The Emergency Price Control Act of 1942: Basic Authority and Sanctions

Fast pace of change in the business of technology is the reality of many organizations today. The software development industry is one example where this nature is prominent. Companies need to adapt in ways that eases the persistence against change from external forces. Companies need to turn into Learning Organizations as these help people and organizations embrace change. Two key components of the Learning Organization are the teams, as they are considered to be the fundamental units of organizations, and managers, as they have the biggest impact on facilitating learning in the organization. Therefore, this study has investigated how managers could act to create conditions for encouraging team learning of a software development company to become a Learning Organization.   This has been done by conducting a case study at the company Ericsson in Kista, Sweden, who is market leaders within the software development industry. The case design consisted of a two phase method that included both a quantitative and qualitative data collection method.   The results indicate that Ericsson could be classified as a Learning Organization and in addition display promising characteristics when it comes to having team learning capabilities. Furthermore, the findings suggest that in order for managers to encourage team learning they should take on a coaching and supporting role to understand the need of the teams; challenge the status quo; empower teams through giving them mandate; allocate time for learning as an integral part of the daily work; and reward learning in teams.   The findings of this study have implications both in a theoretical aspect and a sustainability aspect. From the theoretical aspect, the findings provide with further empirical data in a field that is currently dominated by theoretical literature. Furthermore, the findings display a practical example of how managers of a market leading company with promising characteristics of team learning capabilities have acted to create such conditions. From a sustainability aspect, the results of this study give firms a sustainable competitive advantage through increased business performance, healthy labor conditions that are a result of healthy team dynamics and possible encouragement to future attention towards emphasis on environmental aspects

Leading Learning: A managerial perspective on promoting team learning in a software development company

Fast pace of change in the business of technology is the reality of many organizations today. The software development industry is one example where this nature is prominent. Companies need to adapt in ways that eases the persistence against change from external forces. Companies need to turn into Learning Organizations as these help people and organizations embrace change. Two key components of the Learning Organization are the teams, as they are considered to be the fundamental units of organizations, and managers, as they have the biggest impact on facilitating learning in the organization. Therefore, this study has investigated how managers could act to create conditions for encouraging team learning of a software development company to become a Learning Organization.   This has been done by conducting a case study at the company Ericsson in Kista, Sweden, who is market leaders within the software development industry. The case design consisted of a two phase method that included both a quantitative and qualitative data collection method.   The results indicate that Ericsson could be classified as a Learning Organization and in addition display promising characteristics when it comes to having team learning capabilities. Furthermore, the findings suggest that in order for managers to encourage team learning they should take on a coaching and supporting role to understand the need of the teams; challenge the status quo; empower teams through giving them mandate; allocate time for learning as an integral part of the daily work; and reward learning in teams.   The findings of this study have implications both in a theoretical aspect and a sustainability aspect. From the theoretical aspect, the findings provide with further empirical data in a field that is currently dominated by theoretical literature. Furthermore, the findings display a practical example of how managers of a market leading company with promising characteristics of team learning capabilities have acted to create such conditions. From a sustainability aspect, the results of this study give firms a sustainable competitive advantage through increased business performance, healthy labor conditions that are a result of healthy team dynamics and possible encouragement to future attention towards emphasis on environmental aspects

Produktionssystem : Utformning av verkstadslayouter med avseende på Lean Production

The industrial environment and customers are requiring more focus on innovation and uniqueness. Due to these requirements, companies with industrial production strive for shorter lead times and high quality products in order to become more competitive. Lean Production is a philosophy concerning the optimal use of resources and it is this mindset that this bachelor thesis lays the greatest emphasis on. Lean acts as principles and guidelines relating to the establishment, development and design of efficient layouts for production systems in order to construct these to become more resource efficient and reduce the time the product is in production. This bachelor thesis aims to describe and identify the methods and layout design methodologies which serve as the base for chosen industrial companies to successfully achieve Lean Production for production systems, and if these methods are consistent with theoretical planning and design process. A common feature of the interviewed companies regarding their production systems has been made clear which is that they consider their production systems to be lean if they are presented as line flows. The reason for this is that their layouts optimize surface use, make production systems more perspicuous and reduce buffers. There is great variation between the companies regarding their progress with the implementation of Lean Production. The key success factor for implementing the philosophy is the wish to apply the mindset to an even greater extent in order to improve production efficiency. In most companies, this means in the long run, they will develop and introduce their own versions of Lean Production that is tailored for their own operations.Mental planning process, layout simulations in 3D and flow simulations are tools that are regularly used for the design of the layout in order to optimize the layout of the production system. Due to lack of documentation of the mental process, no generalized and standardized templates have been created. A routine of documentation would lead to more reference guides and outlines that simplify changes in layouts, and it would have distinctive similarities to the theoretical planning and design process.Den industriella omgivningen och kunder ställer allt högre krav på nytänkande och unicitet. På grund av detta strävar företag med industriell produktion efter kortare ledtider och kvalitetshöga produkter för att bli konkurrenskraftiga. Lean Production är en filosofi kring optimalt utnyttjande av resurser och det är detta tankesätt som detta arbete lägger störst fokus på. Den avser agera som principer och riktlinjer gällande uppbyggnad, utveckling och utformning av effektiva layouter för produktionssystem i syfte att konstruera dessa till mer resurssnåla och minska tiden som produkten är i produktion. Denna kandidatuppsats ämnar redogöra hur och med vilka layoututformningsmetoder utvalda industribaserade företag använder sig av för att framgångsrikt uppnå Lean Production hos produktionssystemen och om dessa metoder stämmer överens med teoretisk planerings- och utformningsprocess. Ett gemensamt drag för alla intervjuade företag gällande deras produktionssystem har klargjorts då produktionssystemen anses vara lean om de är uppställda som linjeflöden. Anledningen till detta är att layouterna optimerar ytanvändningen, gör produktionssystemen mer överskådliga och minskar buffertar. Det finns en stor variation sinsemellan företagen beträffande hur långt de kommit med införandet av Lean Production. Den huvudsakliga framgångsfaktorn vid ett implementerande av Lean är existensen av en vilja att införa tankesättet i en ännu större utsträckning i syfte att effektivisera produktionen. I flera företags fall betyder detta i det långa loppet ett utvecklande och införande av en egen variant av Lean Production som är anpassad till den egna verksamheten. Mental planeringsprocess, layoutsimuleringar i 3D och flödessimuleringar är sådana verktyg som regelbundet används för utformning av layout i syfte att optimera layouten av produktionssystemet. På grund av en avsaknad av dokumentation av den mentala planeringsprocessen, har inga generaliserade och standardiserade mallar skapats. En vana vid dokumentering skulle leda till fler lathundar och mallar som förenklar förändringsarbeten i layouter och skulle då ha snarlika likheter med den teoretiska planerings- och utformningsprocessen