The purpose of the thesis has been to explore the use of hedge fund styles when constructing portfolios of hedge funds (i.e. funds of hedge funds). The central question is if the use of hedge fund styles can significantly explain and improve risk adjusted returns (characterized by Sharpe ratios). The study has been done in collaboration with Optimized Portfolio Management AB who desire further knowledge and evaluation of hedge fund styles for their fund of hedge funds.

To be able to create successful ex ante portfolios we have explored various prediction models for both risk and return. Our findings indicate that return prediction is problematic using simple models such as regression since the risk exposure of the indices appear to change significantly over time. One can however using exponentially weighted moving averages (EWMA) achieve relatively promising estimations of future returns.

Covariance matrix estimation seems to be more straightforward. We have achieved promising results using both traditional EWMA models as well as improved estimators using principal component analysis.Covariance prediction models were evaluated separately using a minimum-variance portfolio optimization technique and provided a significant risk reduction compared to the aggregated hedge fund universe (represented by a naively diversified portfolio). Combinations of risk and return prediction models were evaluated using traditional mean-variance portfolio construction methods, which were optimized for Sharpe ratios. These provided a significant increase in risk adjusted returns relative to the aggregated hedge fund universe. The allocation is however discouraging due to serious instability over time.

Our findings indicate that there indeed is an advantage of taking hedge fund styles into consideration when constructing funds of hedge funds in a risk adjusted perspective. However, further research into return prediction needs to be done in order to stabilize portfolio allocation. An alternative seems to be tactical style allocation on a more fundamental analysis basis.

A business process is the combination of a set of activities within an enterprise with a structure describing their logical order and dependence whose objective is to produce a desired result. Business process modelling enables a common understanding and analysis of a business process. A process model can provide a comprehensive understanding of a process. An enterprise can be analysed and integrated through its business processes. Hence the importance of correctly modelling its business processes. Using the right model involves taking into account the purpose of the analysis and, knowledge of the available process modelling techniques and tools. The number of references on business modelling is huge, thus making it very time consuming to get an overview and understand many of the concepts and vocabulary involved. The primary concern of this paper is to make that job easier, i.e. review business process modelling literature and describe the main process modelling techniques. Also a framework for classifying business process-modelling techniques according to their purpose is proposed and discussed. © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

This paper provides managers and other decision-makers with support on how to analyse business processes by presenting the use and features of Trampolin and DGRAI as complementary tools for the analysis of business processes to support enterprise integration. Two business process models were built for the production planning process in a large telecommunication company one using Trampolin and the other using DGRAI. The former offers a statistical analysis of the process showing the information required, responsible and other features of each activity along the process besides its links and sequence. The second gives a more dynamic analysis focusing on the process' decisional flow and its associated information and resources permitting to simulate and analyse the consequences of the decision-making process. A brief description of what may be analysed with each tool followed by analytical insights, and an analysis of how these tools support enterprise integration, are provided. Also the paper shows the advantages and disadvantages of each tool as well as some common and complementary characteristics found in the models.

Kriminalvårdsverket är det statliga verk som har hand om kriminalvård i Sverige. Vid årsskiftet 2003/2004 finns det 4 571 nominella anstaltsplatser fördelade på män och kvinnor. Ett stort problem idag är att antalet anstaltsplatser inte räcker till, samtidigt som ekonomin inte tillåter några större utbyggnationer.

Simuleringen speglar en önskad väg genom svensk kriminalvård för att på så sätt utnyttja platserna som finns på ett tillfredställande sätt. Utdata från simuleringen kan inte tolkas exakt eftersom det inte fanns statistik att tillgå inom alla områden. Då data saknats har istället sakkunniga från olika områden fått uppskatta värden till simuleringsmodellen. Simuleringen kan användas för att se tendenser för hur beläggningsgrader och kötider skiftar imodellen.

Utifrån det önskade flödet genom anstaltsvistelsen kan slutsatser gällande antalet platser dras. Först och främst är det för få anstaltsplatser totalt, eftersom simuleringen urartar vid längre körningar. Då fler platser tillförs blir systemet stabilt. På kvinnosidan bör det satsas på fler öppna normalplatser för att öka flödet till de slutna normalplatserna. Det bör vara fler öppna än slutna normalplatser. Även för män behövs det fler platser. Här är läget mer kritiskt än för kvinnorna, eftersom det i stort sett behövs fler platser till alla differentieringsgrunder som finns i dag.

