.562) “Emergency landing” loads as specified by “Certification Specifications (CS). Apart from maintaining structural integrity; a seat-structure must not deform, which would impede evacuation, should absorb energy so that the loads transferred to Occupants are within human tolerance limits and should always maintain survivable space around the Occupant. All these parameters, which increase a life-expectancy in a ‘survivable’ crash, can be estimated using either experimental testing or virtual simulation tools such as “Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Design of the “Sleep Seat” is still in its conceptual phase and therefore experimental testing for all the design iterations involved is unrealistic, given a measure of the costs and timescales involved. Therefore focus of research is to develop practical and robust FE methodologies to assess static and dynamic performances of a seat-structure so as to compare different design concepts based on their strength, seat interface loads (a limit defined by strength of aircraft-floor), maximum deformations and cross-sectional forces ... [cont.].