This thesis aims to investigate which elements of the design process in production that have key features for successful progress of production and how these are regulated in the developed production model, the NCC Project planning, NCC Construction Sweden AB. A study of NCC Project planning used in construction output in the department of Mälardalen has been carried out and proposals for implementation of the model has been proposed. The work is carried out through interviews and archival analysis of NCC's business system.  NCC Project planning is a production model based on LEAN Construction's governance model pull-planning and 5S principle. By means of the production model desired involvement in the work and control over the work process increase. In the current situation is not production model to the extent that the company wishes and therefore the reasons why mapped and solutions to the problem have been proposed.  One of the biggest reasons that the NCC Project planning is not used in practice is the lack of commitment from supervisors, managers and production managers. As a solution to the problem suggested mentors, field trips and custom training for production management model.

An important event in people´s lives is graduating from high school, which opens new possibilities. One of them is to be able to move to a new place, whether it is within the same municipality, to another region or even another country. Several motives can affect the decision-making process in terms of where the individual chooses to move and why. The aim of this paper is to study these motives and how a decision can be explained with Weber’s social action theory and the push/pull-theory   The method used to investigate this subject is a survey study in terms of a questionnaire with high school students in Luleå municipality. The answers were thereafter analyzed in two parts. The first part by using quantitative methods to create statistics regarding the chosen population, how they rank different motives and their opinions regarding different factors. The second part of the questionnaire was analyzed with qualitative methods to investigate the answers on a more complex level since different factors are taken into account in the reasoning behind a decision.   The result of this study shows that the main motive for moving is further education and the main motive to stay is social motives like family and friends. Other motives also come into play in this complex decision making process, such as a change of environment to experience new things. Where and why people choose to move can also be explained by push/pull-factors where the current condition in Luleå municipality is fairly good concerning employment and education but does not have the program or courses they want to study at the university and this functions as a push-factor for some in the studied group. Family and friends function as the main pull-factor to stay and is sometimes given as the only motive to stay. Where they want to move is mainly metropolitan areas or larger cities in the south of Sweden with the given explanation that this would offer more possibilities with a wider range of higher education, meeting new friends, access to more entertainment and experiencing city life. This decision can also be explained by the social action theory regarding how the individual chooses to act and it is usually based on the goal-oriented type where the individual chooses to move to reach a set goal.

This paper examines the major potential drivers of five international real estate markets with a focus on pushing versus pulling effects. Using a quantile regression approach for the period 2000-2015 we examine the coefficients during three different market conditions: downward (bearish), normal (median) and upward (bullish). Using monthly data we look at five of the larger securitized property markets, namely, the US, UK, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. We find inconclusively that stock market volatility, as measured by the pushing factor VIXS&P500, best informs property market returns during bearish market environment. We also find that our pulling factors, money supply, treasury yields and unemployment presents theoretically grounded results in most cases with the expected signage. However, compared to the volatility index, pulling factors are not as uniformly suited for informing property market returns during bearish markets. We also find a range of insignificant results, which might be indicative of a suboptimal model specification and/or choice of estimation method.

There has been an on-going discussion between researchers regarding the economic and climate induced reasons for migration (Renaud et al. 2011, Afifi, 2011).  There also seems to be insufficient data when it comes to internal migration within low-income countries (Tacolí, 2009). This study focuses on the impact of climate change and climate variability on migration processes to the area of Cochabamba, Bolivia. Two communities were chosen as study areas: Lopez Rancho and Alto Paraíso, both located in the growing city of Sacaba in the department of Cochabamba. In total 13 semi-structured interviews were made, including three key-informants and ten migrants, of which nine were female and one was male. The results show that while perceived environmental changes had an impact on the decision to migrate for six out of the ten respondents, other factors, such as education, infrastructure, health services, economy and decisions based on the family as a whole, were also important. Future studies on this subject can include these factors into various frameworks and surveys so that the nature of migration flows can be understood better.

