The concept of inventory control has been around since the early 20th century and it’s constantly evolving. The importance of inventory management and supply chain management is clear, and companies are constantly trying to evolve their systems and ways of handling inventory control. By having a proper inventory control system with adequate inventory record audits, a company could potentially have several benefits such as reduced tied-up capital, reduced holding costs, reduced/redistributed work hours, better automation and more. Most organisations and companies have some form of inventory control, however not all have full control of their inventory. This includes automatic inventory balance updates, package traceability, automatic replenishment systems and more. To implement these ideas, a company would need to foremost find what factors are currently hindering them from obtaining this and consequently being able to adjust their factors. Since there are several ways to obtain an automatic inventory record update that is adequate, multiple proposals are discussed in this thesis project. This thesis project assessed what the necessary steps that a company needs to perform are through a case study at Scania CV Engine and a benchmarking at Scania Production Angers. Through a collection of scientific literature and empirical data, an attempt to identify the factors that determine whether a company can implement full inventory control or not was made. As a supplement to this, this thesis project also looked over what type of consequences an implementation of full inventory control could have in a company, both when it comes to purely systemic consequences as well as economic consequences. / Begreppet saldokontroll har cirkulerat sedan början av 1900-talet och teorierna utvecklas ständigt. Betydelsen av lagerstyrning och Supply Chain Management är idag tydlig och företag försöker ständigt utveckla sina system och sätt att hantera saldokontroll på. Genom att ha ordentlig saldokontroll med adekvata lagerregistreringsrevisioner kan ett företag potentiellt få flertalet fördelar som till exempel reducerat bundet kapital, minskade innehavskostnader, reducerade eller omfördelade arbetstimmar, bättre automatisering och mera. De flesta organisationer och företag har någon form av lagerkontroll, men inte alla har 100% kontroll över sina inventeringar. Detta inkluderar automatiska lagerrevisioner, spårbarhet av paket, automatiska påfyllningssystem och mer. För att genomföra dessa idéer måste ett företag framför allt finna vilka faktorer som för närvarande förhindrar dem från att uppnå 100% saldokontroll och följaktligen kunna justera dessa faktorer. Eftersom det finns flera sätt att uppnå automatiska revisioner av inventeringen som är proper så diskuteras flera förslag i denna avhandling. Denna avhandling försöker bedöma vilka nödvändiga steg som ett företag behöver genomföra är genom en utförd fallstudie på Scania CV Engine tillsammans med en benchmarking på Scania Production Angers. Genom en samling av vetenskapliga studier och empiriska data från fallstudien gjordes ett försök att identifiera de faktorer som avgöra om ett företag kan implementera 100% saldokontroll eller inte. Som ett komplement till detta ser denna rapport även över vilken typ av konsekvenser en sådan implementering kan innebära, båda när det gäller rent systematiska förändringar samt ekonomiska förändringar.

This Record of Study describes the Doctor of Engineering (DE) internship experience at the Supply Chain Systems Laboratory (SCSL) at Texas A&M University. The objective of the internship was to design and develop automation tools to streamline lab operations related to inventory management projects and during that process adapt and/or extend theoretical inventory models according to real-world business complexity and data integrity problems. A holistic approach to automation was taken to satisfy both short-term and long-term needs subject to organizational constraints. A comprehensive software productivity tool was designed and developed that considerably reduced time and effort spent on non-value adding activities. This resulted in standardizing and streamlining data analysis related activities. Real-world factors that significantly influence the data analysis process were identified and incorporated into model specifications. This helped develop an operational inventory management model that accounted for business complexity and data integrity issues commonly encountered during implementation. Many organizational issues including new business strategies, human resources, administration, and project management were also addressed during the course of the internship.

