Managing Opperational Supplier Relationships

Background: The Company is in process of increasing the level of centralisation to make use of the economy of scale and get a stronger buying position. A common supplier relationship process on operational level is part of this process. Purpose: Purpose of the thesis is to review and improve the operational supplier relationship management process at The Company. The aim is to define and analyse the process and identify activities in need of improvement in order to achieve a structured and standardised supplier relationship management process for major appliances in Europe. Objectives: In order to fulfill the purpose of this thesis the following objectives need to be met: • Identify, define and map the current state of the operational supplier relationship process at The Company. • Define a structured model, based on the product characteristics, to achieve standardised operational activities in the supplier relationship. • Present recommendations aiming to improve the supplier relationship management process by changes in operational activities. Method: This thesis has been conducted using a systems approach. By combining theories from supply chain management and supplier relationship management with empirical studies from The Company operations a operational supplier relationship process was elaborated and validated with experienced personnel. Result: The thesis resulted in a supplier segmentation model and a process for operational work with Supplier Relationship Management

Analys av jord och konstruktion i samverkan - Utvärdering av olika FE-program

When building below ground level in cities the regulations regarding deformations of surrounding soil are very strict. When using conventional methods of calculation it is difficult to predict the occurring deformations. This is why it has become more common to use FE-modeling to determine deformations. With FE-modelling it is possible to take the interactions between soil and construction into consideration. There are FE-programs made for modelling constructions but it is difficult to model soil with these. In programs made for modelling geotechnical situations problems can arise with modelling structures in a satisfying way. The purpose of this work is to evaluate a few different programs for analysing the soil and structure interaction. In this work ABAQUS, Plaxis and Z-Soil have been compared. ABAQUS is a general purpose program whereas Plaxis and Z-Soil were developed specially for geotechnical modelling. In this work FE-modelling of two different cases has been performed. One simplefied case is used for lerning of how to use the program and it has also been used for comparison between computer aided calculations and conventional manual calculation. The second case is a part of the City-Tunnel project in Malmö where there was a fairly detailed investigation along with measurements of the displacement of the soil using inclinometers. Modelling of projects like these with ABAQUS is complicated. Plaxis is very userfriendly and easy but it gives lesser options to the user. Z-Soil, on the other hand, is somewhat more difficult to learn how to use and it takes more time to prepare the model, but with the program the user gets more options. The models in Plaxis and Z-Soil give relatively good accuracy in comparison with reality. In ABAQUS no modelling of the case from practice has been performed, but in the simplified case it shows that there is no major difference in the results between the different programs. The computed displacements are somewhat larger than the measured values. One reason for obtaining larger values in the simulations is that material data has been chosen with a safety margin when the geotechnical survey was performed. Another reason can be that ground water has already been pumped away from the outside of the diaphragm wall in reality but not in the model

Inviwo -- A Visualization System with Usage Abstraction Levels

The complexity of today's visualization applications demands specific visualization systems tailored for the development of these applications. Frequently, such systems utilize levels of abstraction to improve the application development process, for instance by providing a data flow network editor. Unfortunately, these abstractions result in several issues, which need to be circumvented through an abstraction-centered system design. Often, a high level of abstraction hides low level details, which makes it difficult to directly access the underlying computing platform, which would be important to achieve an optimal performance. Therefore, we propose a layer structure developed for modern and sustainable visualization systems allowing developers to interact with all contained abstraction levels. We refer to this interaction capabilities as usage abstraction levels, since we target application developers with various levels of experience. We formulate the requirements for such a system, derive the desired architecture, and present how the concepts have been exemplary realized within the Inviwo visualization system. Furthermore, we address several specific challenges that arise during the realization of such a layered architecture, such as communication between different computing platforms, performance centered encapsulation, as well as layer-independent development by supporting cross layer documentation and debugging capabilities

