Rökdykning inom räddningstjänsten är ett av de farligaste arbetsförhållandena som för tillfället råder i Sverige, och med den mängd svårigheter som de ofta stöter på under utryckningar är det en bra organisation att göra en innovationsprocess på.   I detta examensarbete har en innovationsprocess tillämpas på räddningstjänstens arbetsmiljö för att därigenom se om en lösning på ett problem kunde ske. Målet var att utveckla en lösning som underlättar räddningstjänstens problem i skarpa lägen.   Tillvägagångssättet delades upp i tre steg för att nå resultatet. Först söktes ett problem som valdes ut, men även en omvärldsanalys genomgicks för att få kunskap om de kringgående faktorerna. En idé-generering gjordes för att lösa detta problem, av idéerna skapades koncept som i största mån försökt fylla räddningstjänstens krav. I nästa steg valdes det koncept som ansågs bäst lämpad att lösa problemet, som sedan realiserades till en prototyp i steg nummer tre.      Resultatet av arbetet blev ett hjälpmedel som är anpassat för rökdykarnas insatser vid urtag av medvetslösa personer i antända hus. När en medvetslös person har en vikt som överskrider rökdykarnas kapacitet att dra ut personen i fråga drar insatsen ut på tiden, och rökdykarnas hälsa sätts i mer fara än nödvändigt. Hjälpmedlet är då till för att på ett effektivare sätt få ut den drabbade. / Firefighters have one of the most dangerous working conditions currently existing in Sweden, and with the amount of difficulty’s they often encounter during the call-outs, makes it a good organization to implement an innovation process on.   This thesis is an innovation process applied to a fire department in order to see if a solution could solve one of their problems. The goal was to develop a solution to facilitate rescue problems in extreme situations. The method was divided into three steps to achieve a result. First we searched for a problem that we later on selected, but also an environmental scanning analysis was performed to gain insight on the relevant circumstances. Later on a brainstorming session was done to solve this problem, and with the generated ideas we developed a few concepts and with these we tried as far as possible to fill the fire departments requirements. The next step was to select the concept that was considered best suited to solve the problem, which then we made into a prototype in step number three. The result of this thesis was a tool that is adapted for the firefighter’s efforts to rescue an unconscious person in a burning house. When an unconscious person has a weight that exceeds the firefighter’s capacity and therefore making the procedures take longer time, this puts firefighter´s health in more danger than necessary. The purpose of the tool is to make their job more effective and simplify the procedure.

The objective of this master’s thesis is to determine methods for improving a company’s business processes without investing in new technology and whether a relatively small company can benefit from investing in technology. This study determines the meaning of process optimisation and how it should be conducted. Using existing theory and the case of a logistics company operating in Finland, this research attempts to identify hindrances and find opportunities for the company to develop their processes through process optimisation without technology. Different public bodies in Finland (such as the Finnish government and Statistics Finland) have stated that Finnish logistics requires development and have recommended new technology as a solution to the issue. However, the lack of information on the Finnish logistics business sector makes such statements by public bodies difficult to analyse. Process optimisation has been revealed to be more complex than expected. Many theories available today examine and recommend different technological solutions to execute companies’ work processes. However, a theory is needed on how process optimisation can be carried out at a company lacking technology. Process optimisation consists of process modelling and process analysis. Process modelling appears to be the most significant and crucial aspect of process optimisation. Order-to-delivery processes cannot be optimised within a company if the company does not understand the entirety of such processes. Knowledge of the process has been highlighted as being key to understanding a company’s processes at a high level. The case company in this study showed that process optimisation is possible without implementing new technology; instead, optimisation required additional human capital and a stronger focus on a company’s internal business processes. Technology-based solutions for process optimisation are tempting to implement as doing so may be believed to save time, but no automated solution is able to reveal a company’s critical information if the company does not know what it is looking for and cannot identify its problem areas. This research includes a single case study. The results indicate that whether a relatively small company could benefit from investing in technology is unclear, and the lack of research on process optimisation at Finnish companies resulted in limited findings and analysis. Several different scientific articles presented technology implementation successes and failures, but did not reveal information on the steps taken by the companies.