A just-in-time supply pickup and delivery system (JSS) manages the logistic operations between a manufacturing plant and its suppliers by controlling the sequence, timing, and frequency of container pickups and parts deliveries, thereby coordinating internal conveyance, external conveyance, and the operation of cross-docking facilities. The system is important to just-in-time production lines that maintain small inventories. This research studies the logistics, supply chain, and production control of JSS. First, a new meta-heuristics approach (taboo search) is developed to solve a general frequency routing (GFR) problem that has been formulated in this dissertation with five types of constraints: flow, space, load, time, and heijunka. Also, a formulation for cross-dock routing (CDR) has been created and solved. Second, seven issues concerning the structure of JSS systems that employ the previously studied common frequency routing (CFR) problem (Chuah and Yingling, in press) are explored to understand their impacts on operational costs of the system. Finally, a discreteevent simulation model is developed to study JSS by looking at different types of variations in demand and studying their impacts on the stability of inventory levels in the system. The results show that GFR routes at high frequencies do not have common frequencies in the solution. There are some common frequencies at medium frequencies and none at low frequency, where effectively the problem is simply a vehicle routing problem (VRP) with time windows. CDR is an extension of VRP-type problems that can be solved quickly with meta-heuristic approaches. GFR, CDR, and CFR are practical routing strategies for JSS with taboo search or other types of meta-heuristics as solvers. By comparing GFR and CFR solutions to the same problems, it is shown that the impacts of CFR restrictions on cost are minimal and in many cases so small as to make simplier CFR routes desirable. The studies of JSS structural features on the operating costs of JSS systems under the assumption of CFR routes yielded interesting results. First, when suppliers are clustered, the routes become more efficient at mid-level, but not high or low, frequencies. Second, the cost increases with the number of suppliers. Third, negotiating broad time windows with suppliers is important for cost control in JSS systems. Fourth, an increase or decrease in production volumes uniformly shifts the solutions cost versus frequency curve. Fifth, increased vehicle capacity is important in reducing costs at low and medium frequencies but far less important at high frequencies. Lastly, load distributions among the suppliers are not important determinants of transportation costs as long as the average loads remain the same. Finally, a one-supplier, one-part-source simulation model shows that the systems inventory level tends to be sticky to the reordering level. JSS is very stable, but it requires reliable transportation to perform well. The impact to changes in kanban levels (e.g., as might occur between route planning intervals when production rates are adjusted) is relatively long term with dynamic after-effects on inventory levels that take a long time to dissapate. A gradual change in kanban levels may be introduced, prior to the changeover, to counter this effect.

<p>Together with Attends in Aneby a thesis of 15 ECTS (credits) have been undertaken. The assignment was to develop a new incontinence product for single use. Users of the product value comfort, flexibility, softness, comfort and a discreet product. Users are for individuals with incontinence problems that usually receive the products via prescription. The product must also have an attractive price and good quality from the purchase / originator's perspective.</p><p>Currently there are two models that Attends supplies, which the project intends to develop, (Slips / Briefs and Pull On's). The first has a low price but also lower usability than the other. The products have a well-developed absorptive function and with respect to this, only a new design of the chassis will be developed. Project issue were: <em>How should a concept look like when combining Pull On's and Slips / Briefs? Is it possible to develop a better product?</em></p><p>Production methods, costs and customer satisfaction will not be taken into account given that incontinence is a sensitive topic and that it would make the task too extensive. Consideration of patents, industrial designs and design protection are not taken into account when over two hundred applications per month are registered.   The mission was carried out as a development project where the product is broken down into parts which are then developed and combined to form a new developed product. Tools that were used are brainstorming and morphological matrix. This project resulted in a concept that can be described as a hybrid of today's two products. With two parts of elastic material in the waist, the product will gain a better fit for the user. It also creates a wider span between the maximum and minimum waistline each size will cover. The final product also has an adjustment function to increase the user friendliness and comfort. With the help of adjustment so you can change the pressure against the body, making the user able to customize the product. A continuation of the project is to examine whether new materials can be inserted into the device instead of the elastic composite. It is important that further development of the product is made together with a test group to gain answers about ease of use and other problems that can arise in everyday use. A continuation should also involve interviewing healthcare professionals who come into contact with the product.</p>

This qualitative research project focused on the interviews of 27 low socio-economic students at a research university in the southwestern United States. The students had already withdrawn from the university or were in the process of withdrawing. The study seeks to provide increased understanding of how students negotiate the decision-making process to withdraw from the first university they attended after high school. The theoretical lenses of student departure theories (Astin, 1993; Bean, 1983; Tierney, 1992; and Tinto, 1993) and decision-making theories (Becker, 1976; Frank, 1987; Kahneman, 2003; March, 1994; Scott, 2000) were combined. The Decision-Making Process Model of Student Departure is offered as a new theoretical framework that combines decision-making theories and student retention theories. This conceptualization is unlike other student departure models because it includes the proposition that forces push at the student from within the institution and forces pull them from outside the institution. In addition, it is different from other student departure models because it includes the discussion about how students think about their process to withdraw - it is not meant to describe their behaviors. Financial, academic and psychological stresses (from both within and outside the institution) influenced how the students negotiated the decision-making process to leave the institution. The students did not seek out institutional agents (advisors or faculty members) for advice when they were struggling academically. They developed their own strategies or went to their family members for advice, many of whom had never been to college.

