Consumer confusion, caused by product similarity, choice and/or information overload, and the presence of ambiguous information, can negatively affect consumersʼ decision making, and thereby also companiesʼ profitability. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate how the three variables (i.e. similarity, overload, ambiguity) of Walsh et al.ʼs (2007) consumer confusion proneness model affect consumersʼ decision postponement and brand loyalty, concerning low involvement products. A conceptual framework based on consumer behavior- and consumer confusion literature, was utilized to form six hypotheses predicting the causality between the different variables. After validating and adapting the scale to data gathered through a survey, regarding Swedish studentsʼ purchasing habits of laundry detergent, two standard multiple regressions revealed that one hypothesis was supported; overload confusion proneness decreases brand loyalty in a low involvement product category. All implications were then discussed from practitionersʼ and researchersʼ points of view, concluding with possible limitations and further research.

Nowadays firms must develop inventory policies that enable them to cope with the changing marketplace. Determining proper inventory locations can help decrease costs related to inventory holding and transportation. Moreover, this allows firms to respond in a timely manner to customers’ requirements. As a result profit margins can be enhanced as well as the competitiveness of a firm. However, the decision of where to locate inventory in a supply chain is difficult since many companies are managed independently. The present research is developed as a case study where product classification, customer and supplier segmentation schemes are reviewed in order to determine appropriate inventory locations along the supply chain. The thesis is written upon literature and empirical research, where most of the data was collected through personal interviews and observations at the supply chain management offices of a distributor for sealing material parts in Europe. Our conclusion shows that product classification has an important impact on inventory location decisions. Also, we conclude that products should be classified based on both physical characteristics and demand factors, as well as according to customers’ requirements. Another factor to be considered when deciding on inventory location is supply risks, due to issues related to raw material availability and capacity. Nonetheless, the selection of classification variables is challenging as it is hard to determine which factors are more relevant than others as this varies depending on each firms’ needs. In addition, we find that supply chain strategies are not realistic due to the constant changes in the business environment and the inability of a firm to manage whole supply chains. Furthermore, a high level of communication among supply chain partners is fundamental, especially when a centralized inventory policy and a postponement strategy are in place.

ABSTRACT Postponement strategies offer opportunities for firms to achieve effective supply chain management. Postponement strategies could be classified into manufacturing postponement which delays the product differentiation and logistics postponement which delays the distributing process to the confirmed customer orders. In practice, the way to implement manufacturing postponement is more complicated than logistics postponement¡¦s. By employing the logistics postponement strategy, all the firms have to consider is the distribution of finalized products from a centralized inventory to final retailers. Comparing with integrating all the manufacturing activities, logistics postponement strategy could be an effective one for firms to handle the demand uncertainty over the regional markets. By employing the logistics postponement strategy, firms could decrease the cost of inventory and backorder through delaying products distribution to the confirmed customer orders. The connection between real options and postponement is also showed on this point. By employing the real options, decisions could be made when the firms wait and get more information about the market. The value the firms wait to get is also the benefits that logistics postponement strategy could reach by logistics postponement. Thus, the flexibility to decrease the inventory and backorder cost is considered as the management flexibility that real options could evaluate. On the other way, it¡¦s not always free for firms to get such a flexible management ability. The capital that firms have to invest for any change of the supply chain becoming the flexible one could be equal to buying the exercise right in real options. We therefore could construct a model to evaluate the value of logistics postponement strategy via real options and help the firms to judge what would be the proper occasions for logistics postponement to be implemented.

