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Function as a Service is a new addition to cloud services that allow a user to execute code in form of a function, in the cloud. All underlying complexity is handled by the cloud provider and the user only pay per use. Cloud services have been growing significantly over the past years and many companies want to take advantages of the benefits of the cloud. The cloud services deliver computing resources as a service over a network connection, often by the Internet. To use the benefit of the cloud, one can not just move an application to the cloud and think that it will solve itself. First of all, an application needs to be optimized to be able to take advantages of the cloud. Therefore, together with Tieto, a microservice architecture have been the main architectural pattern when Function as a Service has been evaluated. A major problem with applications, both application built with a monolithic and microservice architecture, is to handle great amounts of information flows. An application may have scaling issues when an information flow becomes too large. A person using Function as a Service does not have to buy, rent or maintain their own servers. However, Function as a Service has a certain memory and runtime restrictions, so an entire application cannot be applied to a Function as a Service. This thesis examines the possibility of using Function as a Service in different architectural environments and estimating the cost of it. Function as a Service is a new addition to cloud services, so cloud providers are also compared and evaluated in terms of the Function as a Service functionality. Function as a Service has been tested directly on various cloud platforms and even developed and executed locally, encapsulated in containers. The results show that Function as a Service is a good complement to an application architecture. The results also show that Function as a Service is highly flexible and cost-effective, and it is advantageous compared to physical servers and Virtual Machines. Depending on how a function is built, the developer can lower the cost even more by choosing the cloud supplier that fits best for their use. With the flexibility of Function as a Service, applications can handle greater information flow without bottlenecks in the infrastructure and therefore, becomes more efficient and cost-effective.

På grund av ständig förändring av affärsbehov, utmaningar och för att hänga med i marknaden tvingas företagen att förbättra sina processer för att hålla jämna takt med marknadens krav. Många verksamheter certifierade idag enligt ISO-standarden för att säkra kvaliteten och en del för att kunderna kräver det. Denna studie har som syfte att utveckla en teoretisk modell som ska hjälpa företaget systematiskt uppdatera processkartor som är certifierade enligt ISO-standard. En modell grundar på flödesschema och PDCA-cykeln. Resultatet som presenterar i denna studie visar att det finns förbättringsmöjligheter i tillverkningsprocessen.

Availability of and access to water and energy are key ingredients for economic and social development. Predictions show that pressure on already limited water and energy resources is expected to increase in many parts of the world as a result of growing populations, rapid urbanization, increasing pollution and climate change impacts. The water and energy systems are highly interdependent and these interlinks provide important opportunities to improve resource security and prevent inefficient decisions which could exacerbate problems even further. This thesis explores the benefits to be gained from and the drawbacks of ignoring the various interlinks. A review of several existing water-energy integration modeling methodologies shows that the different physical, temporal and spatial characteristics of the water and energy systems present several hurdles in analyzing the two resources simultaneously. This thesis overcomes many of these issues by developing a fully integrated hard-linked water-energy linear optimization model. A case study from Spain is used to demonstrate the applications of the model for simultaneous analysis of water, energy and climate change adaptation strategies. An integrated approach is shown to have several benefits including lower total costs, better resource efficiency and improved robustness for a wide range of variations in several uncertain parameters. / <p>QC 20171106</p>

In this work  high gain antennas are investigated for the 60 GHz frequency. The goal is to produce a high bandwidth point-to-point wireless network that could enable improved and new features in embedded systems used to detect particles in high energy physics. A literature study was performed aiming at simple, high gain, highly polarised antennas. Complex designs were grouped into three different groups: flat antenna design, build-up design and multi-antenna design. The multi-antenna design was found to have the simplest design and manufacturing but also feature larger antenna area. Three different designs were produced and tested, standard patch antenna, long patch antenna and a Vivaldi antenna. Manufacturing of a 4-patch antenna was also tested. All three demonstrated expected properties, the Vivaldi shows the best gain while the long patch antenna is slightly below the standard patch antenna. A forth design implementation was also tested using a 3D-printed lens. A lens can increase gain and allow changing beam direction. A lens was design and tested, the results showed an increased gain but with varying results at angels. Antennas were designed and manufactured using simple etching technique showing that further research can be done using simple and easily accessible techniques. Both antenna and lens show good properties and should be further investigated and validated. / I det här arbetet har antenner med hög förstärkning vid frekvensen 60 GHz undersökts. Målet är att utveckla punkt-till-punkt nätverk med hög bandbredd för detektorer i partikelkolliderare. Idag används trådade nätvärk i detektorn, genom att byta till trådlös dataöverföring kan onödig massa minskas och kvalitet förbättras. En litteraturstudie genomfördes med inriktning mot enkla, starkt förstärkande och kraftigt polariserad antenner. Tre olika typer defineras: platta designer, uppbygda designer och antenngrupper. Antenngrupper var de med enklaste design och tillverkning men också de med störst area relativt de andra. Tre olika antenner tillverkades och testades: patchantenn, lång patchantenn och Vivaldiantenn. Även en 4-patch antenn tillverkades. Produktionen av alla antenner höll hög kvalitet och de testade egenskaperna var förväntade. Vivaldiantennen hade starkast förstärkning av de testade antennerna, den långa patchantennen presterade strax under standard patchantennen. Även tester av en antenngrupp bestående av en patch antenn oc hen antennlins gjordes. Genom att använda en lins kan förstärkningen ökas och riktningen ändras. En lins designades och tillverkades med en 3D-skrivare. Resultat från tester visade på en ökad förstärkning men med varierande resultat vid vinklar. Antenner designades och tillverkades med en enkel etsningsmetod, detta visar att forsatta undersökningar kan utnyttja enkel och lättilgänlig teknik. Goda resultat uppvisades med både antenner och lins. Framtida studier kan utföras för att vidarutveckla och validera konceptet.

