Developing service offering of an air freight carrier

The thesis examined service offering development of an air freight carrier from the customers' point of view. The study was limited to the biggest business clients of the carrier. Service offering development can be divided into service concept, process and system. The thesis was based on these three themes and quality. Compared to product development, systematic and well-structured service development has been studied little, especially in business market. However, service development is a current issue. Due to growing competition companies should carefully listen to their clients' needs and respond to them by offering right services. Methodology of the thesis is qualitative and representatives of three forwarding companies were interviewed. It was found out that the forwarding companies consider themselves as partners of the airline. In addition to general reliability, the customers value the most fluent terminal processes and electronic communication.

The Effects of Some Furnish and Paper Structure Related Factors on Wet Web Tensile and Relaxation Characteristics

The objective of this thesis was to identify the effects of different factors on the tension and tension relaxation of wet paper web after high-speed straining. The study was motivated by the plausible connection between wet web mechanical properties and wet web runnability on paper machines shown by previous studies. The mechanical properties of wet paper were examined using a fast tensile test rig with a strain rate of 1000%/s. Most of the tests were carried out with laboratory handsheets, but samples from a pilot paper machine were also used. The tension relaxation of paper was evaluated as the tension remaining after 0.475 s of relaxation (residual tension). The tensile and relaxation properties of wet webs were found to be strongly dependent on the quality and amount of fines. With low fines content, the tensile strength and residual tension of wet paper was mainly determined by the mechanical interactions between fibres at their contact points. As the fines strengthen the mechanical interaction in the network, the fibre properties also become important. Fibre deformations caused by the mechanical treatment of pulp were shown to reduce the mechanical properties of both dry and wet paper. However, the effect was significantly higher for wet paper. An increase of filler content from 10% to 25% greatly reduced the tensile strength of dry paper, but did not significantly impair wet web tensile strength or residual tension. Increased filler content in wet web was shown to increase the dryness of the wet web after the press section, which partly compensates for the reduction of fibrous material in the web. It is also presumable that fillers increase entanglement friction between fibres, which is beneficial for wet web strength. Different contaminants present in white water during sheet formation resulted in lowered surface tension and increased dryness after wet pressing. The addition of different contaminants reduced the tensile strength of the dry paper. The reduction of dry paper tensile strength could not be explained by the reduced surface tension, but rather on the tendency of different contaminants to interfere with the inter-fibre bonding. Additionally, wet web strength was not affected by the changes in the surface tension of white water or possible changes in the hydrophilicity of fibres caused by the addition of different contaminants. The spraying of different polymers on wet paper before wet pressing had a significant effect on both dry and wet web tensile strength, whereas wet web elastic modulus and residual tension were basically not affected. We suggest that the increase of dry and wet paper strength could be affected by the molecular level interactions between these chemicals and fibres. The most significant increases in dry and wet paper strength were achieved with a dual application of anionic and cationic polymers. Furthermore, selectively adding papermaking chemicals to different fibre fractions (as opposed to adding chemicals to the whole pulp) improved the wet web mechanical properties and the drainage of the pulp suspension.

Carrier selection and management : A case study on Neste Oil Retail

Service provider selection has been said to be a critical factor in the formation of supply chains. Through successful selection companies can attain competitive advantage, cost savings and more flexible operations. Service provider management is the next crucial step in outsourcing process after the selection has been made. Without proper management companies cannot be sure about the level of service they have bought and they may suffer from service provider's opportunistic behavior. In worst case scenario the buyer company may end up in locked-in situation in which it is totally dependent of the service provider. This thesis studies how the case company conducts its carrier selection process along with the criteria related to it. A model for the final selection is also provided. In addition, case company's carrier management procedures are reflected against recommendations from previous researches. The research was conducted as a qualitative case study on the principal company, Neste Oil Retail. A literature review was made on outsourcing, service provider selection and service provider management. On the basis of the literature review, this thesis ended up recommending Analytic hierarchy process as the preferred model for the carrier selection. Furthermore, Agency theory was seen to be a functional framework for carrier management in this study. Empirical part of this thesis was conducted in the case company by interviewing the key persons in the selection process, making observations and going through documentations related to the subject. According to the results from the study, both carrier selection process as well as carrier management were closely in line with suggestions from literature review. Analytic hierarchy process results revealed that the case company considers service quality as the most important criteria with financial situation and price of service following behind with almost identical weights with each other. Equipment and personnel was seen as the least important selection criterion. Regarding carrier management, the study resulted in the conclusion that the company should consider engaging more in carrier development and working towards beneficial and effective relationships. Otherwise, no major changes were recommended for the case company processes.

