Investeringsprocess vid strategisk investering : En fallstudie om automationsinvestering på Thule Sweden AB

Sammanfattning: An increasing expectation from customers creates a need for companies to sharpen their competition factors constantly. There are great competition challenges regarding production costs in Sweden compared to offshoring. Sweden’s answer for competition about production costs has been productional innovation, where the development is bringing the industries closer to a fourth industrial revolution – industry 4.0. This writing discusses a case study performed on Thule Sweden AB to analyze a strategic investment in form of an automatization of palletizing and pallet-handling. This through analyzing what changes, savings and risks the automatization causes. The purpose of the study is not only to carry out an investment analysis, but also to create a general process for investment analyses of strategic decisions. A strategic investment requires a cross organizational analysis due to the extensive consequences. Analyzing a strategic investment requires more aspects then the economic, wherefore a more complex investment requires greater efforts in terms of involvement of different skills. A clear strategy and a good overview of the chosen production section should bring forth alternatives of investments. The investment process that is presented in the study creates a framework for an investment. This study uses, among other fundamental methods in production technology, the PENG-model, where the direct and the indirect benefits that the investments entail are analyzed. The investment is estimated to reduce the annual cost of the observed production segment at Thule Sweden AB by a total of 16,6%. The changes caused by the investment is further analyzed with a risk assessment. The conclusion of the analysis is that Thule Sweden AB should proceed the investment process, since an automatization of palletizing and pallet-handling brings savings, work environmental advantages, and is aligned to both Thule’s strategy and industry 4.0.