Miljöfrågor blir allt viktigare i vårt samhälle och att återvinna har aldrig varit så viktigt som nu. En viktig del av miljöfrågan är återvinning. För att kunna återvinna mer och bättre så investerar kommunerna allt mer för att få hushållen att källsortera mer regelbundet och på rätt sätt.   Målet med projektet har varit att utveckla en källsorteringsstation som ska gynna och underlätta för hushållen vid källsortering. Genom nära kontakt med Halmstad Energi och Miljö och marknadsundersökningar gentemot hushållen har en källsorteringsstation för hemmen tagits fram. ModBin är ett projekt med många potentiella intressenter och ett framtida samarbete med kommuner och återförsäljare runt om i Sverige ligger inte långt bort.  Genom att studera och konversera med experter inom området har vi tagit fram en källsorteringsstation som skiljer sig från nuvarande lösningar genom att ge användaren utefter sina egna behov möjlighet att skapa sin egen station under diskbänken och samtidigt gömma soppåsarnas kanter, som sticker ut runt andra soptunnor.    Vårt koncept illustreras på vår hemsida modbin.se och är i stora drag redo för att säljas både till kund och återförsäljare. Om även ett samarbete med kommuner runt om i Sverige kan knytas så ser ModBin ut att gå en spännande framtid till mötes. / Environmental issues are becoming increasingly important in our society and recycling has never been as important as now. An important part of the environmental issue is recycling. In order to recycle more and better, the counties in Sweden are investing more money to get households to sort their waste property and regularly.   The aim of the project has been to develop a sorting station that will benefit and facilitate households need for recycling. Through close contact with Halmstad Energy and Environment and with market research towards households, a sorting station for the home has been developed.   ModBin is a project with many potential stakeholders and future cooperation’s with counties and retailers around Sweden.   By studying and discussing with experts in the area, we have developed a sorting station that differs from current solutions by giving the user the opportunity to create their own station according to their own needs under their kitchen counter. ModBin hides the edges of your plastic waste bags to give you a more organized sorting station, and the color-coded rings on each bin helps the user sort right.    Our concept is illustrated on our website modbin.se and is almost ready for sale to both customers and the retailers. If we can get a cooperation with more counties around Sweden, ModBin looks forward to meeting an exciting future.

Problem - The challenge investigated in this present study is for a project-based organization to create a well-planned implementation by knowing the current state of the organization and its readiness for a change. This while also taking the time for unexpected events and communicating the issue while also taking their organizational structure into consideration. Purpose - The purpose of this study is to analyze the readiness to change for the case company with focus on three aspects of readiness: information sharing, common views and implementation approach, while also taking into account the distinct features of a PBO-structured organization. The study aims to identify supporting factors for successfully managing an implementation of a new business system at the individual level. Method - This study is a case study based on a single case company: Sweco, which is a Swedish technical consulting firm that is about to change their business system. A literature review was conducted in order to collect previously conducted research within the research area. The primary methods used for data collection in this study have been semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire, the data was mainly analyzed though thematic analysis. Results – The readiness for change for the case company is affected by their organizational structure. The results of the questionnaire show that collaboration within Sweco works relatively well, but there are some aspects that can be improved, such as communication and information sharing. The results of the conducted interviews show that most employees at the case company perceive the change of business system to be good, but they were unsure about why it would be carried through. Guides on how the change would affect the specific individual and knowing where to turn for feedback and information was pointed out as a suggested improvement by the employees. A lot of responsibility of implementing the new system was put on the unit managers. Conclusions - The study strengthens the existing theory regarding change readiness and individual supporting factors for successful change implementation. It confirms some of the strengths and drawbacks for organizations working with projects. The study also concludes how the case-company and other companies in a similar situation can utilize some advantages of being familiar with working in projects.