<p>Unibrands is a small company that has implemented a postponement strategy without knowing it. However, they have not implemented completely because they do not know the theories behind it. This report is an attempt to understand and analyze the problems of the implementation of postponement in the supply chain of Unibrands, in terms of examining the theoretical succeeds factors of postponement implementation in the case of Unibrands.The purpose is to determine what type of postponement strategy the supply chain use and what factors can hinder the use of postponement strategy in a SME fashion supply chain by applying an qualitative research approach. The collection of empirical data was through the interview guide approach in which we used meetings and telephone interviews with people representing Unibrands and their contact trading company. The results of this research can be concluded in few perspectives. Unibrands is imple-menting postponement in an improper format, with the results of several gaps in the supply chain related to the success factor in postponement. The request for the fully customization in colors and materials, the bottleneck of relationship developing which is caused by factory manager,  complicated procedures for sample testing, and lack of knowledge of different relationships in the supply chain. Postponement is never perfect, but for Unibrands some problems could very well hinder the efficiency in the supply chain. Solutions are proposed to solve the problems in chain. The proposals suggest re-lationship improvement and information sharing. In addition, culture adaptation by in-volving the right people in the right process.</p>

Varje år säljs det i Sverige enligt branschorganisationen Bil Sweden mellan 250 000–300 000 nya bilaroch 30 000–40 000 lätta lastbilar. Detta skapar ett logistikbehov i form av lagerhållning och transport avnya bilar till återförsäljare som slutlevererar bilen till kunden.Billogistikmarknaden i Sverige består av fåtal aktörer som konkurrerar om ett tjugotal kunder. För attkunna få en lönsamhet i denna bransch som är väldigt konkurrensutsatt är det bland annat viktigt attkundservice och resursutnyttjande är på topp. Vi har därför valt att undersöka hur en av aktörerna inombillogistikbranchen kan förbättra den interna kommunikationen och samordna sina interna processerbättre för att få högre lönsamhet och ett bättre resursutnyttjande. Vi har med utgångspunkt i företagetgjort intervjuer och observationer som har varit en viktig del för att kunna få fram ett bra ramverk förbearbetning. Studien har kommit fram till att företaget har en bristande kommunikation mellan de tvåavdelningarna produktion och transport. Vilket har gjort att resursutnyttjandet har blivit lidande. Vi hartillsammans med vetenskapliga teorier och empiriskt material tagit fram förslag som kan tillämpas föratt komma till rätta med problemet.Resultatet anser vi är att inom företaget bör den interna kommunikationen mellan avdelningarnaförbättras. Transportplaneringen bör ske innan produktionen på bilarna startar för att få fram rätt bil irätt tid. Kan dessa förändringar ske kommer det ge båda avdelningarna bättre förutsättningar att göraett bra jobb tillsammans. Detta tillsammans med en lean implementation där företagetsresursutnyttjande ökas borde hjälpa till att förbättra resursutnyttjandet och i förlängningen ävenlönsamheten. / According to the Swedish trade association BIL Sweden there are sold approximately 250 000–300 000new cars and 30 000–40 000 commercial vehicles every year. As most cars are produced outside ofSweden there is a need for an logistics setup when cars arrive in Sweden and also adaptation of cars forthe Swedish market. transportation from ports, adjusting cars to the demand of customers in Swedenand also transportation to the dealerships. The market for car logistics consists of a few companies thatcompete for some twenty customers. In order to get profitability in a market which is very competitiveit becomes important to keep customer satisfaction, customer service and resource utilization at a highlevel. Therefore we have chosen to study how one of these companies can improve and increaseresource utilization by better internal communication. Our study is based on interviews together withobservations in order to obtain a good framework. The conclusion of the study is that the company'slack of proper internal communication between the two departments, production and transportation,have a negative effect on the resource utilization and customer satisfaction. In order to analyze this wehave used a number of theories, together with the empirical material which we believe can be appliedto solve the issues at hand within the company. The result is that the company should first improvecommunication internally between the two departments. Once that is done the transport planningprocess should be done before the production on the cars takes place. This together with leanimplementation in order the maximize the company's resource utilization should help to improve theprofitability of the company.

We provide a comprehensive characterization of the relationship between optimal capacity and the degree of product substitution/complementarity under price/production postponement, considering different business practices (holdback versus clearance, negative price policies) and different demand models. Specifically, we consider a firm that produces two products, which can be substitutable or complementary. The demand of each product is a linear function of the prices of both products (with the relationship depending on the substitution/complementarity structure), and is subject to an additive stochastic shock. We consider two types of linear demand functions that are commonly used in the economics and operations management literature. The firm operates in a monopolistic setting and acts as a price-setter for both products. Overall the firm needs to make three sets of decisions: capacity, production quantities, and prices. While the capacity investment decision has to be made ex-ante observation of demand curves, price and/or quantity decisions can be postponed until after demand curves are observed. We consider two postponement strategies: price and quantity postponement, and price postponement only. We characterize the optimal pricing/production/investment decisions for each postponement strategy. Using these characterizations, we show that product substitution/complementarity is a key demand characteristic, which has a large impact on the optimal capacity. Our results show that how the optimal capacity behaves in substitution/complementarity parameter is quite similar under both postponement strategies, and under holdback and clearance. However, this behavior depends highly on other underlying assumptions (i.e., whether or not negative prices are allowed) and on the demand model used. / Ph. D.

