Background: The implementation of procurement concepts such as JIT or singlesourcing have resulted in the emergence of new supply risks forautomotive suppliers. The economic crisis in 2008 and volatiledemand in recent years had enormous impact on the sector.Consequently, in association with lean purchasing models, newdimensions of supply risks have emerged. This creates the need forautomotive suppliers to adapt and improve their supply riskmanagement in response to the increased risk potential. There hasbeen no research on how automotive suppliers have furtherdeveloped their supply risk management recently. Purpose: The purpose is to examine how automotive suppliers have adaptedtheir supply risk management in response to the fluctuatingeconomy since 2008. Frame of reference: In this section the Kraljic matrix and the risk management processare presented. The theories lead to a synthesis including the researchquestions for fulfilling the purpose. Method: This research is based on a qualitative multiple case study. In orderto gather the necessary in-depth data, four automotive suppliersfrom Germany and Northern Europe were interviewed by theauthors. Conclusions: Automotive suppliers have clearly reacted on increasedconsequences of supply risks. The general grown awareness andsensitivity have lead to the implementation of new managementtools. Particularly the cooperation between supply chain membershas considerably intensified and contributed to a better riskreduction. Moreover, the financial stability of vendors has risen inimportance and is considered more thoroughly. All the instrumentsand methods may, however, be more powerful and efficient ifautomotive suppliers had standardized and linked them into aconsecutive process.

Enligt Carlsson och Rönnqvist (2005) och Frayret et al. (2007) blir det allt viktigare att arbeta med supply chain management inom trävaruindustrin. En utmaning är att finna ett arbetssätt för att hantera variationen i kundens efterfrågan. Idag hanteras variationen oftast genom onödigt stor lagerhållning (Lee et al., 1997b; So och Zheng, 2003).                                                                                 Syftet med studien är att utreda påverkande faktorer som bidrar till en varierande efterfrågan inom trävaruindustrin samt föreslå hur uppkomsten av dessa kan undvikas. För att svara på syftet har tre frågeställningar tagits fram och en fallstudie genomfördes på ett hyvleri. Informationsinsamlingen har skett genom intervjuer av anställda från olika avdelningar samt litteraturstudier. Studien visar att det finns flera utmaningar när det är stor variation på efterfrågan såsom brist på tillgång till prognoser och kommunikationsbrist med kunder. Det medför att planeringen av råvaruåtgången försvåras och det leder till svårigheter att uppnå leveransprecision.   Slutsatsen visar att de påverkande faktorer som bidrar till en varierad efterfrågan är prisvariationer, orderstorlek och orderfrekvens. Prisvariationer kan undvikas genom ABC-indelning av produkterna utifrån produktefterfrågan. Prognoser underlättar uppskattning av efterfrågan men för ett fungerande prognosarbete krävs samsyn, nära relation samt god kommunikation mellan kund och leverantör. Problem med orderstorlek och orderfrekvens kan reduceras om kunden får avgöra orderstorleken utan att specifika krav måste uppfyllas. Slutsatsen visar även att faktorer såsom väderlek, trender, mode, helgdagar och rotavdragets eventuella försvinnande påverkar variationen i efterfrågan. / According to Carlsson & Rönnqvist (2005) and Frayret et al. (2007) supply chain management in the wood products industry is getting more important. One of the challenges is to find a way to deal with customer’s fluctuating demand. Traditional solution to handle fluctuating demand is large inventory (Lee et al., 1997b; So & Zheng, 2003), which causes often high inventory cost for effective supply chain management.   The aim of the study is to investigate factors that affect a fluctuating demand in the wood products industry and suggest how to reduce the fluctuating demand through related factors analysis in order to improve Demand-Supply chain management efficiency. For this pursose, a case study on a planing is conducted. To collect data, interviews with employees from different departments have been made along with literature studies. The study presents that there are many challenges for the fluctuation demand such as lack of forecasts and lack of communication with customers. This, in turn, will cause problems with planning of the raw material as well as difficulties to deliver the goods on time.   The conclusion shows that the factors affecting a fluctuating demand are price variations, the orders batch size and order frequency. Price variations can be improved by ABC classification of the products by product demand. Forecasts will make the estimation of demand easier, although, in order to use forecasts properly a joint vision, close relationships and good communication with customer and supplier is required. Problems regarding batch size and order frequency can be reduced if the customer is allowed to decide the batch size with no specific requirements. The study also shows that factors such as weather, trends, fashion, holidays and disappearance of ROT work affects the fluctuating demand.