In this thesis we have described the role of meetings in software development and their impact on process improvement. We have investigated some factors; which could be used to improve organization process e.g. strategic management, understanding of business and its processes, learning and evaluation of resources. A survey has been conducted with the help of a questionnaire to analyze the meeting practices in the small and medium scale software companies. A process model and a simulation have been designed to measure the impacts of meetings on the productivity of organizations which claim the utilization of agile process. The designed model is an extension of Hamid & Madnick’s process model and the simulation is a newly developed web based application that performs meeting scheduling. The application is developed with the concept of Software As A Service (SAAS) by using the Framework Symfony and programming languages PHP and MySQL.

Syftet med examensarbetet är att hjälpa Tibrokök med produktutveckling, Tibrokök har idag en enkel processplan vid produktutveckling som inte används fullt ut eller som det var tänkt, därför utformas en ny produkt-utvecklingsprocess specifik för Tibrokök. Under förstudien i examensarbetet upptäcks flera brister inom produktutveckling på Tibrokök exempelvis onödig väntan på beslut och oklara regler eller roller, målet är att reducera dessa brister så att produktutveckling på företaget kan bedrivas effektivare. Observationer, existerande hjälpmedel och personalens erfarenheter inom produktutveckling på Tibrokök tas tillvara vid framtagningen av den nya produktutvecklingsprocessen. För att underlätta införandet av det nya arbetssättet för produktutveckling ut-formas en produktutvecklingsguide som är ett hjälpmedel till produktutveck-lingsprocessen. Produktutvecklingsguiden ska även stärka kommunikationen och dokumentationen inom produktutveckling på Tibrokök. Dokumentationen stärks genom ett antal underlag som tas fram tillhörande produktutvecklings-processen. Produktutvecklingsprocessens funktionalitet testas och utvärderas genom simulering av två produktutvecklingsprojekt, simuleringarna säkerställer om produktutvecklingsprocessen är tillräckligt generell för att passa alla typer av produktutvecklingsprojekt. Resultatet blir en produktutvecklingsprocess speciellt anpassad för Tibrokök. Med hjälp av den framtagna produktutvecklingsguiden kan all personal oavsett förkunskap använda produktutvecklingsprocessen. För att implementera det nya arbetssättet med produktutveckling på Tibrokök utförs utbildande redovisningar och en workshop med personalen. Som ett slutligt steg överlämnas ett antal rekommendationer om ändringar i Tibroköks arbetssätt för att utföra effektivare produktutveckling.

Syfte och frågeställning Uppsatsens syfte är att utifrån ett organisationskonsultperspektiv undersöka konflikthanteringsprocessen för två fallbeskrivningar. Uppsatsen besvarar vilka steg organisationskonsulternas konflikthanteringsprocess består av och vad de respektive stegen innehåller.   Metod och teoretiskt perspektiv Uppsatsens metod bygger på kvalitativa intervjuer där respektive organisationskonsult presenterar hur han/hon väljer att hantera de beskrivna konflikterna. Konsulternas svar analyseras sedan utifrån ett systemteoretiskt perspektiv.   Resultat Organisationskonsulternas övergripande uppdrag beskrivs som att förflytta de konfliktinblandade från ett nuläge till önskeläge. Fem stycken övergripande processteg identifieras.  Stegen är generella för studien då de är gemensamma oavsett informant och oavsett fallbeskrivning.   Det första steget benämns definiera uppdrag och inbegriper att konsulten skapar sig en övergripande bild av konflikten och organisationen samt enas med uppdragsgivaren om uppdragets syfte och mål. Andra steget benämns definiera relation och handlar om att konsulten säkerställer en förståelse hos de inblandade om hur han/hon tänker arbeta och vad detta innebär för de inblandade i konflikthanteringen. Under samla in och analysera hämtar konsulten mer detaljerad information om konflikten och organisationen varpå den sorteras och struktureras. Det sista steget åtgärda, kan delas upp i två typer: Kompetensförstärkande åtgärder, såsom t.ex. utbildning i kommunikation, och strukturförstärkande åtgärder såsom t.ex. förtydligande av mål, spelregler eller roller.   Om man jämför hur konsulterna hanterar den första fallbeskrivningen i förhållande till den andra är deras upplägg snarlikt. Däremot skiljer sig konsulternas konflikthanteringsprocesser ifrån varandra. Studien visar vidare på skillnader i hur konsulterna avgränsar konflikten och i hur konsulterna tolkar fallbeskrivningarna.   Att få igång fungerande, konstruktiva feedbackprocesser genomsyrar samtliga konsulters konflikthanteringar. I konflikthanteringens inledande processteg genom att skapa förutsättningar för konstruktiva och fungerande feedbackprocesser. I stegen samla in, analysera och åtgärda genom att arbeta med feedbackens faktiska innehåll.   Nyckeln till framgångsrik konflikthantering tolkas vara att konsulten lyckas få de inblandade att omtolka situationen de befinner sig i och se konflikten i ett nytt ljus. Sättet de konfliktinblandade ser problemet, är problemet.