The ability to effectively match supply and demand can lead to significant revenue benefits in the airline industry. Airline supply management deals with assigning the right resources (i.e., aircraft and crew) to the right routes in the flight network. Due to certain crew regulations, operating characteristics, and constraints of the airline companies, these supply management decisions need to be made well in advance of departures, at a time when demand is highly uncertain. However, demand forecasts improve markedly over time, as more information on demand patterns is gathered. Thus, exploiting the flexibilities in the system that allows the partial postponement of supply decisions to a later time, when more accurate demand information is obtained, can significantly improve the airline's revenue. In this thesis, we propose and analyze the Demand Driven Swapping (DDS) approach that aims at improving the airline's revenue by reducing the supply-demand mismatches through dynamically swapping aircraft as departures approach. This research has been done in collaboration with our industrial partner, the United Airlines Research and Development Division. Due to the proximity to departures, the DDS problem is restricted by two main constraints: 1) the initial crew schedule needs to be kept intact (due to certain union contracts); and 2) airport services and operations need to be preserved to the greatest extent possible. As a result, only a limited number of simple swaps can be performed between aircraft types of the same family (i.e. crew-compatible aircraft types). However, the swaps can be potentially performed on a daily basis given the initial fleet assignments. Clearly, the swapping criteria, frequency, and timing will highly impact the revenue benefits of the DDS approach. When the swapping decisions are made several weeks prior to departures (i.e., 4-6 weeks before departures), they will not cause much disturbance to the operations, but will be performed under highly uncertain demand information. On the other hand, swapping decisions that are delayed to a time later (i.e., 1-3 weeks before departures) will decrease the possibility of bad swaps, but will result in larger costs due to the higher disruptions to airport services and operations. Thus our research objective is to provide guidelines and principles on how the flexible capacity should be managed in the system. For this purpose, we study the effectiveness of different swapping strategies, characterized in terms of their frequency and timing, for hedging against the demand uncertainty. We first study stylized analytical models to gain insights into the critical parameters that affect these benefits. Simulation models are then conducted to test the validity of our analytical findings as well as to analyze more complex strategies and assess the dynamic performance of these strategies. The analytical results indicate that strategies that make the swapping decision early in time (in order to minimize disturbances to the operations) perform very well on routes, where the demand uncertainty is low and the expected demands on the legs are well-balanced. Otherwise, a swapping strategy, which revises the swapping decision over time, should be implemented. Our simulation results, based on real data obtained from United Airlines, confirm the analytical findings. / Master of Science

No description available.