Two-dimensional drift-diffusion simulation of organic solar cells

The aim of this master's thesis is to develop a two-dimensional drift-di usion model, which describes charge transport in organic solar cells. The main bene t of a two-dimensional model compared to a one-dimensional one is the inclusion of the nanoscale morphology of the active layer of a bulk heterojunction solar cell. The developed model was used to study recombination dynamics at the donor-acceptor interface. In some cases, it was possible to determine e ective parameters, which reproduce the results of the two-dimensional model in the one-dimensional case. A summary of the theory of charge transport in semiconductors was presented and discussed in the context of organic materials. Additionally, the normalization and discretization procedures required to nd a numerical solution to the charge transport problem were outlined. The charge transport problem was solved by implementing an iterative scheme called successive over-relaxation. The obtained solution is given as position-dependent electric potential, free charge carrier concentrations and current densities in the active layer. An interfacial layer, separating the pure phases, was introduced in order to describe charge dynamics occurring at the interface between the donor and acceptor. For simplicity, an e ective generation of free charge carriers in the interfacial layer was implemented. The pure phases simply act as transport layers for the photogenerated charges. Langevin recombination was assumed in the two-dimensional model and an analysis of the apparent recombination rate in the one-dimensional case is presented. The recombination rate in a two-dimensional model is seen to e ectively look like reduced Langevin recombination at open circuit. Replicating the J-U curves obtained in the two-dimensional model is, however, not possible by introducing a constant reduction factor in the Langevin recombination rate. The impact of an acceptor domain in the pure donor phase was investigated. Two cases were considered, one where the acceptor domain is isolated and another where it is connected to the bulk of the acceptor. A comparison to the case where no isolated domains exist was done in order to quantify the observed reduction in the photocurrent. The results show that all charges generated at the isolated domain are lost to recombination, but the domain does not have a major impact on charge transport. Trap-assisted recombination at interfacial trap states was investigated, as well as the surface dipole caused by the trapped charges. A theoretical expression for the ideality factor n_id as a function of generation was derived and shown to agree with simulation data. When the theoretical expression was fitted to simulation data, no interface dipole was observed.

Activity-based life cycle costing model for cost estimation and monitoring – Case: manned and autonomous dry bulk carrier

Recent developments in automation, robotics and artificial intelligence have given a push to a wider usage of these technologies in recent years, and nowadays, driverless transport systems are already state-of-the-art on certain legs of transportation. This has given a push for the maritime industry to join the advancement. The case organisation, AAWA initiative, is a joint industry-academia research consortium with the objective of developing readiness for the first commercial autonomous solutions, exploiting state-of-the-art autonomous and remote technology. The initiative develops both autonomous and remote operation technology for navigation, machinery, and all on-board operating systems. The aim of this study is to develop a model with which to estimate and forecast the operational costs, and thus enable comparisons between manned and autonomous cargo vessels. The building process of the model is also described and discussed. Furthermore, the model’s aim is to track and identify the critical success factors of the chosen ship design, and to enable monitoring and tracking of the incurred operational costs as the life cycle of the vessel progresses. The study adopts the constructive research approach, as the aim is to develop a construct to meet the needs of a case organisation. Data has been collected through discussions and meeting with consortium members and researchers, as well as through written and internal communications material. The model itself is built using activity-based life cycle costing, which enables both realistic cost estimation and forecasting, as well as the identification of critical success factors due to the process-orientation adopted from activity-based costing and the statistical nature of Monte Carlo simulation techniques. As the model was able to meet the multiple aims set for it, and the case organisation was satisfied with it, it could be argued that activity-based life cycle costing is the method with which to conduct cost estimation and forecasting in the case of autonomous cargo vessels. The model was able to perform the cost analysis and forecasting, as well as to trace the critical success factors. Later on, it also enabled, albeit hypothetically, monitoring and tracking of the incurred costs. By collecting costs this way, it was argued that the activity-based LCC model is able facilitate learning from and continuous improvement of the autonomous vessel. As with the building process of the model, an individual approach was chosen, while still using the implementation and model building steps presented in existing literature. This was due to two factors: the nature of the model and – perhaps even more importantly – the nature of the case organisation. Furthermore, the loosely organised network structure means that knowing the case organisation and its aims is of great importance when conducting a constructive research.