Developing the Product Return Process of a Service Center With Lean Methods

Today lean-philosophy has gathered a lot of popularity and interest in many industries. This customer-oriented philosophy helps to understand customer’s value creation which can be used to improve efficiency. A comprehensive study of lean and lean-methods in service industry were created in this research. In theoretical part lean-philosophy is studied in different levels which will help to understand its diversity. To support lean, this research also presents basic concepts of process management. Lastly theoretical part presents a development model to support process development in systematical way. The empirical part of the study was performed by performing experimental measurements during the service center’s product return process and by analyzing this data. Measurements were used to map out factors that have a negative influence on the process flow. Several development propositions were discussed to remove these factors. Problems mainly occur due to challenges in controlling customers and due to the lack of responsibility and continuous improvement on operational level. Development propositions concern such factors as change in service center’s physical environment, standardization of work tasks and training. These factors will remove waste in the product return process and support the idea of continuous improvement.

Viral marketing in a Finnish medium sized gaming company: discovering, analyzing and building an improved management process for viral marketing campaigns, case: Nitrogames

The goal of this thesis is to build a viral marketing management framework for a Finnish medium sized gaming company. This is achieved by first finding and building a theoretical five step management process framework based on literature, analyzing current model and giving recommendations for the case company to develop its own management process. In addition, viral marketing research is still in early stage resulting this study to propose its own take on the definition in the theory part. Empirical part is based on qualitative interviews, campaign material and secondary sources and is aimed to find out and analyze the case company’s current viral marketing state and to give recommendations to it. The final outcome of the study is a general, theoretical management framework for viral marketing campaigns and specified recommendations for the case company.

Characterization Of Process Efficiency Improvement In Laser Additive Manufacturing

Laser additive manufacturing (LAM), known also as 3D printing, has gained a lot of interest in past recent years within various industries, such as medical and aerospace industries. LAM enables fabrication of complex 3D geometries by melting metal powder layer by layer with laser beam. Research in laser additive manufacturing has been focused in development of new materials and new applications in past 10 years. Since this technology is on cutting edge, efficiency of manufacturing process is in center role of research of this industry. Aim of this thesis is to characterize methods for process efficiency improvements in laser additive manufacturing. The aim is also to clarify the effect of process parameters to the stability of the process and in microstructure of manufactured pieces. Experimental tests of this thesis were made with various process parameters and their effect on build pieces has been studied, when additive manufacturing was performed with a modified research machine representing EOSINT M-series and with EOS EOSINT M280. Material used was stainless steel 17-4 PH. Also, some of the methods for process efficiency improvements were tested. Literature review of this thesis presents basics of laser additive manufacturing, methods for improve the process efficiency and laser beam – material- interaction. It was observed that there are only few public studies about process efficiency of laser additive manufacturing of stainless steel. According to literature, it is possible to improve process efficiency with higher power lasers and thicker layer thicknesses. The process efficiency improvement is possible if the effect of process parameter changes in manufactured pieces is known. According to experiments carried out in this thesis, it was concluded that process parameters have major role in single track formation in laser additive manufacturing. Rough estimation equations were created to describe the effect of input parameters to output parameters. The experimental results showed that the WDA (width-depth-area of cross-sections of single track) is correlating exponentially with energy density input. The energy density input is combination of the input parameters of laser power, laser beam spot diameter and scan speed. The use of skin-core technique enables improvement of process efficiency as the core of the part is manufactured with higher laser power and thicker layer thickness and the skin with lower laser power and thinner layer thickness in order to maintain high resolution. In this technique the interface between skin and core must have overlapping in order to achieve full dense parts. It was also noticed in this thesis that keyhole can be formed in LAM process. It was noticed that the threshold intensity value of 106 W/cm2 was exceeded during the tests. This means that in these tests the keyhole formation was possible.