This work is aimed at development of systematic approaches to the design of multiscale systems. Specifically four problems are addressed: environmental impact assessment (EIA) of new and retrofitted industrial processes, integration of process effluents with the macroscopic environmental systems, eco-industrial parks (EIP), and advanced life support (ALS) systems for planetary habitation. While design metrics and specific natures of each problem poses different challenges, there are common themes in the devised solution strategies: a. An integrated approach provides insights unseen by addressing the individual components of the system and, therefore, better understanding and superior results. b. Instead of dealing with multiple scales simultaneously, the design problem is addressed through interconnected stages without infringing upon the optimization degrees of freedom in each stage. This is possible through the concept of targeting. c. Mathematical programming techniques can be used effectively to systematize the integration concepts, the target identification, and the design of multi-scale systems. The dissertation also introduces the following specific contributions: i. For EIA, a new procedure is developed to overcome the limitations of conventional approaches. The introduced procedure is based on three concepts: process synthesis for systematic generation of alternatives and targeting for benchmarking environmental impact ahead of detailed design, integration of alternative with rest of the process, and reverse problem formulation for targeting. ii. For integrating process effluents with macroscopic environmental systems, focus is given to the impact of wastewater discharges on macroscopic watersheds and drainage systems. A reverse problem formulation is introduced to determine maximum allowable process discharges that will meet overall environmental requirements of the watershed. iii. For EIPs, a new design procedure is developed to allow multiple processes to share a common environmental infrastructure, exchange materials, and jointly utilize interception systems that treat waste materials and byproducts. A source-interception-sink representation is developed and modeled through an optimization formulation. Optimal interactions among the various processes and shared infrastructure to be installed are identified. iv. A computational metric is introduced to compare various alternatives in ALS and planetary habitation systems. A selection criterion identifies the alternative which contributes to the maximum reduction of the total ESM of the system.

The fundamental goal of this study is to explore why so many students have difficulty learning mathematics. To achieve this goal, this study focuses on why so many students keep making the same errors over a long period of time. To explore such issues, three basic algebra concepts - variable, equation, and function – are used to analyze students’ errors, possible buggy algorithms, and the conceptual basis of these errors: misconceptions. Through the research on these three basic concepts, it is expected that a more general principle of understanding and the corresponding learning difficulties can be illustrated by the case studies. Although students’ errors varied to a great extent, certain types of errors related to students’ misconceptions occurred frequently and repeatedly after one year of additional instruction. Thus, it is possible to identify students’ misconceptions through working on students’ systematic errors. The causes of students’ robust misconceptions were explored by comparing high-achieving and low-achieving students’ understanding of these three concepts at the object (structural) or process (operational) levels. In addition, high achieving students were found to prefer using object (structural) thinking to solve problems even if the problems could be solved through both algebra and arithmetic approaches. It was also found that the relationship between students’ misconception and object-process thinking explained why some misconceptions were particularly difficult to change. Students’ understanding of concepts at either of two stages (process and object) interacted with either of two aspects (correct conception and misconception). When students had understood a concept as a process with misconception, such misconception was particularly hard to change. In addition, other concerns, such as rethinking the misconception of the “equal sign,” the influence of prior experience on students’ learning, misconceptions and recycling curriculum, and developing teachers’ initial subject knowledge were also discussed. The findings of this study demonstrated that the fundamental reason of misconception of “equal sign” was the misunderstanding of either side of equation as a process rather than as an object. Due to the existence of robust misconceptions as stated in this study, the use of recycling curriculum may have negative effect on students’ understanding of mathematics.

