<p>This thesis is a description of the sales process for Toolox, the newest of four products produced by SSAB Oxelösund. Toolox is a tool steel, sold using eleven external dealers throughout Europe. Each dealer carries a wide range of steel grades for different uses. To increase sales volumes SSAB want to have the right support for their dealers. In this thesis the organizations and individuals who influence in the buying decision are identified as well as their buying behavior and the information that is needed in the sales situations. The requirements on the tool steel derive not only from the toolmaker itself but also from end users of a product further down the product chain. The study indicates that communication of benefits along the chain difficult because is not well integrated. The decision of what steel to buy is often made by the tool designer and these are influenced by a number of other individuals. It is also found that risk aversion and conservatism are barriers for product introductions.</p>

This thesis is a description of the sales process for Toolox, the newest of four products produced by SSAB Oxelösund. Toolox is a tool steel, sold using eleven external dealers throughout Europe. Each dealer carries a wide range of steel grades for different uses. To increase sales volumes SSAB want to have the right support for their dealers. In this thesis the organizations and individuals who influence in the buying decision are identified as well as their buying behavior and the information that is needed in the sales situations. The requirements on the tool steel derive not only from the toolmaker itself but also from end users of a product further down the product chain. The study indicates that communication of benefits along the chain difficult because is not well integrated. The decision of what steel to buy is often made by the tool designer and these are influenced by a number of other individuals. It is also found that risk aversion and conservatism are barriers for product introductions.

Stålindustrin förser såväl människor som samhället med många nödvändiga byggstenar. I Sverige finns tolv ståltillverkande anläggningar och hela 80 % av stålet exporteras. Som alla andra tillverkande industrier har den flera miljöaspekter att ta hänsyn till, men stålets nytta väger tungt och därför är det av stor vikt att genom forskningsprojektet Stålkretsloppet nå hållbar utveckling. Miljöskyddslagen, miljöbalken och ett ökande miljöengagemang har lett till arbete med miljöfrågor. Syftet med den här studien var att undersöka hur allmänhetens riskperception, attityd och oro gentemot stålindustrin ser ut. Skiljer sig kunskapen och intresset beroende på olika bakgrundsvariabler så som ålder, kön, sysselsättning, om kommunen har stålindustri eller inte, etc. Enkäten skickades till 1000 personer fördelade över fyra kommuner; två med stålverk, Luleå och Smedjebacken kommun, och två utan, Kalmar och Tingsryds kommun. Enkätundersökningens svarsfrekvens hamnade slutligen på omkring 43 %. Resultaten visade att de största skillnader finns mellan kommunerna. Respondenter med fram för allt arbetsrelaterad koppling till stålindustri är de som instämmer mest i de olika påståendena. Giftiga ämnen är det som oroar mest. Slutsatser som drogs var att skillnader mellan kommunerna med stålverk och kommunerna utan stålverk är tydligast. Kunskapen om stålindustrin är tämligen liten och allmänheten önskar mer information, inte minst om miljöarbetet. / The steel industry and its production are fundamental to our society and the modern way of life. There are twelve steel manufacturing facilities in Sweden, exporting as much as 80 % of the produced steel. Like all other manufacturing industries it is giving rise to environmental aspects, but steel’s advantage weighs heavily and it is therefore of great importance through the research programme the Steel Eco-Cycle (Stålkretsloppet) to achieve sustainable development. The purpose of this study was to examine what the general public’s risk perception, attitude and worry towards steel industry looks like. Are there any variations in knowledge and interest based on different background variables such as age, gender, employment, if the municipality has manufacturing or not, etc. The survey was sent to 1000 people spread in four municipalities, two having steel industry and two not having. The answering rate of the survey finally ended at 43 %. The results showed that the biggest differences are to find between the different municipalities. Respondents with a work related connection to the steel industry seems to agree more on the different allegations. The respondents are mainly worried about toxic substances. The most striking conclusion was that the biggest differences lay between the municipalities with steel industry and the ones without it. The knowledge about the industry is however relatively small and the respondents are therefore asking for more information, not least about the work with environmental aspects.

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Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is the major tool used to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the operation management for the Steel Industry. Prior to implementing the MES, correctly estimating the MES Software Project Size is an important first stage and is a complex exercise. Several methods have been proposed to help in evaluating MES Software Project Size before implementation, such as function point analysis and fast function point analysis approaches. Among them, the fast function point analysis is a prominent approach. However, the detailed guideline for the use of it is lacking. Therefore, this study presents a methodology which provides these guidelines and uses it to estimate the MES Software Project Size in the Steel Industry. The research methodology is articulated using the design science research methodology. A usability evaluation is performed using three steel industry cases to demonstrate its applicability. With this enhanced approach, IT professionals or adopting organizations can more easily and systematically estimate the MES software project size.

