<p> </p><p>The environmental aspect of transportation has got a lot of attention over the past years. It has its origin in the growing awareness of environmental problems such as the global warming. Today the environmental aspect of transportation is widely discussed and is being recognized as a very important question to deal with for everyone involved. In Europe the transportation industry is responsible for 21 per cent of the total emission. While studies of the subject show that an environmental friendly supply chain is considered a success factor for many companies, there is a lack of interest from them to invest in order to obtain it. The question this dilemma raises is what a company can do in terms of reducing its impact on the environment without making big investments.</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how, from a company perspective, efficient logistics solutions for the distribution of products can reduce transportation costs as well as the environmental impact from a company. To gather data the authors will conduct a qualitative single case study in the form of interviews at a company to create the deep understanding needed to comprehend a company’s distribution system.</p><p>The result of the analysis shows that areas considering fill rate and selection of transportation mode are findings that would increase the efficiency, which would reduce the cost of transportation and the environmental impact. Also benefits from the option to outsource the logistics function regarding the distribution of the product to a TPL have been found.</p><p>The conclusion suggests that for a company to become as efficient as possible, while at the same time reduce their negative impact on the environment they should try to maximize the fill rate, which brings along that as much goods as possible is being distributed with as limited amounts of transportations as possible. Additional important conclusions from the thesis involve the significance of choosing the most suitable mode of transportation, something that will affect a range of different factors where cost and service are found to be the most important.</p><p> </p>

O mercado siderúrgico vive um momento de grande competição e as empresas produtoras necessitam, cada vez mais, atuar internamente sobre seus custos para garantir lucratividade e rentabilidade. A motivação deste trabalho foi a redução de custos de produção de arames de aço para o setor agropecuário, por meio de estudo de viabilidade técnica do emprego de aço ao carbono produzido via aciaria elétrica, em lugar de aço produzido via aciaria a oxigênio – atualmente utilizado em algumas usinas siderúrgicas. As qualidades de aços estudadas são produzidas através de aciaria elétrica, dando origem aos tarugos que são laminados a quente para obtenção do fio-máquina que segue para os processos posteriores de trefilação e galvanização, em que se obtém os arames de aço. As composições químicas propostas neste trabalho devem garantir que as especificações de propriedades mecânicas permaneçam sendo atendidas. Foram realizados levantamento e análise de histórico de dados, análises de composição química, caracterização microestrutural, ensaios de tração e de enrolamento. Fundamentado nos resultados atingidos, mostra-se que a metodologia proposta para avaliação de propriedades mecânicas é válida. O presente estudo aponta também que é viável tecnicamente o emprego de aço ao carbono semelhante ao SAE1045, obtido via aciaria elétrica, na produção de arames de aço galvanizados para o setor agropecuário, mantendo o atendimento a todas as especificações e com possibilidade de redução de custos de produção. / The steel market is experiencing a period of great competition and manufacturing companies need, increasingly, to act internally on their costs to ensure lucrativeness and profitability. The motivation of this work was to reduce the cost of production of steel wires for the agriculture sector, by studying the technical feasibility use of a carbon steel produced by electric arc furnace, replacing the oxygen furnace steel – currently used in some mills. The studied steels are manufactured in an electric arc furnace, giving rise to the billets that are hot rolled to obtain the wire rod to follow the subsequent process of drawing and galvanizing, where the wires of steel are made. The chemical compositions proposed in this paper must guarantee that the mechanical properties described in the technical standards continue be met. Data, chemical composition, microstructure, tensile strength and winding properties were surveyed and analyzed. Based upon the results achieved, it is shown that the proposed method for assessment of the mechanical properties is valid. This study also indicates that it is technically feasible the use of carbon steel similar to SAE1045, obtained by electric arc furnace, to manufacturing galvanized steel wires for the agriculture sector maintaining compliance to all technical standards and with the possibility of reducing costs.

