Projektet har gått ut på att göra ett flexibelt bord som ska kunna gå att förändra mellan högt och lågt och mellan olika storlekar på bordsskivan. Detta som en funktionell aspekt av föränderlighet men jag ville även införliva en emotionell föränderlighet. Jag vill att användaren, på ett handgripligt sätt, ska kunna uttrycka sig själv i bordet. Min intention är att man, genom att göra sitt eget unika bord, skapar ett starkare band mellan artefakt och dess användare. Detta som ett led i en hållbar utveckling så att produkterna vi äger kan brukas längre och motverka den ohållbara så kallade slit-och-slängkulturen. / The aim of the project has been to make a flexible table with the ability to change between high and low, and various table tops. This is a functional aspect of variability, but also an emotional element is contained. I want it to be simple for users to express themself  in their table. My intention is that when users can make their own unique table there will be a stronger bond between the artifact and its user. This as a means of sustainability so that the products we own can be used for a longer time, and in this way oppose the unsustainable consumerism culture.The aim of the project has been to make a flexible table with the ability to change between high and low, and various table tops. This is a functional aspect of variability, but also an emotional element is contained. I want it to be simple for users to express themself  in their table. My intention is that when users can make their own unique table there will be a stronger bond between the artifact and its user. This as a means of sustainability so that the products we own can be used for a longer time, and in this way oppose the unsustainable consumerism culture.

Background and problem: There are a number of benefits that can be gained from an inter-firm R&D collaboration, however it is at the same time a challenging task. An important factor to achieve a sucessful R&D collaboration is the knowledge integration between the companies. Handling the two problems of cooperation and coordination are key to this success and can be done by using different mechanisms. These mechanisms suggest that the increasing degree of problems with cooperation and coordination requires increased control. As a result, an interesting aspect is how to manage the contradiction between control of knowledge integration and the need for flexibility which are both necessary for the explorative phase of an innovation process. Objective: The purpose of this thesis is to explore how an inter-firm R&D collaboration in the explortive phase of innovation can manage the knowledge integration contradiction of flexibility and control. Method: To fulfill our purpose we have made a ethnographically inspired case study on an inter-firm R&D collaboration in the explorative phase of innovation. Definitions: Knowledge integration: Taking advantage of specialists’ knowledge that exists in collaboration. Inter-firm R&D collaboration: A partnership between external companies undertaking research and developing something together. The explorative phase of innovation: The early phase before the architecture of the innovation has been set. Conclusion: Our results indicate that a loose structure, high trust, bigness as a source of power, vertical collaboration, close collaboration and limited size of the collaboration are mechanisms that the collaborators use to manage the contradiction between flexibility and control in the explorative phase of innovation.

Problem – The essential problem being analyzed in the research paper is the methods of improving supply chain flexibility under certain circumstances and constrains that are imposed on the company. Purpose - The paper aims at providing suggestions on improvement of supply chain flexibility for ICA AB (Clothing) based on comparative analysis on sub-case study of ZARA. The major part of analysis is based on investigation of the relationship between supply chain characteristics and firm performance of both companies that is crucial for finding out areas for improvements for ICA supply chain. Design, Methodology and Approach – The research is based on qualitative analytical approach using two basic case studies on Northern Europe’s leading retailer ICA AB and the largest international fashion retailers ZARA. The main idea of comparing these two retailers is that they have different supply chains in terms of its set up, responsiveness, postponement and level of flexibility. The main method of the research is comparative analysis of two supply chains based on literature review, personal interviews with companies’ representatives (Director of Logistics and Supply Chain Department, Supply Chain Manager – Operating and Category Manager Non-Food) and provided internal materials of the company. Frame of references – Based on various sources of literature concerning supply chain flexibility, enablers for flexibility management in global supply chain, value chain flexibility, manufacturing flexibility, comparison between flexibility and adaptability in supply chain and flexibility as a determinant of supplier selection. We, as researches, also included in the analysis how flexibility relates to company’s performance in the supply chain context. Research questions and Limitations – In order to solve the problem in the research there are certain questions to be answered and supported in empirical study. The first question is how the supply chain looks like for the same products (textile products) in two different companies in terms of its flexibility. The second question is connected to enablers of the supply chain flexibility improvement in specific business environment, namely retailing, after comparative analysis of the aforementioned supply chains. The research provides limited number of suggestions in certain supply chain aspects for ICA AB. As concrete case studies were analyzed, wider and broader range of solutions of increasing supply chain flexibility could not be provided. It is necessary to take into account the fact that the focus company has its own position in the market, strategy, mission, financial strength and available resources. Conclusion - The research paper includes the analytical review of theoretical base on supply chain flexibility and focuses on further understanding of it in textile industry. The paper provides suggestions on improvement of supply chain flexibility for fundamental case study of ICA AB (Clothing). These suggestions are given for improving the flexibility of supply chain in four areas after conducting the comparative analysis based on Model of Supply Chain characteristics and Firm Performance. The analysis was grounded on model modified by authors. While conducting the analysis the authors realized the necessity of dividing Firm Performance into two main types, such as Financial Performance and Non-Financial Performance. This can be considered as authors’ academic contribution and also has its practical implications. The comparative analysis was grounded on the main case of ICA AB and sub-case study of ZARA.

