Working capital management in the small and medium-sized enterprises Case: Project-based business environment in Flowrox Oy

This Master´s thesis illustrates how growing a business ties up the company´s working capital and what the cost of committed capital. In order to manage a company´s working capital in rapid business growth phase, the thesis suggests that by monitoring and managing the operating and cash conversion cycles of customers´ projects, a company can find ways to secure the required amount of capital. The research method of this thesis was based on literature reviews and case study research. The theoretical review presents the concepts of working capital and provides the background for understanding how to improve working capital management. The company in subject is a global small and medium-sized enterprise that manufactures pumps and valves for demanding process conditions. The company is expanding, which creates lots of challenges. This thesis concentrates to the company´s working capital management and its efficiency through the supply chain and value chain perspective. The main elements of working capital management are inventory management, accounts receivable management and accounts payable management. Prepayments also play a significant role, particularly in project-based businesses. Developing companies´ working capital management requires knowledge from different kind of key operations´ in the company, like purchasing, production, sales, logistics and financing. The perspective to develop and describe working capital management is an operational. After literature reviews the thesis present pilot projects that formed the basis of a model to monitor working capital in the case company. Based on analysis and pilot projects, the thesis introduces a rough model for monitoring capital commitments in short time period. With the model the company can more efficiently monitor and manage their customer projects.

Automatic system identification and optimization of centrifugal pump operation

Centrifugal pumps are a notable end-consumer of electrical energy. Typical application of a centrifugal pump is the filling or emptying of a reservoir tank, where the pump is often operated at a constant speed until the process is completed. Installing a frequency converter to control the motor substitutes the traditional fixed-speed pumping system, allows the optimization of rotational speed profile for the pumping tasks and enables the estimation of rotational speed and shaft torque of an induction motor without any additional measurements from the motor shaft. Utilization of variable-speed operation provides the possibility to decrease the overall energy consumption of the pumping task. The static head of the pumping process may change during the pumping task. In such systems, the minimum rotational speed changes during reservoir filling or emptying, and the minimum energy consumption can’t be achieved with a fixed rotational speed. This thesis presents embedded algorithms to automatically identify, optimize and monitor pumping processes between supply and destination reservoirs, and evaluates the changing static head –based optimization method.

Lämpöpumppujen käytön potentiaali Suomessa

Tämä kandidaatintyö käsittelee lämpöpumppuja, niiden toimintaa ja niiden käytön tulevaisuutta. Työ on rajattu asuintalojen lämmittämiseen ja erityisesti käsitellään erillisiä pientaloja. Työn tavoite on esitellä lämpöpumppujen toimintaperiaate ja tekniikka, eri lämpöpumpputyypit ja niiden lämmönlähteet sekä lämpöpumppujen käyttöä rajoittavia tekijöitä. Lisäksi esitellään Suomen lämmitystapojen jakauma sekä pohditaan siihen tulevia muutoksia. Tilastojen pohjalta tehdään lopulta arvioita lämpöpumppujen käytön tulevaisuuden kehityksestä.

Kaikille autoilijoille ja moottorimiehille v. 1928

kuv., 27 x 21 cm

Till alla automobil- och motorintresserade år 1928

kuv., 27 x 21 cm

Ulkolaita- ja venemoottorien oikea voitelu

kuv., 11 x 18 cm

Moottoripyörien oikea voitelu

kuv., 12 x 18 cm

Uusi talviöljymainoshyökkäys, joka valmistaa Teille uusia ansiomahdollisuuksia

kuv., 20 x 29 cm

Rätt smörjning av båt- och utombordsmotorer

kuv., 14 x 21 cm

Vene- ja ulkolaitamoottorien oikea voitelu

kuv., 14 x 21 cm

Oikea voitelu : automobiilien, moottoripyörien ja traktorien oikea voitelu

kuv., 11 x 18 cm

Uudet Gargoyle Mobiloil -öljyt : vähittäishinnat

kuv., 21 x 30 cm

Autojen, moottoripyörien, traktorien ja venemoottorien oikea voitelu

kuv., 12 x 18 cm

Oikea voitelu : autot, moottoripyörät, traktorit, venemoottorit

kuv., 11 x 18 cm

Rätt smörjning av motorfordon samt båt- och utombordsmotorer

kuv., 12 x 18 cm