Dynapac GmbH is a manufacturer of road construction equipment and has historically been acquired and merged with several companies, resulting in an expansion of their supplier base. Currently, they are experiencing a large supplier base within direct material causing a decrease in the effectiveness and efficiency in the management of the suppliers. Dynapac GmbH therefore wishes to lower the number of suppliers in order to obtain desired effects, such as cost savings, reduction of administrative workload, higher control, higher quality and improved communication with suppliers. The purpose of the study is therefore to develop a methodology that describes all the activities needed to successfully reduce the number of suppliers. At the moment, approximately 80 percent of the total purchasing budget is allocated to only 14 percent of the supplier base. The supplier base can therefore be assumed to consist of a high number of suppliers supplying only a few products with a low turnover. Based on this, it can be concluded that the supplier base includes several opportunities for supplier base reduction. The action of reducing the supplier base is perceived as being in line with the sourcing strategy as well as the business strategy and the needed support is therefore believed to be present in order to succeed with performing supplier base reduction. Based on existing research, a conceptual model for supplier base reduction was created. The current situation at Dynapac GmbH was thereafter analysed in order to enable a customization of the model. Interviews were held to obtain input regarding the model and the activities. The overall view on the model was positive and all activities were considered to be relevant to include. Possible customizations of the activities were discussed during the interviews, which resulted in a customized model consisting of activities with either two types of customizations: (1) defined variables or (2) developed processes. Lastly, the model was validated in a pilot test before it was reconfigured and handed over as a methodology. The finalized methodology included a thorough description on how to conduct supplier base reduction from beginning to end, consisting of 14 activities corresponding to five different phases. The first two phases intend to lay the basis for enabling a reduction of the supplier base and the third phase aims at implementing it in practice. The fourth phase consists of analysing the result of the implementation followed by the last phase with focus on continuous improvement of the supplier base.

Braathens Regional Airlines is a result of a merger between multiple smaller, domestic airlines. As a result, the company has a large supply base for logistics services. This has lead to difficulties following up the operation and a complex supply structure. Therefore, in order to improve the overall logistics operations, the aim was to evaluate the current external transportation solution for the distribution of spare parts. The evaluation was accomplished through a comparison with two alternative scenarios: Supply base reduction and Third-party logistics (TPL). Supply base reduction meant removing suppliers from the current supply base, and Third-party logistics entailed outsourcing all external transportation to a single company. The comparison was based on five criteria: Transportation cost, Administrative workload, Delivery precision, Lead time and Flexibility. To be able to carry out a comparison, data regarding all the criteria was collected for all cases. This was done through extractions from enterprise systems from four of the case company's largest carriers, as well as through interviews with employees and a representative from a Third-party logistics service provider. After analyzing the provided data, the main conclusion was that both supply base reduction and TPL would improve the operation, where the case of TPL was expected to be slightly better. In order to further strengthen the analysis, the company has to develop its data collection procedures. In addition to the exact transportation solution, changes within the organization and its routines can improve the operations further.