Process modeling method for electric accessories manufacturing enterprise

The theoretical research of the study focused to business process management and business process modeling, the goal was to found a new business process modeling method for electrical accessories manufacturing enterprise. The focus was to find few options for business process modeling methods where company could have chosen the best one for its needs The study was carried out as a qualitative research with an action study and a case study as the most important ways collect data. In the empirical part of the study examples of company’s processes modeled with the new modeling method and process modeling process are presented. The new way of modeling processes improves especially visual presentation of the processes and improves the understanding how employees should work in the organizational interfaces of the process and in the interfaces between different processes. The results of the study is a new unified way to model company’s processes, which makes it easier to understand and create the process models. This improved readability makes it possible to reduce the costs that were created from the unclear old process models.

The role of network externalities in value creating process of the commercial web service for two-sided international markets

Network externalities and two-sided markets in the context of web services and value creation is not very well discussed topic in academic literature. The explosive rise of the Internet users has created a strong base for many successful web services and pushed many firms towards e-business and online service based business models. Thus the subject of this thesis, the role of network externalities in value creating process of the commer-cial web service for two-sided international markets is very current and interesting topic to examine. The objective of this Master’s Thesis is to advance the study of network externalities from the viewpoint of two-sided markets and network effects as well as describe the value creation & value co-creation process in commercial web service business models. The main proposition suggests that the larger network of customers and the bigger number of users the web service is able to attract, the more value and stronger positive net-work externalities the service is able to create for each customer group. The empirical research of this study was implemented for commercial web service, targeted to Russian consumers and Finnish business users. The findings suggest that the size of the network is highly related to the experi-enced value of the customers and the whole value creation process of commercial web targeted for two-sided international markets varies from the value creation for one-sided or pure domestic markets.

On-line determination of residual collector concentration in flotation process

Valuable minerals can be recovered by using froth flotation. This is a widely used separation technique in mineral processing. In a flotation cell hydrophobic particles attach on air bubbles dispersed in the slurry and rise on the top of the cell. Valuable particles are made hydrophobic by adding collector chemicals in the slurry. With the help of a frother reagent a stable froth forms on the top of the cell and the froth with valuable minerals, i.e. the concentrate, can be removed for further processing. Normally the collector is dosed on the basis of the feed rate of the flotation circuit and the head grade of the valuable metal. However, also the mineral composition of the ore affects the consumption of the collector, i.e. how much is adsorbed on the mineral surfaces. Therefore it is worth monitoring the residual collector concentration in the flotation tailings. Excess usage of collector causes unnecessary costs and may even disturb the process. In the literature part of the Master’s thesis the basics of flotation process and collector chemicals are introduced. Capillary electrophoresis (CE), an analytical technique suitable for detecting collector chemicals, is also reviewed. In the experimental part of the thesis the development of an on-line CE method for monitoring the concentration of collector chemicals in a flotation process and the results of a measurement campaign are presented. It was possible to determine the quality and quantity of collector chemicals in nickel flotation tailings at a concentrator plant with the developed on-line CE method. Sodium ethyl xanthate and sodium isopropyl xanthate residuals were found in the tailings and slight correlation between the measured concentrations and the dosage amounts could be seen.

The Role of networks in the internationalization process of Finnish design companies

Finnish design has attracted global attention lately and companies within the industry have potential in international markets. Because networks have been found to be extremely helpful in a firm’s international business operations and usefulness of networks is not fully exploited, their role in Finnish design companies is investigated. Accordingly, this study concentrates on understanding the role of networks in the internationalization process of Finnish design companies. This was investigated through describing the internationalization process of Finnish design companies, analyzing what kind of networks are related to internationalization process of Finnish design companies, and analyzing how networks are utilized in the internationalization process of Finnish design companies. The theoretical framework explores the Finnish design industry, internationalization process and networks. The Finnish design industry is introduced in general and the concept of design is defined to refer to the industries of textiles, furniture, clothing, and lighting equipment in the research. The theories of internationalization process, the Uppsala model and Luostarinen’s operation modes, are explored in detail. The Born Global theory, which is a contrary view to stage models, is also discussed. The concept of network is investigated, networks are classified into business and social networks, and network approach to internationalization is discussed. The research is conducted empirically and the research method is a descriptive case study. In this study, four case companies are investigated: the interior decoration unit of L-Fashion Group, Globe Hope, Klo Design, and Melaja Ltd. Data is collected by semi-structured interviews and the analysis is done in the following way: the case companies are introduced, their internationalization processes and networks are described and, finally, the comparison of the case companies is done in a form of cross-case analysis. This research showed that cooperation with social networks, such as locals or employees who have experience from the target market can be extremely helpful in the beginning of a Finnish design company’s internationalization process. This study also indicated that public organizations do not necessarily enhance the internationalization process in a design company point-of-view. In addition, the research showed that there is cooperation between small Finnish design companies whereas large design companies are not as open to cooperation with competitors.