When consumers are able to buy electricity on an hourly instead of monthly basis, the demand side flexibility is likely to increase. One way to lower the cost of electricity is to move consumption from peak price hours to low price hours, a sort of inter-temporal substitution were the net energy use is unaffected. By simulating one example of inter-temporal substitution in the Swedish spot market during 2008-2010, we show that the general welfare effects are small in terms of a more efficient energy production, but that the transfer of resources from producers to consumers is large. Whether the welfare effect is positive or negative is highly dependent on future electricity prices, the introduction of renewable energy resources, and the price of the new technology needed for the demand side regulation. If 2010 is used as a reference case, the results from our specific case concludes that a natural investment equilibrium is reached when approximately 150 000 households invest in the proposed demand side regulation technology. Using the same reference year, we see that if 70 000 households participates the Net Present Welfare benefit is around 10% of the necessary investment cost; to be compared with the transfer of benefits from producers to consumers which estimates roughly 2100% of the necessary investment cost. We argue that this imbalance in potential welfare benefits between producers and consumers might slow down the process of increasing the general welfare.

Syftet med föreliggande studie är att ur ett socialpsykologiskt perspektiv undersöka vilka upplevelser inhyrd personal har på ett visst företag beroende på vilken arbetsgrupp de tillhör. I studien har vi utgått från en kvalitativ metod med nio semistrukturerade intervjuer där urvalet bestod av fem manliga informanter och fyra kvinnliga. Resultatet visar att det finns övervägande positiva upplevelser av att arbeta som inhyrd på det aktuella företaget där sociala relationer och ett gott bemötande är viktiga orsaker till dessa.  Resultatet visar även på skillnader i upplevelser hos den inhyrda personalen beroende på vilken arbetsgrupp de tillhör och vilka grupprocesser som utspelar sig inom denna. Resultatet har vi sedan analyserat med hjälp av ett flertal teoretiker; Moira von Wright, Johan Asplund, Norbert Elias, Georg Simmel, Susan A. Wheelan och Abraham Maslow. Analysen visar bland annat att den inhyrda personalens egenskaper skapas i samspel med de direktanställda och att detta gör att de känner sig som en del av arbetsgruppen. / The purpose of this study is to examining which experiences that temporary workers has on a particular company from a social psychological perspective, and see if the experiences depend on which workgroup they belong. In this study we have used a qualitative approach with nine semi-structured interviews, where the sample consisted of five male and four female informants. The results show that there are generally positive experiences of temporary work on the relevant company in which social relationships and good treatment are important causes. The results also show differences in the experiences of the temporary workers, depending on the working group they belong and which group processes that take place within it. The result, we then analyzed with the help of several theorists: Moira von Wright, Johan Asplund, Norbert Elias, Georg Simmel, Susan A. Wheelan and Abraham Maslow. The analysis shows that the temporary workers characteristics are created in interaction with those directly employed and that this makes them feel as part of the working group.

As some companies in the paper industry struggle to shift from commodity grades to value added products, technical challenges and opportunities have grown tremendously. These new products require more stringent manufacturing specifications and improved performance relative to those of lignocellulosic fibers currently being produced. Hence, topochemical and mechanical modifications of pulp fibers have moved to the forefront of many corporate strategies. Researchers are beginning to develop new tools to help better understand the fundamental mechanisms of fiber modifications and how to most efficiently apply them. Two novel approaches are presented. First, a new method to observe single fiber crossings is developed. It was found that refining reduces the stepheight in the fiber crossing for both hardwood and softwood kraft pulps by increasing the tendency of the fibers to collapse, deform, and assume a lens like shape. The effect of pulp type, bleaching, drying, wet pressing, and fiber charge were also investigated. Graphs of stepheight versus freespan were linear through the origin suggesting that the freespan (flexibility) of the crossing fiber is largely unimportant to the formation of fiber crossings. Quite surprisingly, the ratio of stepheight to freespan remained relatively constant no matter the treatment. Only bleaching and the addition of surface charge via CMC had any independent impact on freespan. The data do not fit bending or shear mechanisms that have been developed in the literature suggesting that another mechanism may be responsible for the deformation behavior of single fiber crossings. Also, a method employing fluorescence microscopy and fluorescence resonance energy transfer is used to image the areas of a fiber-fiber interface while they were bonded. Analysis of the FRET signal from fiber crossings indicate that wet pressing increased the FRET occurring between the two dyed fiber surfaces. The results are consistent with the increased amount of interdiffusion expected with higher levels of wet pressing. Two novel techniques are used to investigate fundamental aspects of fiber deformation behavior and fiber-fiber bond formation. As these methods are further refined and utilized they will provide new avenues for researchers to explore and expand the property space of fibers and paper sheets.