ABSTRACT Title: Working Capital Management in Telecommunication sector: A case study of VGC telecoms Author: Gbenga Segun Akinwande Supervisor: Anders Hederstierna Department: School of Management, Blekinge Institute of Technology Course: Master’s thesis in business administration, 15 credits (ECTS). Background and Problem Discussion: The efficient management of working capital is very vital for a business survival. This is premised on the fact having too much working capital signifies inefficiency, whereas too little cash at hand signifies that the survival of business is shaky. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to study the working capital management in the small and medium scale businesses, using VGC Telecoms Company as a case study, so as to establish factors influencing working capital performance; examine how cash management, inventory management and trade credit management affects working capital management; company effectiveness in converting working capital to ready money; how working capital management impacts on the problem of slow development and to offer recommendations on possible ways of improving working capital management Method: Literatures bordering on different areas of working capital management were reviewed. Thus, this research employed qualitative and quantitative analysis; and semi- structured questions were drafted based on the issues raised from the review of various literatures. In addition, materials from journal articles, textbooks, working papers and industry practitioners are put into consideration. The use of internet and e-mails to send out questions were explored where appropriate. Analysis on the company’s financial statement was carried out in order to verify my findings. Theory: In this research, the theory section looks at various concepts that come up when analyzing the consequences of working capital management for company value and the factors that influence a company’s working capital management performance. I have therefore chosen the most common concept for the theory section. I have also tried to create a theoretical understanding for the company’s sensitivity to a workable WCM policy Analysis: In the analysis of the research findings, I employed qualitative approach to the data analysis whereby the impacts of the poor WCM on the company were discussed in depth. Conclusion: The findings corroborate the postulation of Weston et al that a company’s investment in working capital is a substantial percentage of its total investment. In case of VGC Telecoms, it is as high as 65 percent. An inefficient and ineffective management of this investment will result in slow pace of development and ultimately to the business failure. The performances of the company in the different spheres of working capital management were scored as follows:- • Cash management – 65.4 percent • Inventory management - 78.6 percent • Trade credit management and financing decisions - 60.0 percent This is an average performance of 68 percent. That is, the company’s performance is above average. This is a good performance. The financial statements as interpreted reinforce the validity of this result. The liquidity ratios are high; the collection period is short; and the cash cycle is not quite expansive. This makes it possible to sustain sufficient cash flow for the smooth running of the business. The management of working capital impacts on liquidity, investment portfolio and profitability. All these three factors are decisive in the growth or failure of a business. Hence, good performances in working capital management affects these decisive factors favourably and thus, contribute to growth and success of the business.

Introduction: Nowadays beverage companies must focus on maintaining healthy finishedgoods inventory stocks in order to be able to decrease inventory costs, meet customerrequirements and to obtain competitive advantage. However many beverage SMEdon’t have an accurate planning and forecasting to manufacturing inventories. Thereforethey often face the problem of optimization in inventory management due to several differentreasons. As a result, company loses its competitiveness. Thus, there is a need tocoordinate Inventory activities of beverage SMEs to improve inventories’ planning. The purpose of this study is to analyze how inventory management is organized in a small Chinese beverage company. Frame of reference: This research is based on the theoretical framework relates with InventoryManagement (IM) and Retailer-managed inventory (RMI), vendor-managed inventory(VMI) and Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR).Empirical Data were collected through personal interviews and organization documents. Methodology: The research strategy for this paper is a single case study. This strategy allows investigating topic in its real life context. The inductive approach is used for this research based on qualitative data. The major source of data collection was semi-structured interviews and the company's documents. For analyzing data categorization approach was applied. Conclusion: The study found that inventory management theories presented in scientificliteratures are used in practice. To achieve better inventory management for beverageSMEs, the authors summarize four importance parameters based on literatures and findings.The authors also provide some suggestions based on the importance parameters inthe conclusion to optimize the case company’s inventory management.

The objective of this thesis was to analyze the activities of a company engaged in the storage and distribution of goods for ?Jednota? stores for a period of one calendar year, to identify potential weaknesses and to suggest measures for their removal. Theoretical knowledge from professional literature was applied in the actual part of the thesis. The analysis of inventory management was conducted with three selected items from the ?A? category for which economically favourable ordering quantity was calculated using the Camp formula; minimum safety stock of 90% and 95% was determined and the point of order was calculated too. These model calculations were then compared with the actual data for all three items: still table water ?Klasik? (2 litres), whole-meal wheat flour ?Klasik? and ?Tuzemák Jindřichohradecký? (0.5 litre).

