Performance management process at Wica Cold AB : towards an improved performance in the order-to-delivery process

Sammanfattning:     Thesis, civilekonomprogrammet, School of Management and Economics at Växjö University, Logistics, FE3094, spring 2009 Author: Patrik Schultz 840222 Tutor: Helena Forslund Title: Performance management process at Wica Cold – towards an improved performance in the order-to-delivery process Background: Performance measurement and the management of it have become of great importance for organizations in order to compete in today’s business environment. The performance management process at Wica Cold AB is not very well developed and they would know like to know how it can be developed in order to improve performance in the order-to-delivery process. Performance in this thesis covers the aspects of efficiency, quality, deliveries, time, flexibility and improvements. The PM-process is in this thesis seen as measures used, collection and analyzing of data and make use and take action based on the measures. How to make use of the measurement information, what should be measured and that lack of resources is an important aspect for the PM-process in SMEs like Wica are the main problems identified. Objectives: The objectives are to describe the PM-process at Wica Cold and the corresponding performance in the OTD-process. Furthermore the objectives are to find ways to develop the PM-process in order to improve performance in the OTD-process, also taking into consideration the characteristics of a SME regarding the PM-process. Methodology: This thesis is a case study and it is both descriptive and explanatory. The main scientific perspective in this thesis is the positivistic and it has a deductive approach. Data is mostly collected through semi-structured interviews. The scientific credibility is secured by interviewing employees at different positions, consider many views (theory, the benchmark study at Getinge Disinfection and the variety of data collection at Wica) and by gather all relevant information for the thesis on my hard drive. Results, conclusions: The current PM-process only has a few measures and it is not communicated to the employees very well. The performance in the order-to-delivery process is satisfying but can in many ways be improved. The PM-process can develop with some new measures and some small changes and additions in the current measures. One main aspect in this regard is to measure the amount of guarantee claims and percentage of orders delivered on time instead of only costs for backorders and guarantee claims. The measures should be published on a board on the shop floor as a way to make use and take action based on the measures. Meetings every other week should be in place to discuss ideas from employees and the value-added time. This improves performance since it highlights important aspects and common problems and a way to improve that performance can be found. The characteristics of a SME are taken into consideration for instance by limiting the amount of measures used and by making them simple and easy to collect.