Nearing the end of the 20th century, countries across the world have gradually been going into depression, without exception, this effect has also influenced Taiwan. Moreover, with the coming of age of knowledge management and change of the industry structure of the 21st century, thus the industry structure in Taiwan has also gone through some changes, adding many new non-typical jobs into the job market. Some examples include Leased Employess, Telex of Labor, part-time work, multiple job holders. Previous study on part-time work has been focused on the characteristics of the part-time workers and the influence on female part-time workers¡¦ employment and the reasons why companies use part-time work. Less research has been made on the comparison between part-time workers and regular workers. In the Human Resources of Managenment survey made by the Minster of Affairs in1997, the content regarding multiple job holders describes the distribution situation of multiple job holders. Moreover, with the fast growth of knowledge management, there exists a non-equivalency between the structure of knowledge management and the need of such a structure. Does the increasing numbers of part-time workers and multiple job holders mean that the labor market will take on a more important role? What is the difference between the education level, occupations, industry and income of these workers and regular workers? After a comparison between these two, which gains more profit? These are the questions to be answered in this research. The statistical information used in this research is secondary information from Directorate General of Budget Accounting and Statistics Executive Yuan, R.O.C regarding the Taiwan region Human Resources of Managenment statistical information, which divides labor into three groups, using work time and income level as a basis to find the characteristics between these three groups. Some implications made from the result of this research has been made for reference for the government. The results of this research are as the following: Part-time work 1¡BHighly educated part-time work are more better off than low educated part-time work because they have relatively higher pay for lesser work. 2¡BThe part-time workers of the higher level labor market are better off than the those from the agricultural, forest, fish and pasture and manufacturing. 3¡BThere is an increase of the laborers in the service sector, and a decrease of those from the agricultural, forest, fish and pasture sector, not much change in the manufacturing and industry sector. 4¡BFrom a comparison of the income of these sectors, those in industry have the highest income, and those in services are second ranking, from the level manufacturing gains the most and industry the least. Multiple job workers 1¡BThese are the least luckiest of the group because they have the highest work hours, but have the same income level as normal workers 2¡BNo matter which profession, multiple job workers are the most laborious because they have more work hours than normal workers but less income than normal workers. 3¡BNo matter which industry, multiple job workers are the most laborious because they have more work hours than normal workers but less income than normal workers. 4¡BThere is an increase of the laborers in the service sector, and a decrease of those from the agricultural, forest, fish and pasture sector, not much change in the manufacturing and industry sector. From a comparison of the income of these sectors, those in manufacturing have the highest income, and those in industry are second ranking, from the level manufacturing gains the most and services the least.

Professional workers are the core value contributors to an enterprise in today¡¦s highly competitive environment of knowledge economy. Under the pressure of global competition, employment flexibility is an unavoidable trend. Contract workers with professional background have been growing rapidly in recent years, and it has been regarded as a competitive strategy to integrate corporate resources to enhance business performance. While more and more enterprises are adopting flexibility strategies as well as utilizing different types of contingent employment to replace traditional long-term employment, the other existing employees not only have to face the changes of employment relationships, but also have to get used to cope with lots of contract-based professionals working in the organization. The purpose of this research is to understand different cognition, attitude and behaviors from the professionals under different employment relationships, as well as the way they interact, while the organization is adopting the human resource strategy of numerical flexibility. The information was collected and analyzed based on qualitative research method and used the professional workers as sampling, including one regular employee and one contractor for every comparative pair. There are total twenty-four professionals from four leading global high-tech companies were interviewed. The result shows that both the regular and contract-based professionals recognized the employment flexibility strategy negatively, and believed that it¡¦s mainly for reducing employment cost only, which might reflected the short-term benefit, but would cause the negative impact on the organization¡¦s performance in the long run. The implementations of differentiated treatments to different employment models caused disagreement from the workers who had expected their employers to provide a fair working environment, sufficient human capital investment and stable career development in the organization. The findings are, a respecting and open-minded organizational culture, a fair workplace, proper contingent employment proportion, and supportive management are the key factors to facilitate the positive interaction among professionals under different employment relationships. Moreover, professional workers have higher motivation and take into account the importance of personal performance, therefore, regular employee will invest personal resources to solve problems from interacting with contract professionals in order to achieve tasks. Meanwhile, the contract professionals are affected by occupational commitment as well as their intention to extend employment contract in the future. Employment status does not influence their performance, however, reduction of unfair treatments regarding human resource practices will motivate their willingness on organizational citizenship behavior and performance improvement.