Independent de la performance remarquable accomplie par la logistique d’aujourd’hui, les réseaux actuels sont majoritairement dédiés à un acteur et donc très peu interconnectés. Cette fragmentation conduit une difficulté de mutualisation des flux et dès lors à une efficacité limitée. Ces organisations dédiées et hétérogènes sont de plus en plus challengées par les nouveaux défis d’aujourd’hui posés à l’efficacité, l’efficience et la résilience. Pour répondre à cet antagonisme, un innovant concept logistique - l’Internet Physique (PI) - a été proposé. Dans ce système, les infrastructures et les moyens de transport peuvent être organisés de façon dynamique et attribués à court ou à long terme en fonction des besoins. Par conséquent, les décisions des opérations logistiques peuvent être prises de façon dynamique, agile, et donc de manière plus optimale. Cette thèse concentre les perspectives de PI concernant la gestion de stocks et du transport par rapport aux défis de l’efficacité et de la résilience.Comme l’étude de l’efficacité de PI par rapport au transport a été déjà effectuée, le premier objectif de cette recherche est d’explorer les potentiels de l’interconnexion des réseaux dans la gestion de stocks, qui n’a par encore été adressé. À cette fin, nous examinons d'abord les trois nouvelles pratiques apportées par PI : 1) les stocks distribués à proximité des clients finaux; 2) le transbordement de stocks entre les hubs; 3) de multiples options dynamiques de sélection de la source pour chaque commande. Deux modèles de gestion de stocks correspondants sont proposés. Cette étude sert de guide pour des décisions de stockage pour les vendeurs dans un tel système logistique ouvert.Après l’analyse d’efficacité de PI, la deuxième partie de cette thèse concerne la résilience des modèles de stockage et de transport dans PI confrontés à des interruptions dans la chaîne logistique. On a étendu les modèles de stockage et de transport avec interruptions imprévisibles dans les infrastructures telles que l’usine ou les hubs. Des stratégies différentes sont développées pour atténuer les risques de perturbation des flux. Des études numériques sont effectuées pour évaluer la performance des modèles proposés.En résumé, cette recherche est la première qui étudie le potentiel de l’Internet Physique pour la gestion de stock et la résilience de ce système. D’après les résultats, il n’y a aucun doute que le PI change le design de chaîne logistique d’aujourd’hui et améliore la performance de gestion de logistique à la fois en efficience et en résilience. / Irrespective of significant performance achieved, today’s logistics networks are overwhelmingly dedicated to an actor and therefore poorly interconnected. This fragmentation exhibits inevitable inefficiency and needs to be changed in respond to today’s new arising challenges in efficiency and resilience. To solve this antagonism, an innovative concept - Physical Internet (PI) - has been proposed which is a fully interconnected, open, dynamic logistics system. In such a system, the facilities and means of transportation can be dynamically organized and allocated in the short-term or long-term according to the economic environment. As a result, decisions can be made dynamically, agilely, and thus optimally. This thesis studies the perspectives of the PI to inventory management and transportation regarding the challenges in efficiency and resilience.As the efficiency of the PI to transportation has been carried out in literature, the first objective of this thesis is to explore the potentials of the PI to inventory management. To this end, we firstly qualitatively examine the new practices brought by the PI and conclude three main characteristics: 1) Distributed stocks near end customers; 2) Transshipment of inventories; and 3) multiple dynamic source options. Corresponding inventory models and solutions are proposed and evaluated with numerical experiments in Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG). This part of study gives a guideline for the vendors applying the PI to make inventory decisions in such an open logistic system.The second objective is to analyze the resilience of the proposed PI enabled inventory and transportation model confronted to disruptions. The proposed inventory and transportation model are extended with different disruptions at facilities including plants and hubs. Different disruption strategies are developed. Numerical studies in FMCG are carried out.In a word, this research investigates the inventory management in the PI and the resilience of PI enabled logistics models. It is the first time such a work is done and it should be upfront. From the results of studies, there is no doubt that the PI changes today’s supply chains design and improve the performance of supply chain management both in efficiency, effectiveness and resilience.