Vidare kan det utläsas från resultaten att det är mycket svårt att lyckas med det inofficiella önskemålet om att 90 % av de häktade ska vara placerade inom sju dagar från det att de meddelats dom. En bidragande orsak till att modellen har svårt att tillgodose detta önskemål är att frifötterna prioriteras i modellen. Detta beror på att de köar direkt till platserna och därmed placeras så fort en plats blir ledig. Detta leder till längre köer för de häktade då det råder platsbrist. Även detta måste beaktas vid analys av utdata.

Flexibility in manufacturing operations is becoming increasingly more important to industrial firms due to e.g. increasing product demand volatility, internationalisation of markets and competition, and shorter product life cycles. Flexibility is hard to evaluate in the traditional way by discounting expected cash flow, but an accessible approach is to consider flexibility as real options and use option-pricing theory. The general purpose of this thesis is to analyse and increase the understanding of product-mix flexibility by using option pricing. Employing option pricing enables a number of flexibility related issues to be analysed. From a manufacturing point of view aspects such as the impact of capacity levels, degree of flexibility in the manufacturing process, and characteristics of product demand are analysed. From a financial point of view aspects such as the impact of correlation between product demand and the market portfolio, and the impact of mean-reverting processes are analysed. The manufacturing contexts are characterised by set-up costs, capacity constraints, and in the presence of several products.

This paper considers manufacturing flexibility and real options from an industrial engineering/production management perspective. Real options papers are related to different types of manufacturing flexibility in order to show which types that are considered and in what way they are considered. Flexibility types not valued with real options and real options without any corresponding manufacturing flexibility type are identified and discussed. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Product-mix flexibility is one of the major types of manufacturing flexibility, referring to the ability to produce a broad range of products or variants with presumed low changeover costs. The value of such a capability is important to establish for an industrial firm in order to ensure that the flexibility provided will be at the right level and used profitably rather than in excess of market requirements and consequently costly. We use option-pricing theory to analyse the impact of various product-mix issues on the value of flexibility. The real options model we use incorporates multiple products, capacity constraints as well as set-up costs. The issues treated here include the number of products, demand variability, correlation between products, and the relative demand distribution within the product mix. Thus, we are interested in the nature of the input data to analyse its effect on the value of flexibility. We also check the impact at different capacity levels. The results suggest that the value of flexibility (i) increases with an increasing number of products, (ii) decreases with increasing volatility of product demand, (iii) decreases the more positively correlated the demand is, and (iv) reduces for marginal capacity with increasing levels of capacity. Of these, the impact of positively correlated demand seems to be a major issue. However, the joint impact of the number of products and demand correlation showed some non-intuitive results. ⌐ 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Flexibility in manufacturing operations is becoming increasingly more important to industrial firms, due to e.g., increasing market demand volatility, internationalisation of markets and competition, and shorter product life cycles. Defining, measuring and evaluating manufacturing flexibility have not been straightforward - neither in theory nor in practice. The use of real options has shown to be an accessible approach for the valuation of certain types of flexibility. When using real options for capital budgeting purposes it is possible to take flexibility options into account in the valuation process. In this paper, we use real options to evaluate one specific type of manufacturing flexibility, i.e., product-mix flexibility. We provide both theoretical and practical perspectives, based on a real case. The main interest of the company under study is to evaluate product-mix flexibility with respect to capacity, set-ups, level of automation and multi-functionality of resources. The case involves multiple products and demand uncertainty, wherefore product demands are used as the underlying asset in the real options models. Thus, the contribution of this paper concerns the combination of real case, multiple products, capacity constraints, and set-up costs. The results of the analysis show that (i) the value of flexibility decreases when demand volatility increases, (ii) flexible resources add substantial value as compared to dedicated resources, and (iii) the flexibility value of marginal capacity decreases with increasing levels of capacity.

GNT Group is a Nordic/Baltic wholesaler that distributes products in the IT, entertainment and home electronics sector. GNT is facing problems with inaccurate inventory levels which can lead to unnecessarily high inventory carrying costs or lost sales. Currently the decisions about when and how many to order are made somewhat arbitrarily by the responsible personnel. Their decisions are based only on some brief sales history and on experience.

GNT wants to develop its ERP system to be able to support the purchaser in these and other related decisions. The purpose of this thesis is to give suggestions to what decisions the ERP system should support and how these decisions can be made.

The three main tasks in this thesis are to suggest how to calculate the optimal order quantity, how to calculate the optimal ordering point and how to decide whether it can be profitable to store an article in only one of GNT’s warehouses.

The suggested solution is based on a volume value/demand frequency classification which also takes an item’s life cycle characteristics into consideration. For the different classes suitable calculations and decisions are suggested concerning the three main tasks and issues related to them.

