Sandvik Rock Tools is operating in a highly competitive market. This requires them to constantly improve the efficiency of their organization, in order for them to maintain their position as market leaders, both in a short-term and a long-term perspective. Sandvik Rock Tools is currently working on developing and further improving their supply chain. The supply chain is a key organizational function and improvements of the supply chain aim to yield benefits like lowered total costs and better utilized inventory levels. The purpose of our work has been to develop the supply chain between Sandvik’s in-market warehouse and their customer site at Dannemora. The main focus of this thesis has been to enable automatic data collection and to lower the stock levels at the customer site in Dannemora. This would be accomplished by improving the information flow between the two entities in the observed supply chain and by enabling real-time inventory information, easily accessible to the warehouse manager. A barcode system was implemented in the warehouse at the Dannemora customer site and was integrated with warehouse management software that was developed by the authors. The implemented barcode system and the warehouse management software were used at the Dannemora customer site for a period of two months. The effects of the implemented barcode system working in combination with the warehouse management software were observed in several operational areas after implementation, and the results were positive and beneficial. Firstly, the barcode system and warehouse management software simplified the warehouse manager’s decision process, by providing easy access to necessary warehouse management information, like realtime inventory information. Secondly, it made the day-to-day work routine of the warehouse manager easier, this being the case because the barcode system that had been implemented had digitalized and automated many tasks that had previously been performed manually by warehouse manager. An excellent example would be the simplified process for order placement and stocktaking. Thirdly, it improved the information flow between the Dannemora customer site and Sandvik’s in-market warehouse in Sandviken, thereby improving the overall effectiveness of the entire supply chain, through shared information. The barcode implementation successfully lowered inventory levels by six percent on average.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-90520 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | van Hooff, Jonathan, Tegni, Oscar |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för matematik och matematisk statistik, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för matematik och matematisk statistik |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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