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:52:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RobertoKMF_DISSERT.pdf: 1712911 bytes, checksum: 4a2d9da3d58d19eb0b246c2f5c1cf027 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-12-22 / This work searches to offer a model to improve spare parts stock management for companies of urban passenger transport by bus, with the consequent progress in their maintenance management. Also known as MRO items (Maintenance, Repair and Operations), these spare parts, according their consumption and demand features, cost, criticity to operation, lead-time, quantity of suppliers, among other parameters, shouldn?t have managed their inventory like normal production items (work in process e final products), that because their features, are managed by more predictable models based, for example, in economic order quantity. In the case specifically of companies of urban passenger transport by bus, items MRO have significant importance in their assets and a bad management of these inventories can cause serious losses to company, leading it even bankrupticy business, in more severe situations which missing spare part provokes vehicles shutdown indefinitely. Given slight attention to the issue, which translates in little literature available about it when compared to that literature about normal items stocks, and due the fact that MRO items be critical to bus urban transport of passengers companies?, it is necessary, so, deepen in this theme searching to give technical and scientific subsidies to companies that work, in many times, empirically, with these so decisive inputs to their business. As a typical portfolio problem, in which there are n items, separated into critical and noncritical, while competing for the same resource, it was developed a new algorithm to aid in a better inventory management of spare parts used only in corrective maintenance (whose failures are unpredictable and random), by analyzing the cost-benefit ratio, which compares the level of service versus cost of each item. The model was tested in a company of urban passenger transport by bus from the city of Natal, who anonymously provided their real data to application in this work / O trabalho busca oferecer um modelo para melhor gest?o do estoque de pe?as de reposi??o para empresas de transporte urbano de passageiros, com a conseq?ente melhoria na gest?o das suas manuten??es. Tamb?m conhecidos como itens MRO (Manuten??o, Reparo e Opera??es), estas pe?as de reposi??o, em fun??o das suas caracter?sticas de consumo e demanda, custo, criticidade para a opera??o, tempo de ressuprimento, quantidade de fornecedores, entre outros par?metros, n?o devem ter seus estoques geridos como itens normais de produ??o (bens intermedi?rios e produtos acabados), que pelas suas caracter?sticas, s?o regidos por modelos mais previs?veis baseados, por exemplo, no lote econ?mico de compra. Em se tratando especificamente de empresa de transporte urbano de passageiros por ?nibus, os itens MRO t?m peso significativo nos seus ativos e a m? gest?o deste estoque pode causar s?rios preju?zos ? companhia, levando-a, em situa??es mais graves em que a pe?a faltante resulte em parada de ve?culos por tempo indeterminado, at? ? fal?ncia do neg?cio. Face ? discreta aten??o ao tema, o que se traduz na pouca literatura dispon?vel sobre o mesmo quando comparada ?quela relacionada aos estoques de itens de produ??o, e devido ao fato dos itens MRO serem cr?ticos para as empresas de transporte urbano de passageiros, faz-se necess?rio, pois, o aprofundamento no assunto buscando dar subs?dios t?cnico-cient?ficos ?s firmas que trabalham, muitas vezes de forma emp?rica, com estes insumos t?o decisivos para o seu neg?cio. Tendo-se um t?pico problema de portf?lio, no qual existem n itens, segregados em cr?ticos e n?o-cr?ticos, competindo simultaneamente pelo mesmo recurso, foi desenvolvido um novo algoritmo para auxiliar na melhor gest?o do estoque de pe?as de reposi??o utilizadas somente em manuten??es corretivas (cujas falhas s?o imprevis?veis e aleat?rias), atrav?s da an?lise da rela??o custo-benef?cio, onde comparam-se n?vel de servi?o versus custo de cada item. O modelo foi testado em uma empresa de transporte urbano de passageiros por ?nibus da cidade de Natal, que anonimamente, forneceu seus dados reais para aplica??o neste trabalho