Detta examensarbete är skrivet vid den s.k. A-härden i Göteborg, på uppdrag av SKF Sverige AB. A-härden härdar i dagsläget ringar, brickor samt stora rullar åt framförallt interna kunder inom SKF koncernen. Dessa komponenter ingår sedan i slutprodukterna kul- och rullager. Syftet med examensarbetet är att undersöka vilka åtgärder A-härden bör ta när den nya D-härden kör igång för fullt vid halvårsskiftet 2005. Uppstartandet av den nya härden år 2005 innebär att A- härden hamnar i en situation där stora delar av dess nuvarande produktion kommer att tas över av D-härden. Detta resulterar förhoppningsvis i viss överkapacitet som kan användas till att t.ex. förkorta genomloppstider i härden. Arbetets slutliga rekommendationer ska gälla ända fram till årsskiftet 2006 2007, då den gamla A-härden eventuellt läggs ner och i så fall ersätts av den planerade E-härden.

Efter diskussion med härdchef Sten Svensson antogs och bestämdes det att en säkerhetsmarginal på 20 % och en effektivitetsfaktor på 75 % (i realiteten varierar denna) är rimliga nivåer att räkna med för både 2005 och 2006. Ur kapacitetsanalysen framgår det dock att ett femskift i A-härden enbart kan ha säkerhetskapacitet på ca 19 % för år 2005 och 15 % för 2006. Detta innebär att om stödhärdning till Hanover i USA sker, kommer den tänkta säkerhetsmarginalen inte att kunna klaras av för något av åren.

Som indata till den utförda ledtidsanalysen gjordes en materialfamiljsklassificering som utifrån volymvärde och interkundens ”viktighetsgrad” tog fram ett antal materialfamiljer för vidare studier. På de utvalda materialfamiljerna utfördes sedan en teoretisk ledtidsreducering med hjälp av orderklyvning, dvs. användandet av parallella flöden på en order. Denna analys ledde fram till ett antal rekommendationer gällande vilka materialfamiljer som kan vara intressanta att orderklyva och när det är aktuellt. Även en analys av flödet genom ugn 25 och 27 utfördes för att bland annat identifiera eventuella flaskhalsar och komma med förslag till förbättringsåtgärder. Slutligen har den sista delen i problemanalysen resulterat i ett antal slutsatser och rekommendationer inom områdena JIT, Supply Chain och detaljplanering.

Our work focuses on an analysis of the processes for full and partial annealing of aluminium coils. Due to inefficient production management these processes show high inventory levels, long lead times and decreased delivery performance.

We have also found inadequacies in the ways costs for these processes are distributed. We have established a new process mapping by initially investigating the strategic dimensions of the company and the processes for annealing, in order to later on establish performance measures congruent with the business objectives. Furthermore we have conducted extensive calculations and analyses to facilitate the successful implementation of a Just-in-time production philosophy, including necessary process improvements and redesigns to be made. Our proposed changes will lead to shorter lead times and low levels of WIP, which are important success factors of a JIT-based production philosophy.

To do this we have developed a capacity analysis tool with which it is also possible to analyse other processing scenarios or the effect of load changes and/or product mix variations. This tool can also serve as a benchmark for capacity analysis of other processes.

Finally, we have been able to establish more accurate costs per machine hour for full and partial annealing to be implemented in the managerial system. We believe that the processes for annealing are not the only ones suffering from poor cost control, why we would suggest that Sapa Heat Transfer investigates the cost distribution in more processes, and also develops and follows better guidelines for cost control.

Detta examensarbete är utfört vid institutionen för produktionsekonomi på Linköpings tekniska högskola, för Motala Verkstad. Syftet med arbetet var att genomföra en produktflödesanalys med avseende på genomloppstider i produktionen och ta fram åtgärder för att korta ner dessa. En stor andel av genomloppstiden utgörs av kö- och väntetid. Störst effekt uppnås om dessa tider kan reduceras varför fokus i rapporten är inriktat på dessa tider.

Motala Verkstad är ett företag med inriktning mot skärande bearbetning i stora dimensioner. Företaget har problem med långa ledtider, varför ett förbättringsarbete startat.

Problemen beror på att ett högt utnyttjande av samtliga resurser eftersträvas, samtidigt som det saknas kontroll av verklig beläggning.Rapporten är uppdelad i fyra faser, där den inledande fasen består av nulägesbeskrivning och uppgiftsprecisering. Efterföljande fas är litteraturstudier som följs av kartläggning och analys. I de avslutande kapitlen behandlas slutsatser och lösningsförslag.

