In history there are numerous examples of strong market-leaders who have lost everything through the emergence of a new breakthrough technology which has replaced the existing one. That could be the reason why Christensen received such high attention when he presented his famous work about disruptive technologies in 1997. In his work, and in many following studies, several aspects of this phenomenon have been investigated. However, the key point for the market leaders, the ability of identifying a market disruption before it happens, ex ante, is still a field that has not reached a definedstate of the art. In this work one of Christensen's original ideas of disruption, driven by changes incustomer demand, is highlighted as a possible improvement for the ex ante methodology. In this thesis a selected existing holistic prediction model is extended explicitly with this aspect of need change. The purpose of this work is thus to evaluate if including the property of shifting customer needs in an existing holistic model would improve the ex ante prediction of disruption and lead to a simple, practical but yet rich model. With a literature review of the existing types of ex ante methods a fitting base model for the holistic approach to disruptive prediction is found. A second literature review is performed with the focus on disruption and its link to changes in need, as expressed by customer demand. This serves as a starting point for the extension of the base ex ante model into a methodology that look also upon the aspect of shifting customer demand. To validate and use the proposed extended ex ante model a qualitative approach is selected. It consists of two studies within the automotive industry. One is a history analysis of a known disruptive case to validate the extension, the entry of Japanese car manufacturers into the US market. One is a case-study of a present potentially disruptive case to apply the extended method as a genuine ex ante method for final evaluation at a post-disruption stage. It investigates the effects of electric vehicles on the Chinese automotive market. Through the analysis of the two studies the conclusion is reached that a qualitative improvement of the prediction has been obtained. Additionally it is shown that the analysis of customer need change can provide an increased understanding of the underlying drivers of the disruption.

For a company to stay profitable and be competitive, the customer satisfaction must be very high. This means that the company must provide the right item at the right place at the right time, or the customer may bring its business to the competitor. But these factors bring uncertainty for the company in the supply chain of when, what and how much of the item to produce and distribute. For reducing this uncertainty and for making better plans for future demand, some sort of forecasting method must be provided. A forecast can however be statistically based and also completed with a judgmental knowledge if the statistics are not sufficient. This thesis has been done in cooperation with the Sales and Operations (S&OP) department at Sandvik Mining Rock Tools in Sandviken, where a statistical forecast is currently used in combination with manual changes from sales. The forecasts are used as base for planning inventory levels and making production plans and are created by looking at the history of sales. This is done in order to meet market expectations and continuously be in sync with market fluctuations. The purpose with this thesis has been to study the item- customer combination demand and the statistical forecasting process that is currently used at the S&OP department. One problem when creating forecast is how to forecast irregular demand accurately. This thesis has therefore been examining the history of sales too see in what extent irregular demand exists and how it can be treated. The result is a basic tool for mapping customers' demand behavior, where the behavior is decomposed into average monthly demand and volatility. Another result is that history of sales can get decomposed into Volatility, Volume, Value, Number of sales and Sales interval for better analysis. These variables can also be considered whenever analyzing and forecasting irregular demand. A third result is a classification of time series working as a guideline if demand should be statistically or judgmentally forecasted or being event based. The study analyzed 36 months history of sales for 56 850 time series of item- customer specific demand. The findings were that customers should have at least one year of continuous sales before the demand can be entirely statistically forecasted. The limits for demand to even be forecasted, the history of sales should at least occur every third month in average and contain at least six sales. Then the demand is defined as irregular and the forecast method is set to judgmental forecasting, which can be forecasted using statistical methods with manual adjustments. The results showed that the class of irregular demand represents approximately 70 percent in the aspect of revenue and therefore requires attention. / För att ett företag ska kunna vara lönsamt och konkurrenskraftigt måste kundnöjdheten vara mycket hög. Detta betyder att ett företag måste kunna förse rätt produkt i rätt tid på rätt plats, annars kommer kunden troligtvis att vända sig till konkurrenten. Men dessa faktorer kommer med osäkerhet för företaget i försörjningskedjan i när, vad och hur mycket av produkten de ska producera och distribuera. För att minska osäkerheten och för att planera bättre för framtida efterfrågan, måste någon typ av prognos upprättas. En prognos kan vara baserad på statistiska metoder men också kompletterad med subjektiv marknadsinformation om statistiken inte är tillräcklig. Studien som denna rapport beskriver är gjord i samarbete med Sales och Operations- avdelning (S&OP) på Sandvik Mining Rock Tools i Sandviken. Där används statistiska prognoser i kombination med manuella förändringar av säljare samt regionala planerare som bas för planering av lagernivåer och produktion. Detta gör man för att möta marknadens efterfråga och för att kontinuerligt vara uppdaterad med marknadens variationer. Syftet med detta arbete har varit att studera kunders efterfrågan av produkt- kund kombination och den metod som används vid statistiska prognoser hos S&OP- avdelningen. Ett problem som finns när man vill skapa prognoser är hur man ska prognostisera oregelbunden försäljning korrekt. Detta arbete har därför analyserat historisk försäljning för att se i vilken utsträckning oregelbunden efterfrågan finns och hur den kan hanteras. Resultatet är ett enkelt verktyg för att kunna kartlägga kunders köpbeteende. Ett till resultat är att historisk försäljning kan bli uppdelat i Volatilitet, Volym, Värde, Antalet köptillfällen och Tidsintervallet mellan köptillfällena. Dessa variabler kan även tas till hänsyn när man analyserar och prognostiserar oregelbunden försäljning. Ett tredje resultat är en klassificering av tidsserier som kan fungera som riktmärken om efterfrågan ska vara statistisk eller manuellt prognostiserade eller inte bör ha en prognos över huvud taget. Denna studie analyserade 36 månaders historik för 56 850 tidsserier av försäljning per produkt- kund kombination. Resultaten var att en kund bör ha åtminstone ett år av kontinuerlig efterfrågan innan man kan ha en prognos med statistiska modeller. Gränsen för att ens ha en prognos är att efterfrågan bör återkomma var tredje månad i genomsnitt och ha en historik av åtminstone sex försäljningstillfällen. Då klassificeras efterfrågan som oregelbunden och prognosen kan vara baserad på statistiska metoder men med manuella ändringar. I resultatet framkom det att oregelbunden efterfrågan representerar cirka 70 procent i avseende på intäkter och kräver således mycket uppmärksamhet.

