<p><p>Warehouses are a key aspect of modern supply chains and play a vital role in the success or failure of businesses today. Figures from the USA indicate that the capital- and operating costs of warehouses represent about 22 % of a company’s logistics costs while figures from Europe indicate 25 % (Baker & Canessa, 2009). Because warehousing is such an important function within a company, the authors chose to focus on this in their thesis. The purpose of this thesis has been to examine the significance of a Warehouse Management System (WMS) and item identification with attention to logistic efficiency. With this as a starting point, the thesis also intends to examine the needs and possibilities with a WMS and some sort of item identification at a specific company and also present suggestions of how to move forward with this type of work.</p></p>

Warehouses are a key aspect of modern supply chains and play a vital role in the success or failure of businesses today. Figures from the USA indicate that the capital- and operating costs of warehouses represent about 22 % of a company’s logistics costs while figures from Europe indicate 25 % (Baker &amp; Canessa, 2009). Because warehousing is such an important function within a company, the authors chose to focus on this in their thesis. The purpose of this thesis has been to examine the significance of a Warehouse Management System (WMS) and item identification with attention to logistic efficiency. With this as a starting point, the thesis also intends to examine the needs and possibilities with a WMS and some sort of item identification at a specific company and also present suggestions of how to move forward with this type of work.

I dagsläget tas enbart hänsyn till variation i geometri. Detta leder till att moduler som levereras inom kort befinner sig längst ner i högen. Projektet handlar om att göra en nulägesbeskrivning och analys för att hitta slöserier samt en studie över hur en lageryta ska formas för att utnyttjas maximalt.  Teori i form av kurslitteraturen i och vetenskapliga artiklar har tillämpats i rapporten. Teorin omfattar lagerstyrning och lagerutformning för ena frågeställningen och lean för den andra frågeställningen. Datainsamlingen har gjort med hjälp av en kvalitativ metod, då personalen har intervjuats. Med hjälp av teorin har förbättringsförslag för företaget tagits fram. Svar på de två olika frågeställningarna har framställts. Företaget har många faktorer som resulterar i en ineffektiv modulhantering och det som påverkar mest är informationsflödet. Företaget uppmuntras till att utnyttja lagerpersonalens kompetens och förbättra informationsflödet. / The report is an analysis of the current situation at the warehouse at the company Vossloh nordic switch systems in Örebro. Vossloh Nordic Switch Systems manufactures prefabricated switches for the railway industry. The switches consist of two to three modules weighing between 6 to 25 tons depending on the type of module. In accordance with the customer contract, Vossloh produces and stores the switches until the customer wants them to be delivered, this leads to the switches spending a long time in the warehouse. Since switches cannot be installed during the colder period out in the field, the company has high and low seasons regarding deliveries of switches. The company has an internal goal to even out the finished goods inventory and believes that free stacking of the switches leads to safety risks. The free stacked modules are in a random order and this leads to many unnecessary lifts, from which the staff collects from the module piles. Due to inadequate information flow, the various factors for the modules are not taken into account. The company has four factors that result in the modules lying here wildly.