Målet med lösningsförslagen är att få en bättre bild av verkligheten, en aktuell planering och en kortare genomloppstid genom att fokusera mer på ett ökat genomflöde istället för maskinutnyttjande. De slutsatser och lösningsförslag som framkommit är att det krävs en förbättrad planering och styrning för att uppnå kortare genomloppstider. För att lättare kunna kontrollera och följa upp produktionen bör tidplaner införas i detaljplaneringen. Eftersom köer utgör en stor del av genomloppstiden är det viktigt att kunna styra och kontrollera dessa i produktionen. För detta bör in- och utflöde vid resurser kontrolleras. Vidare bör enklare återrapportering införas för snabbare leveranser mellan resurser och för att en aktuell bild av beläggningen ska kunna skapas. För att få en tydligare bild av produktionen och kunna utvärdera den på ett bra sätt bör mätetal som underlättar detta införas.

Strävan har varit att ta framlösningsförslag som inte innebär stora investeringar och som kan genomföras relativt snabbt. De största förändringarna gäller planering och styrning vilket inte bör medföra några större kostnader.

This thesis is accomplished in the transmission department, DX, on Scania, Södertälje. The purpose is to compare the method lapping, that are used today, with the method grinding. The two methods are used for hard surfacing on bevel gears, one of the components in the transmission for trucks and busses. The methods are compared with a widely perspective and constructions, production, logistic and economy are taken in to considerations.

Scania has experienced some problems with the lapping process and that’s why they want this pre-study done. In the lapping process the material removal occurs when the flanks of the wheel and pinion touches, this makes it necessary to synchronise the production flow for wheel and pinion before the machining. This cause loses in efficiency and makes it difficult to plan the production. With grinding the removal of material is carried out by a grinding wheel that separate the production and planning for the wheel and pinion. Lapping has also a very limited capacity in removal of material. With grinding it is possible to remove more materials, up to five times.

During the study even more problem with lapping occurs. The method can’t guarantee a stable quality and automatization of the hard surfacing of the gear is not possible with lapping. Grinding on the other hand guarantee constant quality and creates opportunities for automatization. Grinding solves a lot of the problems that appears today but it also has other advantages. More complex forms on the flank can be created with grinding then with lapping, making opportunities for the construction department. By using modification of the flank form the gear can evolving in both load carrying capacity and noise behaviour.

There are also risks with grinding. This report identifies several and burnings are one of them. Burning appears when the temperature between the flank and the grinding wheel get to high. This causes damage on the flank surface. Another risk has to do with the heat treatment. Because of the higher removal of material with grinding, it is necessary to leave more material on the flank in the cutting. The consequence could be that a longer time is required in the furnace to get the same depth of case.

Even more indirect effects of a change in method are observed in the report. By using grinding, potential for cutting with a higher speed appears which leads to reduction in cycle time. In the hard turning machine, where the wheels are machined, the cycle time will increase.

The conclusion of the report is, with respect to the purpose, that Scania should grind all their bevel gears. The strongest argument is the potential in separating the production system for wheel and pinion, the increased performance of the bevel gear and the constant quality that grinding achieves.

   The design of the manufacturing network for a firm is an important factor for its competitive position. By manufacturing network we mean the plant or plants of the manufacturing firm and the relationships with external suppliers. The way that these operate together is central to the entire supply system supports the competition of the products in the marketplace. The decisions are typically categorised as related to facilities and vertical integration, two decision categories in an operations strategy. This paper presents the results of a survey of 84 Swedish manufacturing plants. The results show that competitive priorities such as quality and price play different roles in the networks, and that there is a significant difference in terms of how internal and external suppliers are selected

Detta examensarbete är utfört vid Institutionen för produktionsekonomi på Linköpings tekniska högskola, för Scania Motortillverkning i Södertälje. Syftet med arbetet är att kartlägga ledtider i motortillverkningens produktion och att ta fram förbättringsförlag och arbetsmetoder för ledtidsreducering. Av Scania Motortillverknings totalt 13 flöden valdes fyra att studeras. De fyra flödena har olika karakteristik och representerar i viss mån samtliga produktionsflöden.

Slutsatserna i detta arbete bygger på en omfattande kartläggning, vilken innefattar ledtider och operationstider men även hur förflyttning av material sker och hur buffertar byggs upp. Kartläggningen har sedan analyserats genom att ledtider för varje artikel jämförts med hur mycket värdeadderade tid som utförts. På detta sätt synliggörs kö- och väntetider i flödet och dess nödvändighet och funktion kan ifrågasättas.

De mest begränsande faktorerna för ledtiden på de studerade flöderna är att produktion sker i stora batcher och att två av flödena har en ojämn produktionstakt.

