How companies choose to design their supply chain is important for their competitiveness. Supplier relationships are becoming increasingly important to maintain a market position. A key factor for success is to deliver material in the right quantity, at the right time and to the right place. Other factors that play an important role are quality standards, leadership and above all, customer first. The customer should be placed at the top of the value chain, and be treated with respect. Markets are driven by short lead time and companies cannot rely on brand loyalty. The purpose of this study is to develop a general model for analysis and improvement of the supply chain for manufacturing companies, with focus on components from external suppliers. The model is created based on a literature review and to examine this, the model was tested at Företaget. The empirical data is mainly conducted by interviews, complemented by one observation. The analysis model consists of seven areas based on Supply Chain Management, Logistics and Lean. A key factor to analyze these seven areas is to map the current situation. The results have been filtered through the analysis model and have led to suggestions for improvement. These suggestions are only recommendations and the companies choose what to take further into action. Företaget is one of Sweden’s leading window manufacturers with two strong brands, Produkt 1 and Produkt 2. Most of the production process is carried out in Edsbyn and the size of the factory is as big as ten football pitches at 65,000 squares meters. Wooden-aluminum windows are an increasing trend and stands for two thirds of the sales. The study is focusing on one selected component which is the flow for aluminum profiles. The conclusion shows that supply chain management, logistics and Lean play an important role while building an efficient supply chain. Relationship, communication and information sharing with suppliers are of great importance and needs to be constant developed and improved. Leadership is a key element to get all the areas to work and it is the leaders that characterize the culture of the company. The study has resulted in a number of improvement suggestions for Företaget. One suggestion for improvement is to develop a routine for documentation when a deviation occurs in the final assembly. This will enable the follow-up and help to find the main cause for appearance.

The ageing of the Swedish population entails an increase of public and pension expenditure. A solution to keep the compensation level constant is to make individuals retire later from the labor force. In order to understand what actions need to be implemented, there is a need of more knowledge about the characteristics of individuals who chose to remain in the labor force after the normal age of retirement. This essay investigates how senior workers’ that are above the normal retirement age responds to an increase of non-labor income and how it affects labor supply. The results show that around 66 % of individuals will continue to work to the same extent, around 15 % will choose to reduce hours of work, and near 19 % will chose to retire. Also the results show that a person that will not change anything in hours of work after an increase in non-labor income will most likely be a male that is self-employed, who really likes his job and has a postgraduate degree. One conclusion in this essay is that to only focus on compensation levels in different social insurance systems to increase senior workers’ labor force participation will not be as effective as if also focus would be on social norms and cultural beliefs to increase engagement towards work.