Denna skriftiga avhandling omfattar en redogörelse kring examensarbetet dimensionering av färdigvarulager. Arbetet har genomförts på Scania DT i Södertälje inom avdelningen för transmission och axlar. Den centrala delen i arbetet har varit att studera hur dagens färdigvarulager för transmission skall kunna möta framtidens produktionsrelaterade utmaningar. I samband med att högre produktionsvolymer var prognostiserade inom den ärmaste åren samt att ett helt nytt artikelprogram parallellt skulle införas i sortimentet så talade sammantaget för att dagens kapacitet skulle överskridas. För att säkra färdigvarulagrets kapacitet inför de framtida omställningarna skulle området granskas för att sedan presentera lösningsförslag på en rad punkter i syfte att ge lagret ökad kapacitet. Primärt inriktades fokus på att se över lagrets dimensionering, och genom byggnation av simuleringsmodeller kunna presentera förslag på nödvändiga dimensionersom skulle kunna hantera de ökade produktionsvolymerna. Scania efterfrågade även att simuleringsmodellerna skulle kunna appliceras på deras övriga system för färdigvarulager och då kunna presentera liknande dimensionsförslag inför framtida scenarion. Arbetet avgränsades till att se över tre tidshorisonter som hade avgörande betydelse för lagrets kapacitet. Horisonterna omfattade att överskåda dagens volymer samt två framtida steg av produktionsökning och reducering av systemets takttider vilket skulle generera större volymflöden av produkter. Genom lösningsmetoderna semistrukturerade intervjuer, byggnation av simuleringsmodeller, observationer och datakällor samlades fakta in för modellbyggnaden.  Modellens första steg var att motsvara dagens färdigvarulager, i syfte att validera resultaten från modellen emot bekräftad data. Sedan skulle framtida produktionsdata genereras utifrån dagens in- och utflöden för att motsvara framtidens produktionsökningar. Framtidens produktionsdata genererades genom att reducera dagens ut- och in leveransdata med differenserna mellan de nya och gamla takttiderna. Dataverktyget Excel tillämpades för hantering av de stora datamängderna, medan simuleringsprogrammet Extendsim9 användes för modellbyggnaden. Programmen kopplades sedan samman och genererade framtidens volymflöden som lagret sedan skulle dimensioneras efter. Dessa resultat skulle även ligga till grund för vidare formulering av lösningsförslag kring hur aspekterna arbetsmetodik och lagerlayout kunnat omarbetas för att öka lagrets hanteringsförmåga. Dessa två aspekter granskades utöver dimensioneringsförslagen eftersom det ända lösningsförslaget som var tillämpningsbara utifrån aspekten dimensionering var utbyggnation i höjd eller bredd för att ge rum för fler ställage. Detta lösningsförslag var mycket kostsamt och inte ett förstahandsval för Scania, vilket efterfrågade andra lösningsmetoder på problemet. Efter att simuleringarna hade genomförts så granskades resultaten från modellens olika komponenter. Resultaten indikerade att nästa produktionsomställning skulle medföra ett produktflöde som överskrider dagens lagringskapacitet. Dessutom skulle truckarnas kapacitet i färdigvarulagret överbeläggas i samband med reducerad takttid, vilket skulle innebära regelbundna produktionstopp då transportbanorna överbeläggs med artiklar. Lösningsförslag presenterades i syfte att säkerställa färdigvarulagrets framtida kapacitet, där förslagen riktades emot de flaskhalsar som hade identifierats parallellt med omställningarna. Förslagen omfattade implementering av höglager, tillförd truck- och transport kapacitet, reducerad liggtid för lagrets artiklar och omarbetad slottid för att möjliggöra ett tillräckligt brett utflöde inför de nya volymerna. Sammantaget resulterar i en kapacitetsökning för dagens färdigvarulager, så att det kan möta framtidens kapacitetskrav. / This written summary includes an account of the thesis project “dimensioning of finished goods inventory”. The work has been carried out at Scania DT in Södertälje within the department for transmission and axles. The central part of the work has been to study how today's finished goods inventory for transmission should be able to face the future production-related challenges. In conjunction with the fact that higher production volumes were forecasted for the next few years and that a completely new article program would be introduced in parallel with today’s assortment concludes that the overall current capacity would be exceeded. In order to secure the capacity of the finished goods inventory before the future changes, the area would be reviewed so that solutions could be proposed on a number of points in order to increase the capacity of the finished goods inventory. Primarily the focus was on reviewing the dimensions of the inventory and building simulation models to be able to present proposals for necessary dimensions that could handle the increased production volumes. Scania also requested that the simulation models could be applied to their other finished goods inventories so the model could be used to present similar dimensional proposals for future scenarios in other inventories. The work was limited to look at three time horizons that were of crucial importance for the inventories capacity. The horizons included the current volumes of today as well as two future stages of increase in production with a reduction of the system's cycle times, which would generate larger volume flows of products. Data for the simulation models were collected with the solution methods, semistructured interviews, construction of simulation models, observations and data sources. The model's first step was to mirror to today's finished goods inventory, in order to validate the model against confirmed data. Then future production data would be generated based on the current input and output flows to correspond to future production increases. The production data of the future was generated by reducing today's output and input data with the differences between the new and old cycle times. The Excel data tool was used to manage the large amounts of data, while the simulation program Extendsim9 was used for the construction of the model. The data in the programs were then linked together and generated the future volume flows that the inventory would be dimensioned for. These results would be the basis for the solutions that would be proposed on how the aspects of working methodology and inventory layout could be reworked to increase the storage capacity of the inventory. These two aspects were examined in addition to the proposals for dimensioning, since the only solution proposal that was applicable on the aspect of dimensioning was expansion in height or width to give room for more stalls. This solution was very costly and not a first choice for Scania, which requested other solution methods to the problem. After the simulations were completed, the results of the various components of the model were examined. The results indicated that the next production increase would result in a product flow that exceeds today's storage capacity. In addition the capacity of the trucks in the finished goods inventory would be overloaded in conjunction with reduced cycle time, which would mean regular production stoppages when the conveyor belts were overloaded with articles. Solution proposals were presented in order to ensure the future capacity of the finished goods inventory, where the solutions were aimed against the bottlenecks that had been identified in parallel with the changes. The proposals included the implementation of high bay warehouse, added truck and transport capacity, reduced lay time for the inventory´sarticles and revised time slots to enable a sufficiently wide outflow for the new volumes. This results in an overall increase in capacity for todays finished goods inventory, so that it can meet the future capacity requirements.

