Emergence, ascent and externalising of Finland ́s mobile phone industry

Siirretty Doriast

Economical importance of Finnish reindeer industry

Within 15 years favourable weather conditions, antiparasite medication, supplementary feed, modern technology, calf slaughter and other factors all contributed to a vast increase in reindeer, and hence reindeer meat production, so much so that by the early 1990s the total number of reindeer was approaching 430 000, and reindeer meat production exceeded 4 million kg. Due to excess numbers of reindeer, stocks had to be culled. At the same time problems arose with the processing of reindeer meat. As a result, demand slumped and prices plummeted. In a few years the outlook for reindeer management changed drastically. Since then the profession has been marked by uncertainty and change. The number of reindeer is now below the permitted level. In the 1996/97 season, number of living reindeer in herds totalled over 202 000, slaughtered reindeer 80 000 (Fig. 1) and meat production about 2 million kg. Income from slaughtered animals amounted to FIM 58 million

AVOIMEN LÄHDEKOODIN VERKKOKAUPPASOVELLUKSET

Verkkokaupan avulla on mahdollista saavuttaa suuri potentiaalisten asiakkaiden joukko huomattavasti perinteistä kivijalkamyymälää pienemmin kustannuksin. Avoimeen lähdekoodiin perustuvan verkkokauppa-alustan avulla liiketoiminnan aloittaminen voi olla lähes ilmaista. Tässä opinnäytetyössä selvitetään, kuinka verkkokaupan pystyttäminen on teknisesti mahdollista ilman suuria investointeja. Tarkastelun kohteena ovat WWW-palvelin, jolla verkkokauppaohjelmistoa pyöritetään, sekä joitakin tarjolla olevia verkkokauppavaihtoehtoja. Koska työn näkökulmana on investointikulujen minimointi, on kaupalliset ohjelmistot rajattu tarkastelun ulkopuolelle. Samoin verkkokaupan perustamiseen liittyvää liiketaloudellista puolta ei tässä työssä käsitellä. Tämän työn tarkoituksena ei ole toimia tutkittujen ohjelmien käyttöohjeena vaan enemmänkin olla apuna sopivan verkkokauppa-alustan valinnassa. Työn alkuosassa käydään yksityiskohtaisesti läpi WWW-palvelimen pystyttäminen kotikoneelle testikäyttöä varten sekä annetaan myös hieman yleistietoa palvelimen toiminnasta. Tämän jälkeen selvitetään yleisellä tasolla kuuden avoimeen lähdekoodiin perustuvan verkkokauppa-alustan ominaisuuksia keskittyen muokkausmahdollisuuksiin sekä alustoissa ilmeneviin eroihin. Lopuksi näiden ominaisuuksien pohjalta suoritetaan alustojen vertailua ja annetaan niistä yhteenveto. Kaikki tarkastellut verkkokauppasovellukset ovat toiminnallisuudeltaan hyvin samanlaisia. Käyttöliittymien toimivuudessa on tosin hieman vaihtelevuutta. Todellisia eroja löytyy kuitenkin enemmän käyttäjälle piilossa olevasta koodista ja ohjelmistojen rakenteesta. Ohjelmiston ikä vaikuttaa paljon tuotteeseen, sillä vanhat ohjelmistot eivät hyödynnä yhtä tehokkaasti uusia verkkoteknologioita kuin uudemmat tuotteet.Web-store allows to get in contact with numbers of potential customers using less investments than which is needed in traditional physical stores. Using an open source web-store platform the starting of a business may be done with extremely low initial costs. In this thesis work it is studied how one can build a web-store with minimal investments. This study is performed mainly from the technical point of view. The main idea is to give a hint about software properties of which one should consider when starting a web-store and also what kind of options there recently is available. The first part of this work is about configuring a web-server for test environment and providing some basic knowledge about this server. After this there is the study and comparison of six open source web-stores. The part which covers the building of a web-server is quite detailed and can be used as a guide to install a server to a home computer. The second part will focus on the web-store applications. This is not meant to be a detailed description about the studied programs but to give an overview about each one of them focusing on the modifying and usability of the stores. The main functions of all studied applications are basically same tough there is some variation on the user interfaces. Most differences are found in the code and the program structure which are not visible for the average user. These matters are important when modifying the platform to meet some specialised demands which the basic configuration doesn't offer