A novel surface modifying technique, friction stir processing¡]FSP¡^, has been developed for fabrication of surface composite. Al-Al2O3 surface composites with different volume fractions of particles were successfully fabricated. The Al2O3 particles were uniformly distributed in the aluminum matrix. The surface composites have excellent bonding with the aluminum alloy substrate. The microhardness of the surface composite reinforced with 40 vol% Al2O3 of ~50nm, average particle size was ~150 HV, almost doubt that of the 5083 Al alloy substrate¡]86HV¡^. The distribution curves showed that the SD was increased steeply when the volume fractions of Al2O3 particles of SZ attained to about above 30 vol%. In addition, it is difficult to reduce the grain size of SZ stirring with powder by increasing traveling speed or adding more volume fractions of Al2O3 particles because the processing temperature is higher than 0.5 Tm.

We applied the Friction-Stir Process (FSP) to make the ZrO2 /5083 Al alloy composite material, and analyzed its physical properties in different aspects. Different weight percents of nanometer composite materials, ZrO2/Al, with well distributed strengthening grains were manufactured with the FSP which was used for five runs on ZrO2 along with the matrix material, aluminum, at 505¢XC, and created reactants of Al3Zr, tetragonal D023 structure, and Al2O3, identified with X-ray diffraction analysis. The grain size of 5083 Al-alloy could be finer, around 2.6£gm, by the FSP. This study suggests that increasing the addition of ZrO2 into the Al matrix could make the grain size of aluminum finer. We found that the Al grain size would be able to down to 0.66£gm, as 15.3 wt% of ZrO2 powder was reached. The mechanical properties of the Al-matrix material could be also modified by adding ZrO2 that reduces the ductility but boosts the strength of the matrix material. When we put 15.3 wt% of ZrO2 powder, 5083 Al-alloy attained the hardness of 158Hv, almost twice of hardness of the original alloy material, and its yield strength also increased from 125MPa to 400MPa as well.

The future direction of enterprise depends upon the contribution of organizational management. Based on acknowledgement of organization, the efficiency of enterprise comes from the design of an organization model. An organization model is to represent an organization systematically and logically. For an architectural organization model, the significant characteristic lies on the perfect integration between organization structure and organization process. Through the interaction among structure elements, architectural organization model breaking down the bar style management model and linear operation thinking and adopt architectural management, it will fulfill the enterprise superiority and also increase an enterprise¡¦s execution capability. During the rapid expansion, the enterprise faces changes of internal organization management and external environment. When the information increases among different regional departments, it requires more efforts to coordinate and the cost is highly raised. Therefore, we need a new organization model to resolve the business cost of an enterprise. Comparing with the traditional inflexibility organization process, the dynamic efficiency of architectural organization model provides faster reaction to coordinate the resources and adjust the strategies. This thesis is to build up an architectural organization model which shall overcome the fatal flaw of traditional organization models. In the era of knowledge, an enterprise¡¦s key competitive strength relies on knowledge and experience, not on equipments, capital, or technique. The important strategy of organization management is adopting organization experience as the main capital of an enterprise and building up new organization values. Through the compact integration of organization structures and organization processes, architectural organization model provides a mutual-learning platform for all employees within an enterprise and develops intelligent management, thus becomes a main trend for modern enterprises to follow. Facing the arrival of new knowledge era, we will own more creativity though learning by each other. Believing in that we gain more by sharing this study and experience, thereafter we anticipate our study would play a significant role in the organization management research.