Purpose: This study aims to look deeper at how Swedish firms using offshoring have dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic regarding their supply chains and make them more resilient. Design/methodology/approach: This study is a case study that examines two Swedish companies that have outsourced their production processes to other countries. The study's main focus is on the impact of COVID-19 on global supply chains and how it has affected the operations of these companies. The objective of the study is to investigate the challenges faced by these firms and the strategies they have employed to mitigate the disruptions caused by the pandemic. Additionally, the study aims to emphasize the importance of strengthening supply chain resilience. To achieve this, a literature review of previous research on the topic of supply chain risk management and supply chain resilience is presented. Findings: The study used thematic analysis to categorize findings for answering two research questions. RQ1 identified four categories showing how external and internal factors affected operations, including a lack of internal decision support for supply chain resilience. RQ2 explored the supply chain resilience aspect and found the supply chains to be especially agile and flexible in capabilities, with supply chains reacting more than proactively due to a lack of resilience-focused decision support. Technology's positive impact on the supply chain was noted in the literature. Additionally, nearshoring gained attention for improving SCR in response to logistical challenges. Research limitations/implications: The thesis studies supply chain resilience and proposes ways to enhance it using different enablers. It examines businesses' management of COVID-19 disruption within their supply chains and supplements existing literature on the topic. The research has limitations due to time constraints and lack of accessibility to interesting cases, affecting the generalizability and validity of the findings. Practical implications: In supply chain management, supply chain resilience plays a vital role in improving performance. The thesis stresses the importance of factors that boost supply chain resilience, which in turn enhances overall efficiency. This knowledge equips practitioners with the tools to better equip their supply chains against disturbances and thus improve their resilience.

