A conversion from sales in money into volume in cubic meter A prerequisite to Mid Term Capacity Planning within the IKEA sub process Plan & Secure Capacity

Sammanfattning: The purpose of the project is to recommend one common way of how to calculate a conversion factor that should be used to convert sales into the corresponding volume in cubic meter. The conversion factor is a forecasted average value per cubic meter of an IKEA product and could be seen as a model of the future. The authors of the thesis have no intensions to provide a perfect model that is an exact projection of the reality but the model should be a good approximation of the future average value per cubic meter of an IKEA product. The model should also be easy to grasp and easy to use. Methodology: Different scientific approaches have been chosen for the three different research parts; exploratory, descriptive and explanatory. The study is inductive, qualitative and data was mainly received from semi structured interviews with people within IKEA. Conclusions: Since the unit of the conversion factor consists of value and volume, all factors or parameters that affect the conversion factor must affect the value, the volume or both the value and volume. The factors that have been identified to consider when calculating the conversion factor are Product range changes, Price investments, Price adjustments and Volume improvements. The factors have all different characteristics and need to be considered differently.