Using Theory of Constraints to increase control in a complex manufacturing environment - Case CandyCo: Make-to-stock production with a broad product offering and hundreds of components

The objectives of this Thesis are to describe the complex manufacturing setup faced by a case company, CandyCo, and to develop suggestions for the case company to increase control and throughput in the factory. CandyCo operates in the confectionery industry and offers several types of products. The motivation for the study for the company's part is to analyze and improve its mixed-component candy bag production. Mixed-component bags are products which contain various types of components, i.e. candies, as opposed to just one type. The production process is analyzed using the Theory of constraints (TOC) -framework. The bottleneck in the production process has been defined as being in the mixing-packaging phase. The Thesis adds to the existing pool of studies on complexity as well as to the pool of case studies using TOC to improve performance. The methods used in this Thesis could be applied by companies facing similar challenges in similar industries, e.g. the snack food industry. The production process at CandyCo was modeled using the flowchart method. The throughput of the bottleneck resource was analyzed based on the data provided by the case company using Microsoft Excel. The two key analysis techniques were based on TOC: offloading and idle time analysis. The Thesis examines, if offloading possibilities for the bottleneck resource exist and also if the bottleneck resource is ever idle. To determine the root causes for idle time, root cause analysis alongside the five-why method were used. A small simulation model was also built to illustrate the effects of reducing idle time in the bottleneck on throughput and inventory. Finally, the company was involved in generating and assessing improvement ideas for the factory based on initial suggestions. The analysis revealed that there were offloading possibilities in the bottleneck: around 14% of the end products, i.e. candy bags, handled by the bottleneck were single-component products. This means that the mixing resource of the bottleneck was used to handle components that do not require mixing. The idle time analysis revealed that the bottleneck was idle 52% of the time. 22% of the year was spent on waiting time, of which most consistent of either personnel or component shortages. Together with CandyCo's staff, ideas were generated to reduce component and personnel shortages. The theoretical result of the Thesis is that the underlying principles of TOC remain sound and applicable in the modern manufacturing environment. The managerial implication is that using TOC-techniques, factory throughput can be increased using small investments and changes in the way things are done instead of resorting to heavy investments in machinery

Competitiveness and marketing strategies of foreign companies in Eastern Europe: Empirical evidence from Finnish and Austrian companies

Research on marketing in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has been of rising interest since the transition started in 1989. In this paper two major areas relevant for marketing in CEE are being discussed: the competitive situation in the transition countries and the basic competitive marketing tools for penetrating these markets. This study reports findings of a survey inclu-ding 139 Finnish and 97 Austrian companies active in CEE and confirms: Competition in CEE is intensifying but still weaker than in Western markets. The main competitors are other foreign companies. Western companies base their marketing strategies mainly on personal relationships, technical quality of their product, good company image, personal selling, and customer service.Forschungen über das Marketing in Mittel- und Osteuropa (MOE) haben seit Beginn der Transformation 1989 zugenommen. In diesem Artikel werden zwei Bereiche, die für das Marketing in MOE relevant sind, diskutiert: die Wettbewerbssituation in den Transformationsländern und wettbewerbs-orientierte Marketinginstrumente zur Durchdringung dieser Märkte. Die Studie basiert auf einer Befragung von 139 finnischen und 97 österreichischen Unternehmen mit Aktivitäten in MOE und zeigt: Hauptkonkurrenten der befragten Unter-nehmen sind andere ausländische Unternehmen, der Wettbewerb ver-schärft sich ist aber noch schwächer als in westlichen Märkten. Westliche Unternehmen gründen ihre Marketingstrategien hauptsächlich auf gute persönliche Beziehungen, technische Qualität ihrer Produkte, Unternehmens-image, persönlichen Verkauf und Kundenservice