Operational risk management in high-mix, low-volume production

Abstract. The objective of this Master’s thesis is to study operational risk management in High-Mix, Low-Volume production, with a focus on small and medium-sized enterprises. This objective is achieved through answering three research questions regarding previous literature, current state in a case company, and improving practises in the case company. This thesis is conducted as a qualitative research utilizing a literature review and a single case study. The literature review is utilized to form the theoretical foundation for the thesis, and to answer the first research question, providing the state of previous literature. The case study is utilized to obtain the current state in the case company, which answers the second research question. Case study data includes documentary data, observations, and interviews. Three semi-structured interviews were conducted, and the observations were obtained with participatory observing. The third research question is answered by comparing the empirical study and literature to provide improvement recommendations to the case company. The findings of this study include the empirical results of operational risk management in a single case example, as well as the proposed improvements for the case company. The empirical observations are described in detail, and guidance for future studies is given. The development proposals are directly applicable to the case company and are expected to result in a higher operational risk management capability. The literature review and empirical observations may be useful to other researchers or organizations, but the recommendations have limited generalizability outside the case company. However, some of the recommendations might be applicable to a company with similar practises or organizational context.Operatiivisten riskien hallinta korkean vaihtuvuuden ja matalan volyymin tuotantoympäristöissä. Tiivistelmä. Tämän diplomityön tavoitteena on tutkia operatiivisten riskien hallintaa korkean vaihtuvuuden ja matalan volyymin (High-Mix, Low-Volume) tuotantoympäristöissä, pienissä ja keskisuurissa yrityksissä. Työn tavoite saavutetaan vastaamalla kolmeen tutkimuskysymykseen liittyen aiempaan kirjallisuuteen, case-yrityksen nykytilaan ja case-yrityksen toiminnan parantamiseen. Diplomityö toteutetaan laadullisena tutkimuksena, jossa hyödynnetään kirjallisuuskatsausta ja case-tutkimusta. Kirjallisuuskatsaus muodostaa tutkimuksen teoreettisen viitekehyksen ja vastaa ensimmäiseen tutkimuskysymykseen esittelemällä aiempaa tutkimusta. Case-tutkimusta hyödynnetään case-yrityksen nykytilan kuvaamiseen, mikä antaa vastauksen toiseen tutkimuskysymykseen. Case-tutkimuksen aineisto koostuu case-yrityksen riskienhallintaan liittyvistä dokumenteista, havainnoista ja haastatteluista. Tutkimuksen osana suoritettiin kolme puolistrukturoitua haastattelua ja havainnot kerättiin osallistuvalla havainnoinnilla. Kolmanteen tutkimuskysymykseen vastataan empiirisen tutkimuksen ja kirjallisuuden vertailulla, jonka tuloksena saadaan ehdotuksia case-yrityksen toiminnan parantamiseen. Tutkimuksen tuloksia ovat empiiriset havainnot yksittäisestä case-yrityksestä sekä parannusehdotukset case-yrityksen operatiivisten riskien hallintaan. Tarkkaan kuvattujen empiiristen havaintojen lisäksi työssä ohjeistetaan aiheeseen liittyvää jatkotutkimusta. Annetut parannusehdotukset ovat suoraan sovellettavissa case-yritykseen ja niiden odotetaan johtavan korkeampaan operatiivisten riskien hallinnan kyvykkyyteen. Toiset organisaatiot ja tutkimukset voivat hyötyä kirjallisuuskatsauksesta ja empiirisistä havainnoista, mutta parannusehdotuksilla on rajallinen yleistettävyys case-yrityksen ulkopuolelle. Jotkin parannusehdotukset voivat kuitenkin olla sovellettavissa yrityksiin, joilla on samankaltaisia käytänteitä tai piirteitä

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe

Study of W boson production in pPb collisions at vsNN = 5.02 TeV

The first study of W boson production in pPb collisions is presented, for bosons decaying to a muon or electron, and a neutrino. The measurements are based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34.6 nb-1 at a nucleon–nucleon centre-of-mass energy of vsNN = 5.02 TeV, collected by the CMS experiment. The W boson differential cross sections, lepton charge asymmetry, and forward–backward asymmetries are measured for leptons of transverse momentum exceeding 25 GeV/c, and as a function of the lepton pseudorapidity in the |?lab| < 2.4range. Deviations from the expectations based on currently available parton distribution functions are observed, showing the need for including W boson data in nuclear parton distribution global fits