Development of sales invoicing process in industrial services

The objective of this Master’s thesis is to find ways to streamline the invoicing process of the case company. In order to streamline the process, the bottlenecks and development areas of the present invoicing process needs to be identified. The bottlenecks are based on interviews made to personnel. The thesis also offers solutions to overcome the identified bottlenecks. The problem is the slowness of the invoicing process which should get rid off. The slow invoicing process causes delays in obtaining payments. There are many reasons for the slowness and inefficiency of the invoicing process. One of the biggest reasons is that the information systems are not deployed entirely. It causes additional work for everyone. Practices with the customers affect also to the smooth flow of invoicing. The contracts determine when the customer can be invoiced but also work approvals, missing work orders and customer’s own invoicing basis slow the process. The fastest and cheapest solution is to deploy the systems better and do things correctly. Thus duplicated work would decrease and resources would be saved. The work allocation should be modified and the practices with customer should be influenced too. In the future the meaning of IT should be highlighted and new devices exploited.

How and why to measure the germination process?

In the last two centuries, papers have been published including measurements of the germination process. High diversity of mathematical expressions has made comparisons between papers and some times the interpretation of results difficult. Thus, in this paper is included a review about measurements of the germination process, with an analysis of the several mathematical expressions included in the specific literature, recovering the history, sense, and limitations of some germination measurements. Among the measurements included in this paper are the germinability, germination time, coefficient of uniformity of germination (CUG), coefficient of variation of the germination time (CVt), germination rate (mean rate, weighted mean rate, coefficient of velocity, germination rate of George, Timson’s index, GV or Czabator’s index; Throneberry and Smith’s method and its adaptations, including Maguire’s rate; ERI or emergence rate index, germination index, and its modifications), uncertainty associated to the distribution of the relative frequency of germination (U), and synchronization index (Z). The limits of the germination measurements were included to make the interpretation and decisions during comparisons easier. Time, rate, homogeneity, and synchrony are aspects that can be measured, informing the dynamics of the germination process. These characteristics are important not only for physiologists and seed technologists, but also for ecologists because it is possible to predict the degree of successful of a species based on the capacity of their harvest seed to spread the germination through time, permitting the recruitment in the environment of some part of the seedlings formed.

Development of remote monitoring process tools for biomass fired bubbling fluidized bed boilers

Remote monitoring of a power boiler allows the supplying company to make sure that equipment is used as supposed to and gives a good chance for process optimization. This improves co-operation between the supplier and the customer and creates an aura of trust that helps securing future contracts. Remote monitoring is already in use with recovery boilers but the goal is to expand especially to biomass-fired BFB-boilers. To make remote monitoring possible, data has to be measured reliably on site and the link between the power plant and supplying company’s server has to work reliably. Data can be gathered either with the supplier’s sensors or with measurements originally installed in the power plant if the plant in question is not originally built by the supplying company. Main goal in remote monitoring is process optimization and avoiding unnecessary accidents. This can be achieved for instance by following the efficiency curves and fouling in different parts of the process and comparing them to past values. The final amount of calculations depends on the amount of data gathered. Sudden changes in efficiency or fouling require further notice and in such a case it’s important that dialogue toward the power plant in question also works.