As peças fundidas sob pressão com Zamac Z5 no formato de peças técnicas com galvanoplastia em Cromo, rejeitadas durante o processo são encaminhadas para beneficiamento, como sucata, na empresa fornecedora de Zamac. No entanto, durante o beneficiamento, somente 35% do material enviado retorna para empresa, assim 65% do peso deste material é perdido. A matéria-prima é um dos principais custos da empresa, apresentando assim uma grande oportunidade de economia no processo de fabricação. O objetivo desse trabalho é verificar a viabilidade de fundição das peças técnicas rejeitadas, como matéria-prima para a fabricação de peças de moda. As sucatas foram analisadas quanto a sua composição química, microestrutura e análise térmica. Com esta sucata foram fundidas sob pressão peças de moda usadas em calçados e acessórios, fivelas e enfeites, com estes foram realizadas análises de microestrutura e ensaios de corrosão, propriedades mecânicas e ainda testes de desempenho pertinentes as suas aplicações. As amostras fundidas com 100% de sucata responderam de forma satisfatória a todos os ensaios, em alguns casos de maneira superior às peças de controle fundidas com matéria-prima virgem. Evidenciou-se que a sucata, oriunda de peças técnicas com galvanoplastia em Cromo, pode ser usada como matéria-prima para confecção de peças de moda, fivelas e enfeites, apresentando assim uma redução de 30% no custo de fabricação das mesmas. / In the production of Zamac Z5 metal parts by ppressure casting, which are normally chrome electroplated, some of those end up being rejected and, as a consequence, returned as scrap to the Zamac supplier companies. However, from the supplier after reprocessing, only 35% of the material returns to be used in the manufacturing. So, 65% of this material weight is lost. The raw material is one of the main costs of the company, presenting a great opportunity for savings in the manufacturing process. The objective of this research is to check the viability of feeding the casting process with rejected parts, reusing them as raw material for fashionable accessories manufacturing. The scraps have been analyzed for verification of the chemical composition, microstructure and submmited to thermal analysis. These scraps were used as basis to die casted parts which were used in the manufacturing process of footwear, accessories, buckles and frills. Microstructure, mechanical testing, relevant performance and corrosion tests were carried out according with the parts applications. The samples manufactured with 100% scrap have had satisfactory results to all the tests, in some cases in a superior manner in comparison to controled parts manufactured with Virgin raw material. There are evidences which prove that the scraps, when coming from technical parts with chrome electroplating, can be used as raw material for production of parts of sets, buckles and frills, showing a 30% reduction in the costs of their manufacturing .

The hippocratic principle "primum non nocere" (above all do no harm) has always been and still is the strong foundation of medical conduct. For a long time healthcare professionals created the image of infallibility of medicine. Even within the "closed" hierarchies mistakes and malpractice were never openly discussed. This paper first investigates reasons for medical mistakes and introduces the legislation when malpractice occurs. Secondly ethical questions concerning medical mistakes are discussed through the lens of Beauchamp and Childress' principles of biomedical ethics (nonmaleficence, beneficence, respect for autonomy, justice). Thirdly, an ethically defensible strategy to deal with failure and malpractice is proposed. This proposal stresses how to improve the patient-physician communication by involving patients' experiences in order to increase patient safety and lower costs in the healthcare system. In regard to tackling medical harm there is the strong recommendation to follow four directives: open disclosure and explanation, adequate restorative and/or compensatory actions, fair and square apologies and information about strategies to avoid recurrence.

<p>Assignment:</p><p>The mission of the assignment is to map the four return flows with respect to returning volume, weight, frequency, pick up- and delivery points. Today Volvo CE has a lack of information that concerns their own Reverse logistic processes. It is hard for Volvo CE to see where changes need to be done, due to limited reliable sources.</p><p>Purpose:</p><p>The purpose with the study is to make the return flows easier, less expansive and more manageable for both Volvo and their dealers. Further, environmental issues have to be considered in order to find improvements of the returning routines. The analysis is done to bring forth a proposal that will contribute to less unnecessary transports and that also will make it possible to reduce cost.</p><p>Result:</p><p>A couple of improvement areas have been discovered, some of them are radical while others are incremental. The one thing they have in common is to make sure that the return flows are being handled and seen as one common flow rather then separately treated. Among the improvements these are some recommendations to Volvo CE:</p><p>- Appoint special delivery point for warranty returns and make sure that the warranty routines are followed so that unnecessary transports can be reduced. - Store less cores for remanufacturing at the Core Hub. Cores that are not needed are not necessary to transport to the Core Hub. - Make better cost registrations and cost follow ups and evaluate customer satisfaction to be able to find improvement areas in the future.</p>

<p>Background: outsourcing is one of the most obvious and continuous trends that has been able to study during the past ten years and also has had a strong development in the industry. What consequences will follow from an extended outsourcing? </p><p>Purpose: the study’s overall purpose is to investigate what possibilities and risks that can be connected to an outsourcing decision and how the order of the service will handle the risks. The study will also investigate what management philosophy that will be used and regulate the outsourcing relation and how the company’s strategy will affect the decision and how the process of outsourcing will look like. </p><p>Research Method: we have conducted 17 personal interviews with representatives of companies that order outsourcing solutions and with company’s that deliver the services. </p><p>Conclusions: The study shows that outsourcing is an extensive subject field that have different signification depending of the company’s situation. We have found that outsourcing not only is a way to reach short-term cost reduction, the ambition and the long term strategy is to form a partnership that generate lower cost in the future. The company should only focus on the activities that create value and in the long term consider if this only include the company’s mission.</p>