Master’s Thesis in Logistics and Supply Chain Management _____________________________________________________ Title:                 Postponement in Retailing Industry- A case study of SIBA Authors:         Ahmed Kemal &amp; Naqvi Syed Mohammad Tutor:               Helgi Valur Fredriksson, Dr. Date:               May, 2010 Key Words:   Speculation, Postponement, Customer Order Decoupling point, Retailing, Supply Chain Flexibility, Agility ______________________________________________________________ Abstract Problem: Today's business environment is characterized by changing customer demands, increasing cost pressures on retailers, shorter product life cycles and products becoming obsolete shortly after their introduction. The above factors make it difficult for electronics retailers to balance the costs of dealing with excessive inventory and not be out of stock. To be competitive, retailers should delay some of their activities until customer demand becomes visible. This brings us to the phenomenon of postponement. Electronics market in Sweden faces continuous growth, although at a declining rate. This is indicative of a saturation that this sector, as a whole, is approaching to. The above problems are due to the speculative approaches and standardized products policies that are in practice. Loss of sales and customers result from these practices. The current study analyses the importance of postponement strategy and the benefits it offers. This study also tries to explore the potential solutions for retailers that postponement may relate to.   Purpose: The scope of this study is to identify possible postponement strategies needed for SIBA. Method: A case study approach has been taken. The choice of the method is qualitative with an inductive approach. This involved personal communications during interviews with the managers of SIBA, using semi structured questions to collect data.   Results: The concepts of postponement, supply chain flexibility, agility and customer order decoupling points (CODP) are closely related to one another and it has been shown that as the depth of postponement increase from right to left in the CODP continuum, the CODP changes its position, moving along the CODP continuum from right to left and towards the upstream. With this movement, the flexibility and agility in the chain increases. Our finds suggest that postponement is rather underutilized and that wastes (by way of lost sales and customers, obsolete inventory costs and storage costs) in the retailing process occur due to speculative approaches in application at the retail level. We have suggested logistics postponement for two out of three product categories and enumerated the ensuing benefits that the retailer can derive by way of enhanced flexibility, agility and reductions in wastages and satisfied customers.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether legal rights are upheld when wording and applying the postponement of payment of tax regulations of chapter 17 section 2 p. 2-3 of the payment of Tax Act. We also investigate how the wording of the regulations relate to the requirement of legal security. It has been questioned if the regulations concerning postponement of payment of tax are compatible with the requirement of legal security. Of course does not a taxpayer want to pay tax that he or she consider incorrect, and that has not been under trial by an impartial authority. If the request for postponement of payment of tax is rejected, the consequences for the taxpayer can lead to huge financial losses. The worse scenario for the taxpayer is if he or she goes bankrupt due to the rejected request. The tax assessment regulations forming the basis for the postponement of payment of tax regulations are considered disputable, which has brought the matter to the fore. When ap-plying for reassessment or making an appeal, the question arises whether the tax in process should be submitted before the matter has been settled. The regulations of chapter 23 sec-tion 7 of the payment of Tax Act stipulate that the obligation to submit taxes remains re-gardless of its disputability. The only way the taxpayer can avoid having to submit taxes be-forehand is to apply for postponement of payment of the tax. When the application for postponement of payment of tax has reached the Tax Authority it is treated separately from the underlying tax assessment matter. However, the outcome of the postponement of payment of tax matter depends on the prerequisites on which the tax assessment is based. This thesis is based on the regulations of chapter 17 section 2 p. 2-3 of the payment of Tax Act. The section stipulates that postponement of payment of tax may be granted in matters where the outcome of an ongoing tax assessment process may be uncertain, or where it may lead to considerable damage or else appear unreasonable to submit taxes. The founda-tions for judgment are very vaguely worded, which creates room for subjective interpreta-tions, and moreover, it means that judicial authorities must fill up the prerequisites with their judgments. Unclear bases for judgment limit taxpayers’ demands for predictable taxa-tion, and the risk both local tax offices and the Tax Authority and administrative courts make different assessments is great. When the Tax Authority and the administrative courts treat claims for postponement of payment of tax, legal rights must always be considered. There are often deficiencies in the handling of the matters, which