Explicit Cache Management for Volume Ray-Casting on Parallel Architectures

A major challenge when designing general purpose graphics hardware is to allow efficient access to texture data. Although different rendering paradigms vary with respect to their data access patterns, there is no flexibility when it comes to data caching provided by the graphics architecture. In this paper we focus on volume ray-casting, and show the benefits of algorithm-aware data caching. Our Marching Caches method exploits inter-ray coherence and thus utilizes the memory layout of the highly parallel processors by allowing them to share data through a cache which marches along with the ray front. By exploiting Marching Caches we can apply higher-order reconstruction and enhancement filters to generate more accurate and enriched renderings with an improved rendering performance. We have tested our Marching Caches with seven different filters, e. g., Catmul-Rom, B- spline, ambient occlusion projection, and could show that a speed up of four times can be achieved compared to using the caching implicitly provided by the graphics hardware, and that the memory bandwidth to global memory can be reduced by orders of magnitude. Throughout the paper, we will introduce the Marching Cache concept, provide implementation details and discuss the performance and memory bandwidth impact when using different filters

Marknadsmässig spannmålshandel

The agriculture throughout the world is becoming increasingly deregulated and this has affected the prices of raw materials to fluctuate at a higher degree than earlier. This in turn has made it interesting and in some cases even necessary for the trader as well as the producer to gain knowledge about the trade instruments available to ensure a good enough price for their produced goods. This study encompasses a number of ways to trade grain and oil plants in order to clarify what differences there are in the several contracts that exist in the present situation, economical as well as practical. The various trade instruments available to the producers on the Swedish market are described in the theoretical part of this study. The study also contains a simple arithmetic example, based on historical prices collected from grain traders and trading floors, in order to point out the differences in the economical outcomes depending on the business strategy used to sell the produced goods. The study shows the importance, as a producer, of being able to use and take advantage of the different trading instruments at hand to monitor and exploit the shifts in the market. From an economical point of view it is not enough to just excel at farming but knowledge about the market functions and the trade instruments at hand is also required to be able to secure a good enough price for your good

Ambulanspersonals beskrivning av kompetens och utbildningsbehov angående luftvägshantering i Region Skåne

Bakgrund: Inom ambulanssjukvården kan personalen behöva behandla patienter med ofri luftväg. Studier visar att omfattande utbildning och repetition krävs för att kunna hantera en ofri luftväg. Syfte: Undersöka hur ambulanspersonal i Region Skåne uppskattade sin nuvarande kompetens och utbildningsbehov. Metod: Studien genomfördes med en kvantitativ ansats i form av en enkätstudie. Beräkningar har utförts med statistikprogrammet SPSS. Resultat: Enkäten besvarades av 123 respondenter i tre av fyra ambulansdistrikt. Totalt 69.9% (n=86) anser att det inte erbjuds tillräckligt med utbildning och 22.0% (n=27) har upplevt att den tillgängliga kompetensen varit otillräcklig. Respondenterna föredrar intubation som slutgiltig lösning för att säkra en ofri luftväg trots det är det denna metod som störst andel av personalen känner sig osäker på. Ambulanspersonalen uppger till 72.0% (n=79) att man aldrig tar hänsyn till personalens luftvägsdelegering när ambulanserna bemannas. Slutsats: Författarna anser att verksamheten skulle ha ett större fokus på luftvägsutbildning för att på så sätt öka personalens kompetens

Mobilapplikationer - en säkerhetsrisk för dataintrång

En majoritet av alla verksamheter tillåter att mobila enheter får användas i tjänsten, trots ökad effektivitet för verksamheten uppstår även ökade säkerhetsrisker för dataintrång. Genom intervjuer med ansvariga för IT-säkerheten på verksamheter vilka är stora nog att inneha en IT-avdelning kunde vi undersöka deras konkreta åtgärder för att säkerställa de mobila enheterna för att etablera deras säkerhetsmedvetenhet. I studien kommer vi fram till att säkerheten fokuseras kring den fysiska säkerheten av enheten samt säkra anslutningar till verksamhetsresurser. Vi finner att verksamheter är medvetna om säkerhetsrisker för de mobila enheterna men att det saknas säkerhetsåtgärder samt direktiv för de anställda när det kommer till den interna säkerheten på enheterna