Supply chain management has attracted much attention in the last decade. There has been a noticeable shift from a traditional individual organisation-based management to an integrated management across the supply chain network since the end of the last century. The shift contributes to better decision making in the supply chain context, as it is necessary for a company to cooperate with other supply chain members by utilising relevant information such as inventory, demand and resource capacity. In other words, information sharing and coordinated management are essential mechanisms to improve supply chain performance. Supply chains may differ significantly in terms of industry sectors, geographic locations, and firm sizes. This study was based on case studies from small and medium sized manufacturing supply chains in People Republic of China. The study was motivated by the following facts. Firstly, small and medium enterprises have made a big contribution to China’s economic growth. Several studies revealed that most of the Chinese manufacturing enterprises became aware of the importance of supply chain management, but compared to western firms, the supply chain management level of Chinese firms had been lagging behind. Research on supply chain management and performance optimisation in Chinese small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) was very scarce. Secondly, there had been plenty of studies in the literature that focused on two or three level supply chains whilst considering a number of uncertain factors (e.g. customer demand) or a single supply chain performance indicator (e.g. cost). However, the research on multiple stage supply chain systems with multiple uncertainties and multiple objectives based on real industrial cases had been spared and deserved more attention. One reason was due to the lack of reliable industrial data that required an enormous effort to collect the primary data and there was a serious concern about data confidentiality from the industry aspect. This study employed two SME manufacturing companies as case studies. The first one was in the Aluminium industry and another was in the Chemical industry. The aim was to better understand the characteristics of the supply chains in Chinese SMEs through performing in-depth case studies, and built models and tools to evaluate different strategies for improving their supply chain performance. The main contributions of this study included the following aspects. Firstly, this study generalised a supply chain model including a domestic supply chain part and an international supply chain part based on deep case studies with the emphasis on identifying key characteristics in the case supply chains, such as uncertainties, constraints and cost elements in association with flows and activities in the domestic supply chain and the international supply chain. Secondly, two important SCM issues, i.e. the integrated raw material procurement and finished goods production planning, and the international sales planning, were identified. Thirdly, mathematical models were formulated to represent the supply chain model taking into account multiple uncertainties. Fourthly, several operational strategies utilising the concepts of just-in-time, safety-stock/capacity, Kanban, and vendor managed inventory, were evaluated and compared with the case company's original strategy in various scenarios through simulation methods, which enabled quantification of the impact of information sharing on supply chain performance. Fifthly, a single objective genetic algorithm was developed to optimise the integrated raw material ordering and finished goods production decisions under (s, S) policy (a dynamic inventory control policy), which enabled the impact of coordinated management on supply chain performance to be quantified. Finally, a multiple objectives genetic algorithm considering both total supply chain cost and customer service level was developed to optimise the integrated raw material ordering and finished goods production with the international sales plan decisions under (s, S) policy in various scenarios. This also enabled the quantification of the impact of coordinated management on supply chain performances.

Today's markets are dynamic, which places increasingly high demands on companies' efficiency of processes and ability to adapt to changing situations. Inventory management includes all activities linked to the creation of customer orders ready for delivery, including stocking of goods, physical placement and picking of goods and assembly before delivery to the customer. The purpose of the study is to investigate the characteristics, challenges, and improvement potential for finished goods storage with the associated loading function within the wood industry. This qualitative case study has been carried out at a company within the wood industry in Sweden and data has been collected through interviews and observations to analyze and identify key aspects for effective warehouse management.  The results highlight the importance of leadership, commitment, and standardized working methods for the optimization of warehouse processes and increased productivity within the business. Through the application of lean principles such as kaizen and Genchi Genbutsu and the promotion of a positive work climate, wood companies can streamline their inventory management practices and improve their overall efficiency. The study draws attention to the fact that a combination of standardized working methods and guidelines, with the support of leadership and commitment, creates the conditions for making warehouse management more efficient in the long term.

This master thesis applies to the revenues from the sale of goods and their recognition in accordance with the Czech accounting standards, IAS and US GAAP. Particular chapters contain analysis of chosen problems of merchandise (goods) {--} its definition and pricing, problems of cost and income from the sale. The biggest part of the thesis is deals with the recognition of revenues from the sale of goods. At first were characterised and analysed individual methods of revenues recording, which were usefully completed with a concrete case applied to Czech accounting standards, IAS and US GAAP, with addition of the impact on the trading income of the company.

Analysis of sales and level of stocks of finished products. Analysis of structure of selling and assessment of turnover and dealing finished products in the firm. Inventory management, ABC analysis, optimisation and materials norm. Cost calculation, pricing and sales condition. The proposal for formation the stocks of finished goods in the warehouse. Implementation the method Kanban for finished goods. The proposal for addition of in-house directives and guidelines