The purpose of this thesis is to investigate implementation strategies of SwedishManufacturing Companies when establishing in People’s Republic of China, with the objective to determine what strategy that is the most commonly adapted. Strategy is an important approach, which companies apply when deciding what direction a company should take, in terms of financial, structural and operational. This study takes a deeper look into the different strategy approaches related to business expansions and establishment in PRC. By evaluating the intentions of a business expansion in People’s Republic of China, the different strategy approaches are influenced by the choice of strategy.The background is based on previous research and existing theories related to strategy. The theoretical framework of the thesis has its foundation in Porter’s theory of competitive strategy. It has been reshaped by Shi & Gregory (1998), Bartlett and Ghoshol (1998), Miltenberg (2005) and Luthans and Doh (2008). To strengthen the matrixes by Luthan and Doh and Miltenberg to Porter’s theory, a model has been developed and explained to connect the different frameworks to the primary data. In order to fulfill the purpose of this study a cross-sectional design is used. A deductive research approach is followed, and applying questionnaires in order to collect the empirical data necessary to answer the research questions uses a quantitative method. The questionnaires were distributed to a selected sample consisting of 39 Swedish Manufacturing companies that are established in PRC, consisting of a population of 99 Swedish Manufacturing companies in People’s Republic of China. The overall results showed a very scattered placement of the companies within the strategy matrix. Nevertheless, the result indicated that the majority of Swedish Manufacturing companies establishing in the People’s Republic of China choose a Transnational Strategy in a global context. Note that the results should only be used as supportive data and not as a valid source of final information.

The purpose of this paper is to present a sample of how Swedish manufacturing companies deal with equipment downtime cost, and further how they analyze its reduction. The study was performed by conducting a web-based survey within Swedish firms that have at least 200 employees. The main results obtained from the investigation show that the estimated downtime cost constitute about 23.9 % from the total manufacturing cost ratio, and 13.3 % from planned production time. Additionally, the hourly cost of downtime, whether planned or unplanned, is relatively high. However, there is a shortage of systematic models that capable to trace the individual cost imposed by downtime events. This lack was shown apparently whilst 83 % of surveyed companies they do not have any complete model adapted for quantifying their downtime costs. Moreover, only few companies develop their cost accounting methods such as, activity-based costing (ABC) and resource consumption accounting (RCA) to assimilate and reveal the real costs that associated with planned and unplanned stoppages. Still, the general pattern of downtime cost calculation allocated to direct labor and lost capacity cost. On the other hand, the attempts of decreasing downtime events and thus costs were based on schedule maintenance tactics that supported by overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) tool, as an indicator for affirming improvements. Nonetheless, the analysis indicates the need for optimized maintenance tactics by incorporating reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) and total productive maintenance (TPM) into companies’ maintenance systems. The maintenance role of reducing downtime impacts not highly recognized. Furthermore, the same analysis shows the requirement for better results of performance measurement systems is by implementing total equipment effectiveness performance tool (TEEP). The advantage of such tool is to provide the impact index of planned stoppages in equipment utilization factor. Finally, the lack of fully integrated models for assessing the downtime costs and frameworks for distinguishing the difference between planned and unplanned stoppages are the main reasons behind the continuation of cost in ascending form. Due to that, the improvements will emphasize on areas with less cost saving opportunities. As a result, this will affect the production efficiency and effectiveness which in return has its influence on costs and thereby profits margin.