Steel industry is a highly polluted industry and one of the most important stationary sources in Kaohsiung City. The steel manufacturing process could emit a huge amount of particles, such as the sintering process, the blast furnace operation, and the raw material handling process. Suspended particles emitted from steel industry could deteriorate ambient air quality and cause adverse effects on human health. In order to understand the impact of steel industry on ambient air quality in Siaogang District and to identify potential pollution sources, this study selected a integrated steel manufacturing plant located at Siaogang District to conduct a sampling protocol of suspended particulate matter (PM) at ambient sites (A1~A5) and sensitive sites (S1~S5) from July 2011 to March 2012. The size distribution of suspended particles in four seasons was measured with PM10 high-volume samplers, dichotomous samplers, and MOUDI for 3 days (24 hours for single sampling), and dustfall samplers for one month, to investigate the spatial distribution and temporal variation of PM concentration. After sampling, the physicochemical properties of PM, including mass concentration, particle size distribution, dustfall concentration, water-soluble ionic species, metallic elements, and carbonaceous contents, were further analyzed. Field measurement of ambient PM showed that the averaged ambient PM10 concentration (53.54 - 203.56 £gg/m3) were higher than sensitive sites (55.06 - 140.07 £gg/m3) and the averaged ambient PM2.5 concentration of ambient (23.10 - 120.21£gg/m3) were higher than sensitive sites (12.52 - 65.62 £gg/m3). No matter ambient or sensitive sites, it showed a tendency of lower concentration in summer, indicating that concentration variation of PM10 and PM2.5 were highly affected by meteorological factors (such as wind direction, wind speed, and relative humidity) in Siaogang District. Furthermore, a t-test result showed that ambient and sensitive sites have similar pollution sources since the p-values were in significantly different. Chemical analysis of PM results showed that the most abundant water-soluble ionic species of PM at the ambient and sensitive sites were secondary inorganic aerosols (SO42-, NO3-, and NH4+) and [NO3-]/[SO42-] showed that ionic species were mainly emitted from stationary sources. Fe, Al, K and Ca were the major metallic elements of this study, and the major pollution sources contain industries, traffics, and road dusts. Additionally, the raw material handling process was the major pollution source of PM. Correlation analysis of OC and EC showed that PM at ambient and sensitive sites were originated from primary sources, such as vehicles, industries, road dusts, and human activities. Results obtained from PCA and CMB receptor modeling showed that both PM2.5 and PM10 highly correlated with wind direction in different season and the major pollution sources were industry pollution (including petroleum refineries, power plants, waste incinerators, consistent operating steel mills and electric arc furnace steel mills, etc.), followed by local traffics and derivative. Furthermore, marine aerosols were one of the important pollution sources at sensitive sites (S1, S4, and S5) where close to the ocean.

The objective of this study was to investigate the exposure assessment and health risk of particulate matter emitted from steel industry for high-risk inhabitants living in metro Kaohsiung. A steel plant and an electric arc plant were selected for conducting the sampling of particulate matter (PM). The physical and chemical properties of PM sampled at the working place and at the fence of selected plants were also analyzed to establish the fingerprints of PM in the steel industry. In order to accomplish this study, both personal sampling and environmental sampling were conducted in steel plants. Personal exposure sampling was undertaken at working places, while the conduction of environmental sampling might affected by various uncertain environmental factors (such as meteorological condition and other emission sources), but it could characterize the overall environmental situation and help exposure assessment. Moreover, The exposure of employers (including manufacturing workers and supporting staffs) could be further assessed based on the concentration and duration of PM exposure. Specific metal concentration was obtained from working environment, searching for exposure parameter (such as exposure frequency, exposure duration, body weight, average time, and etc.) and toxicity database (e.g. cancer slope factor and reference dose). The data could be used for assessing both cancer risk and non-cancer risk of specific heavy metal. Sampling data obtained from working places showed that the highest PM concentration were observed during the electric arc process, especially the charging and discharging procedures. The concentration of PM1.0, PM10, and TSP at the working places were 53.3~195.6 £gg/m3 ,365.7~550.0 £gg/m3, and 1085.5~2755.0 £gg/m3, respectively. Measured at the outdoor environments of working places, the highest PM10 and TSP concentration, ranging from 365.7~550.0 £gg/m3 and 1085.5 ~2755.0 £gg/m3, were observed at the sinter plants of a steel manufacturer. Sampling data obtained at the fence of steel plants (a steel plant and electric arc plant) indicated that the concentration of PM10 and TSP exceeded the ambient air quality standards. Modification of manufacturing process and improvement of PM collection system are highly required to reduce the concentration level as well as the emission of PM. Results of fingerprint of PM (PM2.5, PM2.5-10, TSP) obtained from working places showed that iron, calcium, sulfate, nitrate, calcium ion, and elemental carbon were the major chemical content of PM at the melting plant, the sinter plant, and the storage field. While, iron, calcium, sulfate, nitrate, calcium ion, and organic carbon were the major chemical content of PM at electric arc plant. Results of personal exposure concentration and exposure dose of PM showed that the highest exposure level of both manufacturing workers and supporting staffs were observed at the storage field, while the lowest exposure level was found at the sinter plant. Therefore, enforcement of wearing maskers and/or shelters at the storage field is also highly recommended to prevent manufacturing workers from the exposure of high-level PM at working places. Moreover, the cancer risk of manufacturing workers exposured to hexavalent chromium (Cr6+) at the melting plant, the sinter plant, the storage field, and the electric arc plant exceeded acceptable cancer risk standard (10-5~10-6), while the hazard index of manganese (Mn) was much higher than other metals.Meanwhile, exposuring to Cr6+, Ni, and Mn at the electric arc plant also exceeded acceptable standards (Cr6+ and Ni¡G10-5~10-6 , Mn¡G1). Several control strategies, including pollution reduction measures such as the usage of clean fuel, process modification, the improvement of collection system, the enhancement of manufacture management, the conduction of environmental monitoring and exposure assessment, floor cleanup and truck entrance management, are recommended to improve the contamination of PM at working places and surrounding environments for metallurgic industries. Moreover, enforcement of wearing maskers and/or shelters at high-risk environments is also highly recommended to prevent manufacturing workers from the exposure of high-level PM at working places. Keywords: steel industry, particulate matter sampling, physical and chemical characteristics, exposure assessment, health risk