Strävan har varit att ta fram förbättringsförslag som inte innebär stora investeringar och därför kan genomföras relativt omgående. Det har varit möjligt till viss del, framförallt för det mest komplexa produktionsflödet där slutsatsen bland annat är att det går att producera mer flexibelt. I andra fall har analysen visat att vissa investeringar måste göras för att en märkbar ledtidsreducering ska ske. Dessa förändringar betyder mestadels att kapaciteten måste höjas för någon del av flödet.

För att arbeta kontinuerligt med ledtider rekommenderas följande arbetsmetoder för Scania Motortillverkning:

- Utmana Kanbansystemet där det finns möjlighet genom att reducera antalet Kanban.

- Nästa steg i Scanias arbete med Scanias Produktions System bör vara reducering av ställtider.

- Använd det interna datasystemet PUS för att följa upp ställtider.

- Använd den identitetsmärkningen varje artikel har till att följa upp ledtider för de mer komplexa flödena.

A number of different standard ordering policies are presented within the methodology of Material Requirements Planning (MRP), such as Lot-For-Lot (L4L), Fixed Order Quantity (FOQ), Fixed Period Requirements (FPR), etc. In MRP theory the time development of the production-inventory system is determined by a set of fundamental equations for available inventory, total inventory and backlogs using Input-Output Analysis for capturing the Bill of Materials and Laplace transforms for describing the advanced timing requirements. This paper aims at formally introducing standard ordering policies into the fundamental equations of MRP Theory in order to analyse the possibility to obtain closed-form expressions for the time development of the system, when such rules are applied.

A substantial amount of research has been carried out on capacity-constrained production-inventory systems. This has mostly dealt with models assuming deterministic demand and single-item systems. In previous work, one of the authors together with a co-researcher designed a basic theoretical model for systems with multiple items and stochastic external demand. These developments were presented within a discrete time framework. Lead times were assumed to be given constants and the net present value principle was applied. Although the theory developed concerned situations in which the lead times could be any non-zero constants, in order to design an analytical solution procedure, the assumption was made that lead times were zero, in order to be able to apply dynamic programming. Cumulative production and cumulative demand were taken as state variables. In this paper, we remain in the discrete time framework and develop a methodology for the case that lead times are non-zero, whereas demand is deterministic. Our emphasis is on the design of the state space, the properties of which depend on the product structures (the input matrix), the distribution of lead times among the production processes (the lead time matrix), and on the historical sequences of the production vectors. Once an efficient state space is designed, dynamic programming may be applied as a solution method. The net present value principle is again applied. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The compound distribution is of interest for the study of production/inventory problems, since it provides a flexible description of the stochastic properties of the system. However, due to the difficulties involved in obtaining analytical results for the compound distribution, studies are usually limited to searching for a good approximation by replacing a more complex model with a simpler one applying only the first few moments as parameters. This paper presents general closed form formulae for the moments and central moments of any order of a compound distribution made up of non-negative stochastic variables. The Laplace and z-transform methods play an important role in this study. The importance of taking into consideration higher-order moments, when computing a safety factor for inventory control, is illustrated in a numerical example. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A great deal of research has been done on capacity-constrained production–inventory systems, most of which concerns deterministic demand situations and single-product systems. In this paper we present a model of a multi-level capacity-constrained system when external demand is stochastic. Unlike the traditional total cost objective, adopted in the vast majority of capacity-constrained production–inventory models, the (expected) Net Present Value is here used as the objective function. Dynamic programming is chosen as the solution procedure. Numerical examples are given to explain the model and to illustrate features when changing available capacity.

The Laplace transform together with input–output analysis are employed as tools to construct the model. This approach has been used in previous research to formulate a theoretical base for Material Requirements Planning (MRP) systems.

The paper provides a further argument for the use of transforms in combination with matrix representations of product structures and capacity requirements, and it extends previous theory in the direction of capacity considerations combined with uncertainty in external demand. Dynamic programming is also shown to be a practical method for the multi-stage optimisation involved.

The numerical examples further illustrate, for instance, the natural propensity for subordinate items to be lot sized in a more lumpy way than their parents, and also how the marginal benefit of capacity increments follows the law of diminishing returns. Also comparisons are made with solutions from the deterministic equivalence model, using average demand as a proxy.

Laplace transform and input-output analysis have been used to formulate a theoretical basis for Material Requirements Planning (MRP) system. In this paper, we will formulate a model for capacity-constrained production-inventory system applying Laplace transform and input-output analysis, which is different from the classical method of handling the capacity problem.

The Laplace transform and Input-Output Analysis have been used to formulate a theoretical basis for Material Requirements Planning (MRP). In this paper, as a first step to incorporating capacity limitations into this theory, we introduce alternative formulations of a model for capacity-constrained production-inventory systems in a deterministic environment applying the same approach. We focus our attention on the way in which the balance equations constraining the system need to be modified. A numerical example is given to explain the model.

