Applying Supply Chain Visibility - A study at a company in the paper and pulp industry

Sammanfattning: Title: Applying Supply Chain Visibility – A study at a company in the paper and pulp industry Authors: Filip Adielsson and Erik Gustavsson
Supervisors: Fredrik Eng Larsson - PhD Candidate, Department of Industrial Management and Logistics, Engineering Logistics, Lund Institute of Technology, Lund University
Sponsor: Udo Lück
Background: Companies are operating in a more global environment than before with larger flows of information. The information must be visualized and used in the right way in order for the supply chain to be efficient. If the companies can make relevant information available in an effective way they will have a more efficient supply chain and lower costs.
Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to find out how the investigated company’s warehousing problems can be reduced by applying supply chain visibility and related concepts.
Objectives: The objectives of the thesis are to give the company recommended solutions on how to reduce the warehousing problems by increased visibility in the supply chain and also to estimate the impact of these solutions.
Method: This study has been done using a systems approach. Through an extensive literature review an analysis model combing theories of supply chain visibility and related concepts was developed. The model was applied in the case studies at the company in order to find areas of improvement in the information sharing, which can lead to decreased inventory levels.
Conclusions: The study has showed that the information sharing is working relatively well at the company and they have quite good visibility in the supply chain. It can be concluded though, that increased visibility can help reduce the inventory levels. However, the factors affecting the inventory levels are very complex and it has been found information sharing is just one small part of the process. The main thing that needs to be improved is the managerial support on collaboration in order to establish routines and schedule regular meetings which enable a more efficient information sharing.