Transport Cartons' Impact on Supply Chain Efficiency

Sammanfattning: Large product assortments commonly lead to that fast fashion retailers have a large number of transport cartons, with varying sizes, to distribute products from manufacturing sites to distribution centers. Ultimately, the transport cartons have a large impact on the supply chain efficiency, as they affect several nodes in the supply chain network. Previous research has considered transport cartons’ impact on individual supply chain nodes, but little research has been devoted to evaluate the transport cartons impact on the supply chain network as a whole. Thus, this thesis aims to contribute with knowledge to bridge the gap in literature by investigating how a company’s transport cartons affect the overall supply chain efficiency, by applying a holistic perspective. The thesis was conducted as a case study in collaboration with Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), aworld-leading fast fashion retailer. The research identifies opportunities and challenges related totransport carton usage, and how the cartons impact supply chain efficiency. Moreover, the research evaluates the costs associated with different sets of transport carton sizes, based on acost estimation model constructed on data provided by H&M. It is concluded that a small set oftransport carton sizes could increase supply chain efficiency and generate potential cost savingsdue to mainly two reasons. First, a small set of transport cartons could lead to efficient containerloading. Second, it could lead to efficient carton handling and optimal space utilization in thedistribution centers.