In the recent years, ¡§Atypical Employment¡¨ has been accepted by most of the enterprises. The enterprises of the software service industry use atypical employment originally from the design theory of Shamrock Organization to seek the professional technical manpower. This research is to find out the determinants of hiring contracted workers or dispatched workers based on the atypical employee. The results are as follows: I. The organizational background: 1. The larger the scale of organization is, the better the possibility of hiring the dispatched workers of the atypical employment is. 2. The software industry is more likely to hire the contracted workers of the atypical employment than other service industries are. II. The determinants of the enterprises hiring the atypical employment: 1. The higher the enterprises pay the salary packages, the better the possibility of the use of dispatched workers is. 2. The higher the employee training costs, the better the possibility of the use of the contracted workers is. 3. The higher the job needs the degree of professional skill, the better the possibility of the use contracted workers is. 4. The higher the job needs the special techniques, the better the possibility of the use of the dispatched workers is. 5. The more the enterprises have products in diversity, the better the possibility of the use of the dispatched workers is. 6. The more the flexibility of the job arrangement is, the better the possibility of the use contracted worker is. III. The changeable factors of manpower demand: 1. The higher the degree of the demand of manpower change is, the better the possibility of hiring dispatched workers.

The operation in assignment of manpower needs in the country is still in the primary stage. The present implementation of labor ordinance does not have effective regulations and it is not so clear. Therefore it easily creates confusion and attribution of responsibility problems. Aside from these, enterprise does not have a set of effective operation method in allocation between regular employee and assignment of manpower needs. Therefore, the present stage in the allocation of manpower is mostly the line aspect of thinking mode. Due to the lack of whole value concept in system thinking therefore the allocation between regular employee and assignment of manpower needs create unharmonious phenomenon which bring about the enterprise in assignment of manpower needs that the cost of personnel expenses did not decrease but increases. Because the method in allocation of manpower in production line and the variation of customer order that it must be a development variation. Therefore, we must depend in the complete system thinking and setting of strategy in order to let the interaction relationship of both party reaches the optimum. The aim of this research is to use the strategy map and the method of System Dynamics to proceed in the regulation, simulation and testing in order to analyze in finding the most suitable allocation method between regular employee and assignment of manpower needs. Due to the direct production manpower and the existence of enterprises, the lasting of enterprises are closely related. But in the general enterprises toward the strategy in allocation of direct manpower and implementation still use the direct line of thinking method. Therefore it is very difficult to handle the development variation of environment. It is only adequately let the manpower resources strategy of enterprises to draw a casual loop map then use the related aspect of strategy map. Thru the emphasis of relationship between manpower resource strategy and enterprises strategy then use the System Dynamics to establish model. At the same time, perform the simulation of development and analysis in order to assist the company cases in manpower development allocation strategy more effective. This research is base on the research aim, confer documents, research of company cases, cost and effect related feedback analysis. System Dynamics establishes the subject pattern, testing, situation and policy simulation, analysis, conferment that sum up and arrange the conclusion of this research. 1. Flexibility of Manpower Resource Strategy: Assignment of personnel will let the company cases in the aspect of using manpower to have flexibility and decrease the cost of personnel expenses. At the same time, the same line of enterprises will have more competition and greater survival space. 2. Drawing of Manpower Resources Strategy Map: strategy map can help enterprises ¡§focusing¡¨ and ¡§connection¡¨ in setting the strategy. It can let all personnel clearly understand the target and direction of the strategy. At the same, in the setting of model, thru the strategy map can set the bounder of the system. 3. Using System Thinking to establish the cost and effect feedback map and System Dynamics Pattern: Thru the system thinking pattern of the System Dynamics draw the cost and effect feedback map. Aside that it can test the general thinking and direct thinking. It also can let the system to have more intersystem relationship. 4. Let the Simulation Result of the System Dynamics Serves as Reference of the Enterprises Manpower Strategy Regulations: using system thinking to establish system pattern, thru the testing of pattern, simulation and analysis, use the result of simulation to provide enterprises as reference in setting the direct manpower resource strategy regulations. Using the Simulation Testing of the System Dynamics to find for the Most Suitable Solution in the System: Thru the development simulation of the system pattern, we can find out the most suitable solution that belongs to the enterprises.