This paper presents a survey of the current literature on capacity-constrained production-inventory problems in the MRP context. Research work within both the deterministic and stochastic environments are summarised. Certain aspects related to model formulation are also discussed. Our aim is to give a generalunderstanding of the capacitated lot-sizing problem rather than a comprehensive literature study. The literature covered is mostly since 1980. A basic aim is also to create a background to generalisations of theoretical developments on material requirements planning applying input-output analysis and Laplace transforms.

Detta examensarbete har genomförts vid Institutionen för produktionsekonomi på Linköpings tekniska högskola. Uppdragsgivare har varit Svenskt Näringsliv och arbetet har utförts på Södersjukhuset i Stockholm. Syftet med arbetet har varit att kartlägga flödet av patienter med sökorsak höft genom sjukhusets akutmottagning och ortopediska verksamhet, för att därefter analysera detta och föreslå åtgärder som kan minska väntetider och öka genomflödet.

På akutmottagningen har tre aktiviteter visat sig vara viktigare än de övriga, nämligen läkarundersökning, röntgen och inläggning på vårdplats. Anledningen till detta är att väntan till de aktiviteterna utgör cirka två tredjedelar av en patients tid på akutmottagningen. Därför har åtgärderna på akutmottagningen syftat till att reducera dessa väntetider och mildra dess konsekvenser.

Ett led i detta är att akutmottagningen anpassar antalet läkare bättre efter de varierande behoven över dygnet. Röntgenavdelningen bör kontinuerligt utvärdera behoven från akutmottagningen för att på så sätt balansera sin kapacitet. Patienter som är färdiga på akutmottagningen placeras i en separat lokal under tiden de väntar på vårdplats.

Inom den ortopediska verksamheten syftar åtgärdsförslagen till en förändrad hantering av resurser och ett bättre utnyttjande av desamma. De två resurser som arbetet koncentrerar sig kring är vårdplatser och operation, och avvägningen om dessa bör vara gemensamma eller dedicerade mellan elektiva och akuta patienter.

Det betydande antalet operationer som drabbas av störningar, och därför ej kan genomföras, talar för en uppdelning av operationsresurser mellan akuta och elektiva patienter. Däremot bör vårdplatserna vara gemensamma eftersom de elektiva patienterna kan jämna ut den totala efterfrågan på vårdplatser. Genom att dessutom se över utskrivningsrutinerna från vårdavdelningar kan flödet förbättras ytterligare. Åtgärder som föreslagits för att åstadkomma detta är tidig planering av utskrivningar, utskrivningskoordinator och att inrätta en lokal i väntan på hemfärd.

Armatec tillhandahåller system, produkter och funktionella lösningar inom värme, kyla och process. Företaget har lager i Sverige, Norge och Danmark. Under senare tid har företaget sett att lagret i Norge utgör en stor kostnad. Armatec har därför börjat fundera på om de skulle tjäna på att centralisera logistikstrukturen dvs. stänga lagret i Norge och utöka centrallagret i Göteborg. Syftet meddetta examensarbete är att undersöka huruvida lagret behövs i Norge eller ej. Den metod som arbetet använder sig av är Dupont - modellen eller avkastningsmodellen. Genom att använda denna modell beräknas lagerkostnaderna, transportkostnaderna, lagerstorlek, kapacitetsutnyttjande osv. Dessutom gör man en analys av leveransprecision, leveranssäkerhet, leveranstid och leverensflexibilitet. Arbetet har gått genom dessa punkter och finner att lagerräntabiliteten ökar med 13% om företaget Armatec stänger sitt lager i Norge. Detta under villkor att leveransservicenivån förbättras. Transportkostnaderna ökar något men inte markant i det här sammanhanget. Arbetet berör också andra typer av metoder som behandlar lagerlokaliserings fråga nämligen tyndpunktsmetoden, matematiska modeller samt Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) Uppsatsen använder sig av en differentierad lagerhållningsränta för att beräkna lagerkostnaderna. Man har dock utgått ifrån en multivariabel ABC analys för att klassificera produkterna. En kvalitativ metod nämligen SWOT- analysen dvs. Styrka ,Svaghet, möjligheter och Hot avslutar detta arbete. Slutstaten med detta examensarbete är att Armatec skulle tjäna på en centralisering av lagerstrukturerna. Författaren vill påminna läsaren att Företaget vill behålla sitt lager i Köpenhamn. Det är därför Köpenhamn inte igår i arbetet. Företaget har inget lager i Finland. Arbetet visar också att den finska marknaden inte kommer att påverkas i samband med centralisering

The master thesis has been carried out at Johnson Pump AB in Örebro and deals with the manufacture of marine cooling pumps. The competition has hardened on the increasingly global pump market and Johnson Pump has noticed greater demands principally for cost-efficiency and delivery performance. At the same time a broad product-mix is requested. In the present-day situation the company experiences problems with long lead-times and high levels of inventory, wherefore lately the question has been raised whether it would be better with a make-to-order strategy for the marine business area. The purpose of the thesis work is therefore to examine the possibilities of moving towards a higher degree of customer-order-driven production and to look into which consequences this would have on costs and the customer service elements.