Background: outsourcing is one of the most obvious and continuous trends that has been able to study during the past ten years and also has had a strong development in the industry. What consequences will follow from an extended outsourcing? Purpose: the study’s overall purpose is to investigate what possibilities and risks that can be connected to an outsourcing decision and how the order of the service will handle the risks. The study will also investigate what management philosophy that will be used and regulate the outsourcing relation and how the company’s strategy will affect the decision and how the process of outsourcing will look like. Research Method: we have conducted 17 personal interviews with representatives of companies that order outsourcing solutions and with company’s that deliver the services. Conclusions: The study shows that outsourcing is an extensive subject field that have different signification depending of the company’s situation. We have found that outsourcing not only is a way to reach short-term cost reduction, the ambition and the long term strategy is to form a partnership that generate lower cost in the future. The company should only focus on the activities that create value and in the long term consider if this only include the company’s mission.

Problem- Sweden is for the moment one of the countries in the world that is most dependent on the automotive industry. Significant companies within this industry at a global level move parts of, or entire operations abroad which increase the competition for Swedish companies. This fact conveys problem for the Swedish SMEs suppliers, as if a supplier only focus on the national market will not match the requirements from the OEMs such as integrated product development and delivery of complete systems on a JIT- basis. Considering these fact, SME suppliers in Sweden need to look for new opportunities on new markets, and create an understanding for how to act accordingly to the new market’s particular business conditions. Purpose- The main purpose of this thesis is to examine business conditions and prerequisites that applies for the buyers and the suppliers in the supply chain in the Mexican auto-motive industry, and further to develop an understanding of the logic of the interaction and integration between them. Derived from the obtained knowledge, a sub-purpose of this thesis is to present recommendations for how Swedish suppliers should enter and act accordingly on the new market. Method- In this thesis we have applied a case study method. We have conducted semi-structured interviews with four of the largest OEMs and five suppliers, all of whom have production in Mexico. We have in addition to the interviews with OEMs and suppliers supported the collected information with one interview with a representative of a trade association within the Mexican automotive industry and one representative from a governmental institution. Results- Our analysis indicates that the conditions for Swedish automotive suppliers to enter the Mexican market are favorable. Factors such as Free Trade Agreements, the positive attitude towards Foreign Direct Investments and skilled but low labor costs all imply for opportunities for Swedish suppliers. Secondly, our analysis indicates that the OEMs are today doing supply base rationalizations. We consider that this is based on the fact that the OEMs are changing their ordering basis from purchasing single parts to complete systems in order to reduce costs and increase the efficiency. Thirdly, our analysis indicates that it is the buyer, no matter on what level in the supply chain it is acting, who forms the strategy of its suppliers. If the buyer has a lean approach, its suppliers are forced to use the same thinking and apply it to their suppliers in order to meet the pressures on costs reductions, product development and JIT delivery. This we entitle as a continues correlation, which permeate in the complete supply chain.

The environmental aspect of transportation has got a lot of attention over the past years. It has its origin in the growing awareness of environmental problems such as the global warming. Today the environmental aspect of transportation is widely discussed and is being recognized as a very important question to deal with for everyone involved. In Europe the transportation industry is responsible for 21 per cent of the total emission. While studies of the subject show that an environmental friendly supply chain is considered a success factor for many companies, there is a lack of interest from them to invest in order to obtain it. The question this dilemma raises is what a company can do in terms of reducing its impact on the environment without making big investments. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how, from a company perspective, efficient logistics solutions for the distribution of products can reduce transportation costs as well as the environmental impact from a company. To gather data the authors will conduct a qualitative single case study in the form of interviews at a company to create the deep understanding needed to comprehend a company’s distribution system. The result of the analysis shows that areas considering fill rate and selection of transportation mode are findings that would increase the efficiency, which would reduce the cost of transportation and the environmental impact. Also benefits from the option to outsource the logistics function regarding the distribution of the product to a TPL have been found. The conclusion suggests that for a company to become as efficient as possible, while at the same time reduce their negative impact on the environment they should try to maximize the fill rate, which brings along that as much goods as possible is being distributed with as limited amounts of transportations as possible. Additional important conclusions from the thesis involve the significance of choosing the most suitable mode of transportation, something that will affect a range of different factors where cost and service are found to be the most important.

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