Supply chain management involves inter-organizational interactions and integration as a whole, sharing operational resources and information among supply chain members, and an objective to optimize the supply chain performance. Among the management processes exists uncertainty that disrupts operational performance. The uncertainty occurs when supply chain members have insufficient information for decision making. The lack of information transparency leads to a rise in each member¡¦s cost and inventory level, inefficiency in capacity utilization, reduction of business values, etc. For these reasons, this study holds that information sharing can effectively deal with uncertainty and improve the performance of the whole supply chain. This research mainly studies information sharing in a supply chain and proposes a theoretical framework of information sharing. It investigates by a case study the uncertainty that the focal company faces in demand, supply, and manufacturing process, explores the company¡¦s current status of information sharing, and researches the factors that may influence information sharing. The results show that PCB (Printed Circuit Board), a highly customized product with a short life cycle and a simple combination of raw materials, has a supply chain of divergent differentiation. PCB has a higher demand uncertainty, but that uncertainty can be effectively reduced by information sharing and process coordination with demand side customers. Besides, the order fulfillment process may be improved as a result. Based on inter-organizational coordination, information sharing through vendor managed inventory mechanism will facilitate supply chain collaboration, and ease the significant influence of bullwhip effect on upstream PCB manufacturers. In this way, PCB manufacturers can share risks and profits with customers. Furthermore, the extent of trust and risk may influence the process of information sharing. A greater extent of trust helps members to share information with each other. Nevertheless, it is considered risky to share sensitive information, which is regarded as a bargaining power.

It is essential for companies within the process industry to obtain sufficient inventory of indirect material to gain supply chain resilience. Yet, a capital-intensive company that lack efficient inventory management can generate high levels of tied-up capital. The aim of this thesis is to analyze how to optimize Working Capital (WC) for indirect material in stock through a singlecase study at an international mining and metals company. It consist of analytic interviews based on the Performance Management framework evaluating the performance level of WC optimization across the company’s decentralized sites. The results reveals that it is essential to combined both inventory management and WC management to reduce capital employed while maintaining sufficient inventory. For instance, this requires implementation of multi-criterion classification methods for critical items, and purchasing strategies adopted after an item’s lifecycle. Additionally, strategic actions regarding inventory visibility, monitoring and planning are required to reduce excess and dead inventory. The results confirms that information flows are required between involved departments to improve WC while meeting organizational demands. Finally, companies are facing increased uncertainty that impacts their ability to stay competitive and gain supply chain resilience. This thesis suggests ways to mitigate negative consequences from WC optimization during uncertainty. / Det är väsentligt för företag inom processindustrin att erhålla ett lönsamt lager av indirektmaterial för att kunna hantera risker och osäkerhet i försörjningskedjan. Däremot, kapitalintensiva företag som saknar effektiv lagerhantering kan resultera till ökad kapitalbindning. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att analysera optimering av rörelsekapitalet för indirekt material i lager genom en enstaka fallstudie hos ett internationellt gruv- och metallföretag med decentraliserade enheter. Fallstudien består av analytiska intervjuer baserade på ramverket för prestationsledning för att utvärdera enheternas prestationsförmåga att reducera bundet kapital. Resultatet avslöjar att det är nödvändigt att integrera styrning av lagret och rörelsekapitalet för att minska det sysselsatta kapitalet samt bibehålla ett lönsamt lager. Detta kräver exempelvis implementering av multi-dimensionella klassificeringsmetod för kritiska artiklar, samt inköpsstrategier anpassade efter en produkts livscykel. Ytterligare krävs även strategiska åtgärder för öka lagersynlighet, planering och övervakning av lagret för att reducera överskott och obsolet lager. Resultatet bekräftar att informationsflöden krävs mellan inblandade avdelningar för att förbättra rörelsekapitalet och samtidigt möta organisationens efterfråga. Slutligen, företag står inför ökad osäkerhet som påverkar deras förmåga att förbli konkurrenskraftiga samt att få stöd i leveranskedjan. Denna avhandling föreslår därför sätt att mildra negativa konsekvenser som kan uppstå vid optimering av rörelsekapital under osäkerhet.