Customer demand fulfillment is the business process within a company that determines how the customer demand is fulfilled. A rush order is the last minute customer order after the production plan of a company has been concluded. For these rush orders, appropriate and reasonable response is imperative as it could put strain on customer relationship and services. A good and positive response could help the company to build and retain its market share in today’s highly competitive markets. A model aims at decreasing the product inventory cost is proposed in this paper. In this model, the prioritized fulfillment sequence of rush customer demands can be searched in terms of the product inventory cost. The paper focuses on two main issues: the available-to-promise (ATP) based fulfillment ability and the prioritized fulfillment of customer demands. For ATP based fulfillment, a dynamic bill-of-material (BOM) is proposed to handle the complicated issues of BOM, BOM explosion and production capacity. By means of dynamic BOM, material availability as well as production capacity can be taken into consideration simultaneously and efficiently. Two methods, mathematical optimization and heuristic algorithm, are constructed and elaborated on in the second issue. The proposed model allows companies to prioritize customer rush orders in terms of product inventory cost. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

Abstract These years, due to the speedy growing up economic in Taiwan, the amount of all kinds of tall buildings increase rapidly; in the meantime, the water and electricity installation of building is getting important day by day, because it is the predominant element which the construction of building¡¦s function condition depends on. How to create good relationship with customers and earn the trust from customers and satisfy the demands of customers by the good interacting between company and clients, turns into a big issue to the water and electricity installation industry. Increasing customer value, raising the customer satisfaction, making customer have loyalty to the company can be keys to be success. Therefore, customer relationship management (CRM) becomes the way, which the water and electricity installation industry should focus on in the future. This research is based on three sounder water and electricity installation industries in Kaohsiung and it is composed by analyzing of case company¡¦s environment, target and characteristics, and then observes the case company¡¦s activities in CRM. According to the result of case interview, this research comes to the following conclusions: 1. Management characteristic of industry environment is the main element to introduce water and electricity installation industry to CRM. 2. If this industry wants to put CRM into practice, most important of all is the one firm¡¦s target customers group. 3. In the way of gaining customer, the credit of water and electricity installation industry becomes the evaluative standard to customer. 4. CRM helps water and electricity installation industry increasing their ability of controlling customer¡¦s activity. 5. Different ways of promoting sales make related activities different. 6. In the way of customer service, water and electricity installation industry can consider developing united customer service by CRM. 7. Related staff must participate in introduction of CRM, managing customer knowledge by sharing inside knowledge makes CRM well control customer¡¦s demand in establishment. At the end, this research provides two suggestions for water and electricity installation industry: First, ensure the target and purpose of management before introducing CRM. Second, introducing CRM cooperate with adjustment of internal working process. KEY WORDS¡GCustomer Relationship Management , Water and electricity installation industry, Customer value, Customer demand, Customer satisfaction.