Financing of farms

The purpuse with this work is to see if there is a possibility to buy a farm with a low amount of own capital. We have been doing budgets for five farms with different kind of productions. Some of the farms in this work are possible to buy with a low amount of capital but if you start without any money you will run into problems with the bank. The bank is not very pleased with fully financed projects; they would recommend an own capital of at least 10-20%. The farms with the best budgets were farms with animals.Syftet med detta examensarbete har varit att undersöka om det finns någon möjlighet för en nystartad lantbrukare att förvärva en lantbruksfastighet att gå runt rent ekonomiskt utan något större eget kapital. Vi har gjort kalkyler på fem olika lantbruksfastigheter med olika inriktningar. På dessa fastigheter har vi räknat på lönsamheten. Vi har besökt banker och hört oss för vad de har för syn på våra kalkyler och vårt resonemang. Det bankerna belyser mest är återbetalningsförmågan samt att man bör ha minst 10-20 % eget kapital beroende vad man har för företag för att kunna klara sig som nystartad. Det är inte bara banken som skall ta risken. Banken är väldigt noga att se på hur personen är som vill låna pengar. Vi har även besökt en mäklare för att höra vad han har för syn på dagens priser på lantbruksfastigheter och vilken sorts kategori människor som köper en lantbruksfastighet. Kalkylerna uppvisar varierande resultat. De fall där vi har den bästa lönsamheten är djurgårdarna. Många kalkyler visar att man helt teoretiskt skulle kunna förränta gårdarna. Dock blir det i många fall inte mycket pengar över till amorteringar

Notan, tack! – En studie kring frontpersonalens motivationsfaktorer inom restaurantbranschen

PROBLEM: Forskningen säger att inre motivation skapas genom yttre belöning. Men frågan är hur frontpersonalen motiveras. Då restaurantbranschen fortsätter att växa samtidigt som den får anses som outforskad, menar vi att frontpersonalens bakomliggande motivationsfaktorer måste undersökas och kartläggas. SYFTE: Syftet med vår uppsats är att undersöka, diskutera och beskriva frontpersonalens motivationskällor samt att se hur ledare motiverar i en kontaktintensiv servicenäring. FRÅGESTÄLLNINGAR: Hur uppstår motivation hos frontpersonalen? Hur motiverar ledare sin frontpersonal? METOD: Vårt empiriska material utgörs av sex intervjuer och två observationer, vilka har använts för att besvara våra frågeställningar med stöd av teori. SLUTSATSER: Yttre belöning kan öka den inre motivationen. Vår studie visar att immateriella belöningar har störst motiverande effekt och att verbal beröm är den belöningstyp som såväl ledare som anställd värdesätter högst. Samtidigt som omgivningen och teamet tillsammans med ledaren spelar en betydande roll för den anställdas motivationsskapande

Temperature and Tree Size Explain the Mean Time to Fall of Dead Standing Trees across Large Scales

Dead standing trees (DSTs) generally decompose slower than wood in contact with the forest floor. In many regions, DSTs are being created at an increasing rate due to accelerating tree mortality caused by climate change. Therefore, factors determining DST fall are crucial for predicting dead wood turnover time but remain poorly constrained. Here, we conduct a re-analysis of published DST fall data to provide standardized information on the mean time to fall (MTF) of DSTs across biomes. We used multiple linear regression to test covariates considered important for DST fall, while controlling for mortality and management effects. DSTs of species killed by fire, insects and other causes stood on average for 48, 13 and 19 years, but MTF calculations were sensitive to how tree size was accounted for. Species’ MTFs differed significantly between DSTs killed by fire and other causes, between coniferous and broadleaved plant functional types (PFTs) and between managed and unmanaged sites, but management did not explain MTFs when we distinguished by mortality cause. Mean annual temperature (MAT) negatively affected MTFs, whereas larger tree size or being coniferous caused DSTs to stand longer. The most important explanatory variables were MAT and tree size, with minor contributions of management and plant functional type depending on mortality cause. Our results provide a basis to improve the representation of dead wood decomposition in carbon cycle assessments