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:53:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 AlbertoBF_DISSERT.pdf: 4192519 bytes, checksum: 6795a029b50a219cfdea5278c95296c9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-06-26 / This paper aims to conduct a study to evaluate and measure the possible impact that the unavailability of spare parts can have on customer satisfaction for car dealerships in the post-sales. A theoretical-conceptual review on the subject of satisfaction and loyalty, on the backdrop of the reality of the automobile market, allowed the construction of a research tool dedicated to collect opinions of car owners, to allow an analysis empirical relationship between the availability of parts, repairs or scheduled service possible, and change or stay on the mark on the occasion of change of vehicle. 236 forms were applied to car owners in the city of Natal / RN. The results obtained in this survey allowed the identification of the unavailability of parts as a significant factor, among others, the motivation for the customer to switch brands. Collaterally, we could also conclude that the dynamics of change in marks, whatever its motivation, is reflected in the perceived positions of the different brands as the market share both in strictly quantitative terms and in terms of relative positioning, with significant changes in the ranking of consumer preferences for different brands available / O presente trabalho tem o objetivo de realizar um estudo que avalie e mensure os poss?veis impactos que a indisponibilidade de pe?as de reposi??o pode causar na satisfa??o dos clientes de concession?rias de autom?veis no per?odo p?s-vendas. Uma revis?o te?rico-conceitual sobre o tema da satisfa??o e da fideliza??o de clientes, sobre o pano de fundo da realidade do mercado automobil?stico, permitiu a constru??o de um instrumento de investiga??o dedicado a colher opini?es de propriet?rios de autom?veis, de modo a permitir uma an?lise emp?rica da rela??o entre indisponibilidade de pe?as, em revis?es programadas ou em repara??es eventuais, e a mudan?a de ou perman?ncia na marca por ocasi?o de troca de ve?culo. Foram aplicados 236 formul?rios a propriet?rios de autom?veis na cidade de Natal/RN. A an?lise dos resultados obtidos em tal pesquisa de opini?o permitiu a identifica??o da indisponibilidade de pe?as como um fator significante, dentre outros, para a motiva??o do cliente em mudar de marca. Colateralmente, foi poss?vel tamb?m concluir que a din?mica de mudan?a de marcas, qualquer que seja sua motiva??o, tem reflexos percept?veis nas posi??es das distintas marcas quanto a fatias de mercado, tanto em termos estritamente quantitativos, quanto em termos de posicionamento relativo, com altera??es significantes no ranking de prefer?ncias do consumidor pelas distintas marcas dispon?veis no mercado

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:24:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JoaoCNAF_DISSERT.pdf: 2996446 bytes, checksum: 1b396a7047a2f6f7e9b43b5a689f4492 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-10-31 / The inventory management in hospitals is of paramount importance, since the supply materials and drugs interruption can cause irreparable damage to human lives while excess inventories involves immobilization of capital. Hospitals should use techniques of inventory management to perform replenishment in shorter and shorter intervals, in order to reduce inventories and fixed assets and meet citizens requirements properly. The inventory management can be an even bigger problem for public hospitals, which have restrictions on the use of resources and decisionmaking structure more bureaucratized. Currently the University Hospital Onofre Lopes (HUOL) uses a periodic replacement policy for hospital medical supplies and medicines, which involves one moment surplus stock replenishment, the next out of stock items. This study aims to propose a system for continuous replenishment through order point for inventory of medical supplies and medicines to the hospital HUOL. Therefore, a literature review of Federal University Hospitals Management, Logistics, Inventory Management and Replenishment System in Hospitals was performed, emphasizing the demand forecast, classification or ABC curve and order point system. And also, policies of inventory management and the current proposal were described, dealing with profile of the mentioned institution, the current policy of inventory management and simulation for continuous replenishment order point. For the simulation, the sample consisted of 102 and 44 items of medical and hospital drugs, respectively, selected using the ABC classification of inventory, prioritizing items of Class A, which contains the most relevant items in added value, representing 80 % of the financial value in 2012 fiscal year. Considering that it is a public organization, subject to the laws, we performed two simulations: the first, following the signs for inventory management