impair the taxpayers’ legal rights. The matters should be suf-ficiently investigated and the decisions motivated in a satisfactory manner. Moreover, the handling of claims for postponement of payment of tax should be objective, and decisions made with consideration to the consequences of the ruling. As things are at present, it takes a considerable amount of time for the courts to investigate the underlying tax assessment, which means the consequences of not being granted a post-ponement of payment of tax are so much the graver. This also means that the taxpayer is forced to live a long time in financial and psychological uncertainty. One suggestion of how to come to terms with this problem is to increase specialization in the administrative courts. The lack of clearly worded legal texts, preparatory work and practice leads to predictability being impaired for the individual and create difficulties for the Tax Authority and the ad-ministrative courts. From a legal rights perspective, more generous regulations regarding postponement of payment of tax should be introduced. One suggestion is to turn the main regulation of chapter 23 section 7 of the payment of Tax Act around. Postponement of payment of tax would then be granted unless particular reasons for its denial exist. An al-ternative to this suggestion may be to leave the main regulation in its current wording and have the exception regulations of chapter 17 section 2 of the payment of Tax Act grant postponement of payment of tax, unless particular reasons hindering this exist. In such a case of denying postponement of payment of tax the reasons for denial should be speci-fied. / I uppsatsen undersöks om rättssäkerheten upprätthålls vid tillämpningen av anståndsbe-stämmelserna i 17 kap. 2 § p. 2-3 SBL. Samt hur utformningen av bestämmelserna förhåller sig till kraven på rättssäkerhet. Det har ifrågasatts om anståndsbestämmelserna är förenliga med rättssäkerhetens krav. Detta följer av att en skattskyldig naturligtvis inte vill betala skatt som denne anser är felak-tig och som inte ännu har hunnits prövats av en oberoende instans. Avslås en anståndsbe-gäran kan detta få stora ekonomiska konsekvenser för den skattskyldige. I värsta fall riske-rar den skattskyldige att försättas i konkurs. Anledningen till att anståndsbestämmelserna uppkommer är att det underliggande taxe-ringsbeslutet som ligger till grund för dessa är tvistigt. Vid en begäran avseende ompröv-ning eller överklagan uppstår frågan huruvida den berörda skatten som är under process skall betalas innan ärendet är avgjort. Enligt huvudregeln i 23 kap. 7 § SBL stadgas det att skyldigheten att erlägga skatt består oavsett om den är tvistig. Den utväg som återstår för den skattskyldige att slippa att betala skatten innan beslutet vunnit laga kraft är att begära anstånd med betalningen av skatten. När begäran om anstånd inkommit till Skatteverket blir detta ett ärende som hanteras separat från den underliggande taxeringsfrågan, dock är utgången av anståndsärendet beroende av de rekvisit som ligger till grund för taxering. Uppsatsens inriktning syftar till reglerna i 17 kap. 2 § p. 2-3 SBL. I paragrafen stadgas att anstånd kan ges i fall, där utgången i en pågående skatteprocess är tveksam eller där det kan medföra betydande skadeverkningar eller annars framstå som oskäligt att betala skatten. Dessa bedömningsgrunder är som synes mycket vagt utformade, vilket skapar utrymme för subjektiva tolkningar och dessutom innebär detta att de rättstillämpande instanserna måste fylla ut rekvisiten med sina bedömningar. Oklara grunder för bedömning medför att de skattskyldigas krav på en förutsebar beskattning inskränks, dessutom är risken för olikfor-mig bedömning mellan både lokala Skatteverkskontor samt mellan Skatteverket och för-valtningsdomstolarna stor. I behandlingen av anståndsärendet hos Skatteverket och förvaltningsdomstolarna finns det flera rättssäkerhetsaspekter som bör uppfyllas. I flera av dess finns brister i handläggningen som gör att den skattskyldiges rättssäkerhet kan komma att begränsas. Ärendet skall utre-das tillräcklig och när beslut lämnas skall detta motiveras för den skattskyldige på ett till-fredsställande sätt. Dessutom bör hanteringen av anståndsärendet skötas objektivt och hän-syn till konsekvenserna av beslutet bör beaktas. I nuläget är handläggningstiderna för att få den underliggande taxeringsfrågan utredd av domstolarna mycket lång, vilket innebär att konsekvenserna av att inte få anstånd med be-talning av skatten blir ännu större. Det innebär att den skattskyldige under lång tid tvingas leva i både ekonomisk och psykologisk ovisshet. Ett förslag för att komma till rätta med problemet är att en ökad specialisering inom förvaltningsdomstolarna sker. Bristen på klar lagtext, förarbeten och praxis leder till att förutsebarheten inskränks för den enskilde samt svårigheter för Skatteverket och domstolarna vid lagtillämpning. Ur rättssä-kerhetssynpunkt bör generösare bestämmelser angående anstånd med betalning av skatt in-föras. Ett förslag är att vända på huvudregeln i 23 kap. 7 § SBL. Anstånd skulle då som hu-vudregel medges. Om det däremot föreligger särskilda skäl skall den skattskyldige nekas an-stånd. Ett alternativ till detta förslag skulle vara att huvudregeln står kvar i nuvarande ut-formning, men att undantagsreglerna i 17 kap. 2 § SBL regelmässigt medger anstånd om inte särskilda skäl talar emot detta. I ett sådant anståndsavslag skall skälen som ligger till grund för beslutet preciseras.