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The research in this thesis has undertaken a technical, economic and environmental appraisal of three gas-fired, small-scale Combined Heat-and-Power (CHP) systems together with a study of the UK's electricity supply industry (ESI) and CHP market. The purpose of each system is to attempt to utilise more of the heat and/or electricity output from the CHP unit. Within the non-technical research area, three scenarios for the evolution of the ESI have been developed to help establish how changes to forces acting within the industry might affect the development of the UK CHP market. New applications of several strategic management analysis tools were used to develop and select the following scenarios: (i) New and reduced CO₂ limits set by the Climate Control Conference + stricter environmental legislation; (ii) Changes to the Pool mechanism for pricing electricity; (iii) Business as usual. It was concluded that in isolation scenarios 1 and 3 would aid the expansion of the CHP market, whereas scenario 2 is likely to hinder it. The selection of the scenarios and the implications for the ESI and CHP market are supported by the opinions of 'industry specialists', which were solicited in a survey specifically undertaken for this study. The investigation into the first of the three technical systems involves the substitution of two separate CHP units in place of a single larger unit. The intention is to operate the larger of the two CHP units at maximum output to satisfy the base heat-load and to use the second unit for meeting peak loads. The results for five test-cases were produced via a newly-developed predictive model, and indicated that it is possible, for one of the case studies considered, to achieve shorter pay-back periods when using the double-unit - with a higher availability of 95% - rather than the single-unit system. In the other two cases (where CHP is a viable economic option), longer pay-back periods ensue by the installation of the two unit rather than the single-unit system. The operation of the two-unit system can potentially increase energy-utilisation from the CHP units at one of the other sites. Furthermore, the proposed system can offer, in some cases, significant secondary benefits, which could encourage a potential investor in the technology. These benefits include the increased heat-and-electricity output, increased availability from the system, back-up from the secondary unit if one unit fails. The second system determines the viability of an integrated small-scale CHP and TES system. Another predictive model was developed and tested on five test-cases. It was found that there is insufficient potential for the system and that the potential is limited by the following factors: (i) CHP-sizing methodology, (ii) the relatively high capital cost for TES hardware and installation, (iii) the relatively low economic value attributed to heat and (iv) the availability of low-priced off-peak electricity. An industrial case study provided a rare and useful operational example of the proposed system and the findings indicated that the heat-store could reduce the energy and monetary expenditures by up to 2.8% of the site's annual gas usage, displacing approximately 30 tones Of CO₂ emissions each year. However, because of the high financial cost of the TES components and installation, the pay-back period produced would rarely be acceptable to a prospective investor, except in exceptional circumstances. Finally, the viability of an integrated CHP/absorption chiller system was investigated. The effectiveness of these types of systems are dependent on several factors, namely: the source-water temperature from the hot-engine CHP unit - for a high COP - and the cooling load at the site, the cooling demand at the site and the temperature of the cooling water. A first-stage predictive model was developed to determine the initial appropriateness of the installation of the integrated system at a local hospital for the first time. The indications were that the cooling demand was too low and the surplus waste-heat from the CHP unit insufficient to make the system viable at the site. A second working-system was studied with a full CO₂ investigation undertaken. The intention was to compare the total CO₂ emissions for the integrated CHP and absorption chiller system with those for a similarly sized vapour-compression system. The results indicate that the installed system will produce 0.30kg CO₂/kWhcoolth compared with 0.27 kg and 0.32kg for two different types of vapour compression systems at design conditions. If the CHP heat output is increased - to supply all of the heat required by the absorption chiller - then the proposed system can displace up to 0.06 kg CO₂ per kWhcoolth at design conditions and 0.10 kg CO₂ per kWh of cooling delivered for lower cooling water temperatures. This represents a reduction of 22% and 40% respectively, when compared with the vapour-compressions system.

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The sulfur supply situation in the international market is expected to change considerably in the future. Previously, sulfur supply came from mineral deposits and depended on the availability of reserves and conditions in the industry. These mineable deposits have deteriorated as production costs increased, as result of exploiting lower-quality reserves, increases in energy consumption, and environment costs. In addition, less expensive, non-discretionary, abatement sulfur has emerged as a result of the enforcement of public environmental regulations, product market specifications, and transportation technologies which require the removal of sulfur from sulfur-bearing products. These developments are seen as molding the conditions in the international sulfur market of the future. The market is expected to be characterized by: (1) a potential for an abundant supply of low-cost market-insensitive sulfur; (2) the declining role of those resources which have been supplying relatively high-cost discretionary sulfur; and (3) a broader supply base in terms of both source type and geographical distribution. This study provides a future perspective of the non-communist international sulfur market in view of the emerging non-discretionary sulfur sources and the declining role of conventional sulfur sources. The international sulfur market is divided into ten regional markets, defined primarily by geographic location, production and consumption concentration. Supply is divided into: non-discretionary and discretionary sulfur. Supply and demand are projected primarily econometrically, and surplus or deficit regions are identified. Two types of projection methods are used: regression based and non-regression based. The choice of the method used for a region is based on: (1) the availability of historical data, and (2) how closely the past and future economics of a region are expected to be related. The conclusions of this study are: (1) on world basis, sulfur is expected to be in continued excess; (2) virtually all sulfur is expected to come from non-discretionary sources; (3) some regions are expected to have a supply deficit, most will have supply surpluses; (4) the co-existence of deficit and surplus regions will result in inter-regional or international trade. However, the resulting trade pattern will be quite different from the present pattern; (5) the basis for price determination and the relative levels are expected to change; and (6) discretionary sulfur will be permanently forced out of the market.

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