To enable make-to-order production of pump bodies at Johnson Pump, the planning and control must be more distinct and structured. Today the production lead-times are too long, but above all too uncertain, to make a customer-order-driven production possible. The most important measure in order to achieve this is therefore reduction of lead-times. Shorter lead-times decrease capital tied up in WIP, make the processes more flexible, and reduce variation and disturbances. Market, production and product characteristics allow a relocation of the customer order decoupling point further back in the production flow. The conclusion is hence that Johnson Pump has good chances of a customer-order-driven production, under the condition of a new planning system to achieve shorter and more stable lead-times.

The main points in the proposed planning system are to have fewer production orders running simultaneously and to have smaller batch sizes. The planning situation is more complex in the mechanical workshop than in the assembly, where, in addition, the volume and product-mix flexibility is greater. Therefore the production ought to be controlled with a push strategy from the workshop with the help of the MRP-system. The business process software should also be updated continuously to ensure its accuracy and usage. The material flow between workstations should further be more direct without buffers. With a large number of stock-keeping units in greatly varying demand volumes, the planning system must be simplified and the production brought in line with market demand. An ABC-classification divides the items into more homogenous groups for differentiated planning and control of each class.

The result of the new planning system is a reduction of lead-times by 83 percent on average. The shorter lead-times give, apart from a reduction in capital tied up, also higher product-mix and volume flexibility, which in turn gives Johnson Pump more strategic opportunities. It puts the company in a better position to respond to raised requests for shorter delivery lead-times, while costs are lowered. Through making the effects of lead-time and set-up-time reductions more evident, which before was concealed by large production series, an incentive for starting an improvement program is created. This can, in the long run, increase Johnson Pump’s competitive advantage.

This Master Thesis has been carried out at Rimaster AB in Rimforsa, a sub-contractor in electronics and mechatronics. Rimaster AB has 140 employees and an approximate annual turnover of 116 MSEK. The main part of the production consists of manual work and is carried out on receipt of customer orders. The company perceives a fluctuating flow in the production and consequently fluctuations in the capacity utilization. Furthermore there is a considerable capital tye-up in the inventory of raw materials as well as in the inventory of finished goods. Therefore the purpose of this Master Thesis is to achieve levelled capacity utilization and less capital tied-up through an improved management of inventory and manufacturing.

An inventory holding cost is calculated for the inventories respectively to determine the cost of capital tied-up. For the inventory of raw materials the cost is 15.8 percent of the annual average inventory value, and for the inventory of finished goods the cost is 16.9 percent. This yields an annual cost of 2.4 MSEK. Furthermore the inventory holding cost should be used in decisions regarding inventory management, e.g. when calculating order quantities.

When analyzing the inventory of raw materials a number of types of stock items are identified. These types form the foundation of a classification of the stock items. A significant part of the capital tied-up relates to stock items with low demand combined with minimum order quantities from the suppliers. An improved co-operation with the suppliers in order to reduce these quantities is therefore recommended. For the remaining classes of stock items a differentiated inventory control system is proposed. In the inventory of finished goods the capital tied-up is mainly a consequence of customers requiring, by contract, how their demanded lead time shall be fulfilled. Instead this should be decided by Rimaster AB based on the position of the order penetration point.

One reason to the fluctuating capacity utilization is that the production is divided into several sub-groups with customer focus. Furthermore these groups do not correspond to the groups used for production planning. A new production flow is therefore proposed with four product-oriented final assembly groups. These new groups should also be used for production planning. Through this aggregation of production resources it is possible to achieve a levelled production flow and hence a levelled capacity utilization. In combination with the measures mentioned above, a new production activity control system, in accordance to the Workload Control concept, is proposed. This control system enables short and safe lead times and a limited amount of work in progress.

Another reason to the fluctuating capacity utilization, caused by a fluctuating production flow, is the use of large batches despite short set-up times. The size of a batch is normally equal to the size of a customer order. Consequently a reduction of the batch sizes is proposed in order to achieve a levelled production flow and shortened production lead times.