This dissertation consists of six individual studies with the overall aim to contribute to understanding value creation in interorganizational relationships (IORs), which firms establish to achieve innovation. The six research papers address several specific research questions focusing on different aspects of IORs by using qualitative, quantitative and conceptual methods. The dissertation is divided into two parts. Part I is an introductory chapter to the six research papers. This part briefly introduces the research questions, methods, paper overviews, and provides some generaldiscussions not emphasized in the specific papers. Part II consists of the six research papers, each presenting a unique inquiry, literature framework, and method. In brief, the six papers of this dissertation are:Paper I presents the benefits of working with the same partners in multiple (different) innovative processes.Paper II tests the influence between relationship characteristics (knowledgetransfer, interorganizational trust, and relationship diversity) and networking firms' corporate entrepreneurship.Paper III tests the indirect effects of partner fit on networking firms' corporate entrepreneurship.Paper IV identifies and tests important factors for innovative performance in firm networks.Paper V tests the influence of compensating network board members on network performance.Paper VI theorizes how and why interorganizational trust can cause rigidities, which may be particularly bothersome in some kinds of IORs.Some general conclusions of the six studies are that they demonstrate the relevance of acknowledging social processes in studies of knowledge exchange; they also recognize that while literature suggesting that social aspects such as trust may be powerful in reducing perceived relational risks, research takes a biased path if it does not also properly acknowledge the risks and costs associated with it; and finally indicate that in discussions of trade-offs between flexibility and stability in IORs it may be useful to consider the dimension of exchange flexibility, that is, how flexible the partners are in what they exchange and when they do this. Some specific conclusions are that the studies demonstrate both antecedents to and consequences of corporate entrepreneurship (CE) in an IOR setting: in terms of antecedents, they explain why partner fit has an indirect effect on knowledge transfer and why CE has a direct effect on knowledge transfer, and in terms of consequences, they explain why knowledge transfer positively influences CE. The studies also suggest that when partners try to create conditions where they do not believe they might be exploited, there is a risk that rigidities in resources and routines develop. Further, they also show that design aspects, such as how the network is formed, configured, and governed, as well as compensation of network board members affect network performance. / Godkänd; 2010; 20100326 (sartho); DISPUTATION Ämnesområde: Entreprenörskap/Entrepreneurship Opponent: Professor Jonas Söderlund, BI Norwegian School of Management Ordförande: Docent Joakim Wincent, Luleå tekniska universitet Tid: Fredag den 28 maj 2010, kl 13.00 Plats: A 109, Luleå tekniska universitet

I arbetet undersöks vad som menas med socialtjänstkvalitet och hur socialtjänstkvalitet kan mätas. Socialtjänsten i Vetlanda kommun används som ett exempel genom texten. En litteraturgenomgång görs för att finna vad socialtjänstkvalitet är och mätning av socialtjänstkvalitet diskuteras och problematiseras i ett mätningsteoretiskt resonemang. Även de sätt Vetlanda kommun använder för att försöka mäta socialtjänstkvalitet redovisas. Arbetet kommer inte fram till en entydig definition på socialtjänstkvalitet. Däremot finns det flera tecken på att socialtjänstkvalitet kan ses som ett grundöppet mellanbegrepp.

The manufacturing industry remains a critical force in the quest for global sustainability. An increasing number of companies are modifying their operations in favor of more sustainable practices. It is hugely important that manufacturers, irrespective of the subsector they belong to, or their organizational size, implement practices that reduce or eliminate negative environmental, social and economic impacts generated by their manufacturing operations. Consequently, scholars have called for additional studies concerning sustainable manufacturing practices, not only to address the paucity of related literature, but also to contribute to practitioners’ understanding of how to incorporate sustainability into their operations. However, apart from expanding the knowledge of sustainable manufacturing practices, it is first key to understand the ground set of values, or principles, behind sustainable manufacturing operations. For that reason, the purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the existing body of knowledge regarding sustainable manufacturing principles and practices. The results presented in this thesis are based on three studies: a systematic literature review exploring sustainability principles applicable to manufacturing settings, and two empirical studies addressing sustainable manufacturing practices. In general, it is concluded from the literature that there is a little knowledge about sustainability principles from a manufacturing perspective. In relation to the most common sustainable manufacturing practices, it is concluded that these practices mainly refer to energy and material management, and waste management. Similarly, the study of the adherence of sustainable manufacturing practices to sustainable production principles concluded that the principles concerning energy and materials conservation, and waste management were found to create the highest number of practices. Although most manufacturers still engage in reactive sustainable manufacturing practices driven by regulatory and market pressures, some industrial sectors were found to be more prone to develop proactive sustainable manufacturing strategies than others. Furthermore, SMEs were found to lag behind large organizations regarding adherence to sustainable manufacturing principles.