of Instruction No. 205 (IN 205 ), from Secretary of Public Administration of the Presidency ( SEDAP / PR ), and the second, based on the literature specializing in inventory management hospital. The results of two simulations were compared to the current policy of replenishment system. Among these results are: an indication that the system for continuous replenishment reorder point based on IN 205 provides lower levels of safety stock and maximum stock, enables a 17% reduction in the amount spent for the full replenishment of inventories, in other words, decreasing capital assets, as well as reduction in stock quantity, also the simulation made from the literature has indicated parameters that prevent the application of this technique to all items of the sample. Hence, a change in inventory management of HUOL, with the application of the continuous replenishment according to IN 205, provides a significant reduction in acquisition costs of medical and hospital medicine / A gest?o de estoques em hospitais ? de suma import?ncia, pois a interrup??o no abastecimento de materiais e medicamentos pode causar danos irrepar?veis a vidas humanas enquanto o excesso de estoques implica em imobiliza??o de capital. Os hospitais devem utilizar t?cnicas de gest?o de estoques para realizar a reposi??o em intervalos cada vez menores, como forma de reduzir os estoques e o capital imobilizado e, atender adequadamente as demandas dos cidad?os. A gest?o de estoques pode ser um problema ainda maior para hospitais p?blicos, que tem restri??es quanto ao uso de recursos e uma estrutura de decis?o mais burocratizada. Atualmente o Hospital Universit?rio Onofre Lopes (HUOL) utiliza uma pol?tica de reposi??o peri?dica para material m?dico hospitalar e medicamentos, a qual ora implica em reposi??o em excesso, ora em falta de itens. O presente estudo tem como objetivo propor um sistema de reposi??o cont?nua por ponto de pedido para estoques de material m?dico hospitalar e medicamentos para o HUOL. Para tanto, foi feita uma revis?o da literatura sobre Gest?o de Hospitais Universit?rios Federais, Log?stica, Gest?o de Estoques e Sistema de Reposi??o em Hospitais, enfatizando a previs?o da demanda, classifica??o ou curva ABC e sistema de ponto de pedido. E ainda, descreveram-se as pol?ticas de gest?o de estoques atual e proposta, abordando o perfil da institui??o em quest?o, a pol?tica atual de gest?o de estoques e a simula??o de reposi??o cont?nua por ponto de pedido. Para a simula??o, a amostra foi composta por 102 e 44 itens de material m?dico hospitalar e medicamentos, respectivamente, selecionada com o uso da classifica??o ABC de estoques, priorizando os itens da classe A, a qual cont?m os itens mais relevantes em valor agregado, representando 80% do valor financeiro movimentado no exerc?cio financeiro de 2012. Por se tratar de uma organiza??o p?blica, sujeita ?s normas legais, foram realizadas duas simula??es: a primeira seguindo as indica??es para gest?o de estoques da Instru??o Normativa N? 205 (IN 205), da ent?o Secretaria de Administra??o P?blica da Presid?ncia da Rep?blica (SEDAP/PR); e, a segunda, tomando como base a Literatura especializada na gest?o de estoques hospitalares. Os resultados das duas simula??es foram comparados aos do sistema de reposi??o da pol?tica atual. Entre estes resultados, est?o: a indica??o de que o sistema de reposi??o cont?nua por ponto de pedido com base na IN 205 proporciona menores n?veis de estoque de seguran?a e estoque m?ximo, possibilita uma redu??o de 17% no valor gasto para a reposi??o plena dos estoques, ou seja, uma redu??o no valor de imobiliza??o de capital, assim como a redu??o na quantidade em estoque; e, que a simula??o feita a partir da Literatura apresentou par?metros que impedem a aplica??o desta t?cnica para todos os itens da amostra. Ent?o, uma mudan?a na gest?o de estoques do HUOL, com a aplica??o do sistema de reposi??o cont?nua de acordo com a IN 205, proporciona uma redu??o significativa nos gastos com aquisi??o de material m?dico hospitalar e medicamentos

The diploma work deals with stock holding and inventory management in selected company. The main sources of information were specialized liturature and information provided by the company. The objective of this thesis was analyse, evaluation and improvement suggestion of stock holding and inventory management. The theoretic part is focused on stock holding and theory of inventory management. In the practical part is presented the company, process of production and structure of inventory.It has been analysed process of stock holding and inventory management. The company use the program MGF/PRO and system kanban. The diploma work is closed by evaluation and improvement suggestion in inventory management.