Abstract: The study deals with the interplay between migration and metropolitan growth in Peru during the last decades. The key question is to what extent Peru's rural-urban migration and rapid urban growth is triggered by opportunities within the formal and informal sectors in the growing metropolis of Lima. Aggregated data about migration have been related to information of socioeconomic and geographical conditions in rural and urban areas. Multivariate models of interregional migration are constructed and tested. A study of the life paths of a limited group of migrants has generated hypotheses about causes of migration and the assimilation of migrants in the city. Migration is related to historical changes in Peruvian society and to structural and individual conditions affecting migrants. The historical transformation of the rural and urban sectors is one important precondition for the increasing rural-urban migration in 20th century Peru, including the declining importance of the traditional socio-economic structure (the hacienda system and the peasant communities), population growth, and the increasing importance of capitalistic forms of exchange and production as well as of interregional interaction and non-agrarian sectors. Regional disparities appear to be the most important structural condition affecting migration in Peru, in accordance with the so-called gap-theories, which indicate that changes and conditions in urban areas are more important for temporal and spatial variations in the migration pattern, than corresponding changes in rural areas. Furthermore, young and better educated individuals are overrepresented in the migrant groups and outinigration seems to be highest from rural areas with well-established urban contacts. Urban pull is more important than rural push. The study reveals that personal contacts are essential as a generator of migration, for information flows and for the migrants' adaptation to the urban society. In general, the rural-urban migration can be regarded as a rational adaptation to living conditions in rural and urban areas, since most migrants seem to have a higher living standard in the cities in comparison with their former situation in rural areas. A significant conclusion is that informal solutions are important for solving migrants' housing and subsistence problems. The informal sector is interpreted as an integrated and often dynamic element in the urban economy, rather than as an indicator of over-urbanization. The study provides empirical support for a conjecture termed metropolitan informal sector pull, in which the informal sector of Lima is a major part of the magnet that pulls people from the rural areas and generates metropolitan growth and migration in Peru. / <p>Diss. Umeå : Umeå universitet, 1988 ;</p><p></p><p></p><p></p> / digitalisering@umu

The explosive demand for multimedia and fast transmission of continuous media on wireless networks means the simultaneous existence of traffic requiring different qualities of service (QoS). In this thesis, several efficient algorithms have been developed which offer several QoS to the end-user. We first look at a request TDMA/CDMA protocol for supporting wireless multimedia traffic, where CDMA is laid over TDMA. Then we look at a hybrid push-pull algorithm for wireless networks, and present a generalized performance analysis of the proposed protocol. Some of the QoS factors considered include customer retrial rates due to user impatience and system timeouts and different levels of priority and weights for mobile hosts. We have also looked at how customer impatience and system timeouts affect the QoS provided by several queuing and scheduling schemes such as FIFO, priority, weighted fair queuing, and the application of the stretch-optimal algorithm to scheduling.

The UK has been amongst the leaders in providing higher education for both home and international students, especially from developing countries such as Malaysia. The recent budget cuts on the UK higher education sector implemented in the academic year 2012/13 have increased the competition for UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to secure home [UK and EU] students as the opportunity cost is greater compared to starting a career. Therefore, it is almost imperative for UK HEIs to attract more international students to fill the gap left by home students to remain financially sustainable. Previous researches on the decision making process for higher education destinations looked extensively at rational factors such as financial viability, size of institutions and availability of programmes as well as reputation related factors, such as university ranking and league tables. The question is: Are these the factors - rational factors - that influence the decision making of prospective international students' evaluation and selection of the UK as a possible host country for higher education migration? This research aims to elicit and understand the non-rational factors that may intrinsically influence the decision making behaviour of Malaysian students when selecting the UK as the destination for HE migration. Interpretive phenomenology was utilized as the research approach and the Ethnographic principle of cultural interpretation was enhanced by the researcher's reflexive stances. Data was analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Six emergent constructs were revealed which then led to the emergence of three core themes reflecting the intrinsic influences hidden within Malaysian students' HE migration decision behaviour. Twelve ZMET interviews and two focus group conversations with participants whom were recruited using the stratified random sampling method - covering three geographical regions of the UK, eleven UK universities within four main university groups. ZMET, short for Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique, is an eleven-step in-depth interview technique that elicits both conscious and unconscious thoughts by exploring metaphoric expressions. Findings from previous researches employing ZMET as data collection method showed that data saturation is achievable with just four to five interviews, providing 90% validity. Focus group conversations functioned as methodology triangulation to validate findings. Both of these data collection methods were guided by two overarching questions: (1) why do you choose a UK university? and (2) what and how does being a UK university student make you feel? The six emergent constructs: (1) Egotism; (2) Self-concept; (3) Current security; (4) Future security; (5) Freedom and independence; and (6) Future opportunities, were then interpreted through the researcher's reflexive stances - personal and epistemic - to signify the insights of the three emergent themes: (1) Fulfilling their emotional needs for acceptance; (2) Satisfying their spiritual pleas for freedom and independence; and (3) Providing a promise for a greater self-worth. These six emergent constructs were embedded into the conceptual framework of this research - Consumer Decision Making model underpinned by Push/Pull Theory of Migration - resulting in a revised conceptual framework depicting Malaysian students' HE migration behaviour. This research contributes to academic knowledge, research methodology, practitioners and policy makers of HEIs - both in Malaysia and the UK. Suggestions for further research are longitudinal study, geographical extension study, comparison study and a study using this research's revised conceptual framework as the research model.