<p>A variety of factors are the reasons for adjusting or changing company’s strategy, such as the change of customer demand, company’s internal financial factors, the influence of external environment and so on. This research is to find out the link between the change of external environment and the adjustment of internal strategy. Choose the suspension of one flight in SAS as the case to state this point. Show the strategy change of SAS when they were facing the serious impact of financial crisis.</p><p>SAS as the biggest airline in North Europe it could be a typical firm to investigate this kind of situation. A deep-interview and reading the published reports of SAS are the main data collection approached. Some resources were from the internet because it is real-time news and the reports from the company are published on their website. The interviewee is from the top of the company who is familiar this area and has full experience in international business. The study used lots of theories from different books and journals to integrate the information that we collected to analysis and achieve our final conclusion.</p><p>After analyzed the study it found the SAS used the retrenchment strategy as their new international strategy to reverse the negative situation. The financial crisis affected the customer demand badly not just in China also around the world and forced them to change the strategy. The report ultimate believed there were still a lot of other factors, beside the financial crisis, caused the adjustment of strategy in SAS.</p>

A variety of factors are the reasons for adjusting or changing company’s strategy, such as the change of customer demand, company’s internal financial factors, the influence of external environment and so on. This research is to find out the link between the change of external environment and the adjustment of internal strategy. Choose the suspension of one flight in SAS as the case to state this point. Show the strategy change of SAS when they were facing the serious impact of financial crisis. SAS as the biggest airline in North Europe it could be a typical firm to investigate this kind of situation. A deep-interview and reading the published reports of SAS are the main data collection approached. Some resources were from the internet because it is real-time news and the reports from the company are published on their website. The interviewee is from the top of the company who is familiar this area and has full experience in international business. The study used lots of theories from different books and journals to integrate the information that we collected to analysis and achieve our final conclusion. After analyzed the study it found the SAS used the retrenchment strategy as their new international strategy to reverse the negative situation. The financial crisis affected the customer demand badly not just in China also around the world and forced them to change the strategy. The report ultimate believed there were still a lot of other factors, beside the financial crisis, caused the adjustment of strategy in SAS.