Abstract The purpose of the thesis is to explore two main subjects. First of all by interviewing managers and researchers who are highly involved in industrial e-Marketplaces to understand the developing stage of e-Marketplace in Taiwan domestic Steel and Automobile industry. Then, this thesis will compare the interviewing results with related literatures and researching papers in order to analyze and explain the differences and reasons between them. Second, this thesis also tries to predict the future expanding trends of the domestic Steel and Automobile industrial e-Marketplaces and discusses the impacts on representative companies¡¦ strategies by e-Marketplaces and how the representative companies reach their strategic goals through using e-Marketplaces. The main conclusions of this thesis include the nine lists below. 1. The e-Marketplace can¡¦t replace all established trading process, trading habits and supply relations in the short run. 2. The e-Marketplace can let buyers touch more sellers, increase information transparency and get the commodities with lower price by grouping auctions. 3. Buyers will transfer their transactions to on-line e-Marketplace step by step. 4. E-Marketplace can let sellers touch more customers, decrease inventory cost and grasp the market reactions and news. 5. E-Marketplace is sellers¡¦ new channel, but most of sellers still sell their products through established websites and channels. 6. The functions of e-Marketplaces always emphasize on competitive bidding and auctioning instead of buyer-supplier relations. 7. When an industry fragmentation is lower, that the industrial e-Marketplace led by leading company will be finer; when an industry fragmentation is higher, that the industrial e-Marketplace governed by justice third party will be better. 8. The main revenue of the e-Marketplace comes from transaction fees, subscription fees, added service fees and license fees. 9. The key success factors of the e-Marketplace operating are to gather many buyers and sellers, the most comfortable business services, deeply domain knowledge, good trading relations and good uses of customer data.

Industrial Networks and Foreign Direct Investment: The Study of Taiwan¡¦s Steel Industry Abstract Facing the changing environment, many Taiwan businesses try to achieve economy of scale and develop their markets by taking foreign direct investment (FDI), especially under poor macroeconomic conditions in Taiwan and the driving force of cheap costs from developing countries. Conventionally, it is considered that big firms take FDI to bring their specific advantages into foreign markets. From the view of industrial networks, FDI is a method for firms to set up a linkage with foreign networks. They need not establish foreign networks by themselves. They can establish and utilize foreign networks through FDI. The steel industry is capital and technology intensive, and with high entry barriers in nature. The industrial networks are very important to a steel firm because it is very difficult to attain all the production resources. The key success factor is the competence to grasp the production resources so as to obtain cost advantages and synergy. In the past decade, facing lack of labor, increasing land cost, and market pull, the down-stream firms took FDI dramatically. The middle- and up-stream firms are also eager to do so. Because of the huge investment scale and other limitations, it is not easy for upstream firms to take FDI. Even China Steel Corporation (CSC) has overcome a lot of obstacles in the past decade and finally acquired ORNA Steel in Malaysia to establish a bridgehead in Southeastern Asia. From the view of industrial networks, this study tries, first, to investigate the network change of the firms of Taiwan¡¦s steel industry after taking FDI, and next examine the change of competitiveness and ways of attaining profit. We construct a model which divides them into four types of firms and their ways of attaining profits. They are: flagship type industry/profit sharing, clan type industry/profit shifting, lone knight type industry/profit capturing, stragglers type industry/profit disappearing. Then, we use this model to examine cases of Taiwan¡¦s up, middle, and down stream steel industry in a dynamic way. Finally, we propose some recommendations for the government and steel industry to improve the competitiveness of the steel industry.

In recent years, there are an increasing number of Taiwan-based enterprises building up their factories in Mainland China, possibly due to the following reasons: low manufacture cost, plentiful human resource, inexpensive land and large market. Compared to other inexpensive (or even cheapter) countries, In addition, China remains entrepreneurs¡¦ favorite destination when considering moving out factories because of the short geographic distance as well as the culture similarity. However, recent macroeconomic control, the request of labor contract and the new tax law enforced by China government dramatically increase the cost of labor, causing more risk in investment. Take stainless steel industry as an example. There is a need to exercise good competitive strategies, with the aid of information systems, so as to stay competitive in the global economy. This research, through case studies, identifies several strategies that are essential to the profitable establishment of factories in mainland China and a number of factors for successfully deploying information systems.