This thesis explores the aspects considered by the European Commission to be of key importance to the Future of Manufacturing in Europe. The areas selected for study are Workforce, Research & Development, and Operating Environment for Innovation. Furthermore, a methodology for measuring a country’s inherent capabilities within these areas is proposed and carried out for twenty-three European countries.

Fifty indicators have been selected, and used to analyse the inherent capabilities of the countries at a country level, key area level, and finally at a composite capability index level.

The resulting composite capability index enables the creation of a landscape or 'map' of Europe, highlighting countries which are outperforming and those which are underperforming in the areas considered to be important for the future of manufacturing.

The resulting index has been compared with the European Innovation Scoreboard Summary Innovation Index (European Commission), the Growth Competitiveness Index (World Economic Forum) and the Lisbon Review Rankings 2004 (World Economic Forum), and there proves to be a strong correlation with all three.

A brief discussion about the challenges associated with composite indices has been included.

The thesis was carried out at the Department of Production Economics, Linköping Institute of Technology & the Fraunhofer-institute for Systems and Innovation Research.

The service sector is in most western countries dominating the gross domestic product, often with a share of over 70 %. This is also reflected in manufacturing companies, whose products have gone from being pure goods to contain more and more service characteristics. Examples of this are found through constructs such as the extended product and product packages. Industrial services, the supply of after-sales services related to industrial goods, is one type of product that many manufacturing companies offer. The effect such products have on the manufacturing part of a company is investigated here, in the light of existing theories for building a manufacturing strategy. Strategic concepts such as product profiling, product-process matrix, and competitive priorities are transferred to an industrial service setting. The results show that the manufacturing strategy framework needs to be adapted to the service content of the supplied products.

Firms using industrial goods as a resource in their own operations need support and services to maintain an efficient use of these resources. Education, spare parts and maintenance are just some examples of services required by many industrial customers. These services make up a large part of many industrial companies purchase budget, but, even more importantly, for the supplier these services often make up a substantial proportion of the company's profit. There is also a trend towards the integration of goods and services. However, there is little help available on strategies for the efficient supply or manufacture of such services. An operations strategy should not be limited to supporting just new sales if the after-sales market of industrial services has a large impact on the company's competitive advantage. A complete operations strategy should therefore be linked not only to the marketing strategy, but also to a service strategy of the company. In this paper we take the supplier's view on the task of providing industrial services, i.e. the supply of after-sales services, including tangibles such as spare parts and consumables, related to the maintenance of industrial goods. We focus on the positioning of industrial services relative manufacturing, aiming at an integrated approach for manufacturing and service operations management. We extend the product-profiling concept of Hill to service operations, developing the concept of industrial service profiling, providing a detailed analysis of market and service offering characteristics relative production characteristics. The resulting profile reveals possible mismatches in the existing operations, and can also be used to identify areas in need of corrective actions.

Detta är ett examensarbete utfört på Intergraze i Linköping. Intergraze är en fabrik som främst tillverkar produkter för kroppsvård. Syftet har varit att utreda faktorer, främst orderstorlekar, som kan utgöra en mer ekonomisk produktion vid enheten. Studien berör dock hela Hardfordkoncernen, till vilken Intergraze är en producerande enhet.

Studien har genomförts med två metoder, genom klassisk produktionsekonomi, samt genom simulering av produktionen. Därför är nulägesbeskrivningen, den teoretiska referensramen samt resultaten uppdelade i två delar, en för respektive studie.

I första hand berör del 1 (produktionsekonomi) hela koncernen, medan del 2 (simulering) har för avsikt att ge en förståelse och vara ett verktyg i första hand till Intergraze. Resultaten från del 2 berör dock koncernen.

Med hjälp av dessa angreppssätt ska företaget och koncernen ges en möjlighet att se, men även i framtiden kunna utvärdera, vad som är mest ekonomiskt för dem.

In today’s competitive global economy, the focus is on faster delivery of orders at lower total costs. In this paper we are interested in several aspects of order picking systems. We examine the influence of station layout, storage policy, picking policy and sorting solution on order picking system performance. On each of the analysis we consider a few solutions. We determine influence of different number of station in raw on picking system performance. We design the replenishment system supported by kanban philosophy with implemented economical order quantity (EOQ) and reorder point (ROP). The picking system is designed for assumed product’s demand values. The assessment of each of the solution is done through Arena simulation model. The results show that properly designed station with reasonable storage policy and implemented batching policy brings significant raise in order picking system productivity. In addition, we found that proper sortation system logic allows for more equal workload and reduction of maximum queue lengths. The results offer solutions to managers looking to implement improvements in order picking systems.