Sedan apoteksmarknaden avreglerades har många nya aktörer etablerats, både stora apotekskedjor och privatägda apotek. Alla slåss de om samma marknad, den marknad som Apoteket AB hade innan avregleringen. P/S Apotek är ett nyöppnat apotek på Sankt Eriksplan och deras uppdrag var att ta reda på vad kunderna efterfrågade hos ett apotek. P/S Apotek hade tänkt erbjuda två unika tjänster som inte finns på andra apotek, hälsokväll och specialistrådgivning. Syftet med denna uppsats är därmed: Att undersöka vad ett nyöppnat apotek skall erbjuda för produkter, service och tjänster samt vilka kunder de skall satsa på för att erhålla marknadsandelar.   Fyra olika metoder har använts för att kunna nå fram till målet med examensarbetet: benchmarking, dold observation, kvalitativa intervjuer och enkätmetodik. Resultatet av undersökningarna blev att de potentiella kunderna ville ha längre öppettider på vardagskvällar. Det viktigaste kriteriet som de potentiella kunderna värdesatte hos ett apotek var sortimentet. Produkter som de gärna vill ha på apoteket är bl.a. hudvårdsprodukter, självtester, träningsrelaterade produkter och hjälpmedel för äldre och handikappade. Bland de kvinnliga tillfrågade var hälsokvällen relativt populär. Tjänsten specialistrådgivning fick positiv respons hos 3 av de 5 segment. För att bestämma vilka kunder P/S Apotek skall satsa på har segmentering genomförts. Det segment som P/S Apotek bör satsa på är segment 4 (kvinnor i åldern 41 - 65 år) med avseende på de tjänster de vill erbjuda, hälsokväll och specialistrådgivning. / After the marked deregulation, many new players have entered the Swedish pharmacy business. Both major pharmacy companies and small privately owned companies have entered the new market. Before the deregulation this entire market was owned by Apoteket AB, which had a monopoly on the market. This report is about a newly opened pharmacy, P/S Apotek. P/S Apotek needed to know what the customers demanded and if there was an interest in some of the unique services that they wanted to offer. The purpose of this report was thus: to investigate what a newly opened pharmacy should offer product-wise and service-wise and what customers they should focus on in order to gain market shares. Four different methods have been used within the report: Benchmarking, non-participant observation, qualitative interview method and questionnaire survey. The result of the surveys was that the customers wanted longer opening times on weekday nights. The most important criteria that the customers valued, for a pharmacy, was the selection. Products that the customers wanted in a pharmacy included skincare products, self-tests, athletics supplements and aid for elderly and impaired. Among the women that were surveyed the "healthcare night" was popular. The service specialist advice was popular among most of the customers. In order to determine what customers P/S Apotek should focus on a segmentation was conducted. This resulted in that segment 4 (women aged 41-65) seemed to be the most interested in the services P/S Apotek wants to offer, "healthcare night" and specialist advice. Thus, if P/S Apotek is going to offer these services, segment 4 should be the target group.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-08-20T13:44:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao_mariana_manardo_dos_santos.pdf: 317539 bytes, checksum: 480a9d98e38706d765e235ae33338837 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-08-02 / The correct planning of all steps involved in seed production, particularly post-harvest, is extremely important for maintaining a company in a competitive market. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of processes related to wheat seed production, from the field to the final commercialization of seeds of a producer with self-certification, from Paraná State, in the period of 2006 - 2010. The study was conducted in a company of São Sebastião da Amoreira, Paraná. The amount of wheat seeds received by the Seed Processing Unit, seeds processed, seeds approved for sale and seeds sold were recorded and analyzed for each cultivar processed by the company. On average, the company discarded 30% of all seeds processed; therefore only 70% of seeds processed were effectively sold as seeds. It is important for the company to do a market survey in order to know the customer demand for each cultivar, before sowing the field, in order to minimize losses due to lack of market demand. The preventive control of diseases in the production field is important to avoid losses due to diseases known to compromise the quality and yield of the seeds. / O correto planejamento de todas as etapas envolvidas na produção de sementes, em especial as de pós-colheita, é de extrema importância para a manutenção de uma empresa de forma competitiva no mercado. O objetivo do trabalho foi avaliar a eficiência dos processos relacionados à produção de sementes de trigo desde a produção a campo até a comercialização final de um produtor de certificação própria de sementes do Paraná, no período compreendido entre 2006 a 2010. O estudo foi realizado em uma empresa de São Sebastião da Amoreira, Paraná. Foram analisadas as informações referentes à quantidade de sementes de trigo recebida pela Unidade de Beneficiamento de Sementes, quantidade beneficiada, quantidade de sementes aprovadas para comercialização e a quantidade de sementes comercializadas. Em relação à quantidade de semente recebida, calculou-se a percentagem de sementes beneficiadas, da mesma forma para a quantidade beneficiada em relação à aprovada e para a aprovada em relação à comercializada. Todos os registros obtidos na empresa foram selecionados a partir do ano de 2006 para todas as cultivares produzidas pela empresa e agrupados em tabelas por ano de produção. Verificou-se que a eficiência nos processos varia acentuadamente em função das cultivares. A realização de pesquisas de mercado para conhecer a demanda dos clientes por variedade, antes da sua semeadura nos campos da empresa, ou campanhas de vendas antecipadas, possibilita à mesma evitar descartes de variedades pela baixa procura. O controle preventivo de doenças nos campos de produção é importante para evitar perdas de trigo por doenças atualmente conhecidas e que são comprometedoras da qualidade e da produtividade. Na média dos anos, a empresa apresentou um descarte de 30% de toda a produção obtida, sendo assim, 70% da produção comercializada como semente.

The diploma thesis deals with information system in Telefónica O2 Czech Republic company. The thesis is focused on describing the existing enterprise information system especially in terms of processing customer requirements and their impact on customers. The aim is to draft changes in the information system of conflict resolution department orders. The changes are geared to enhancing the effectiveness of staff members and increase customer satisfaction.