Kysynnän hallinnan vaikutukset päivittäistavararyhmän kustannustehokkuuteen

Tutkielman konkreettisena tavoitteena oli rakentaa kauppaketjulle kysynnän hallinnan pohjalta malli, jonka avulla ketju voi parantaa asiakaslähtöisyyttään ja samalla tehostaa toimintaansa. Tutkielman teoriaosassa muodostetun viitekehyksen pitävyyttä kokeiltiin TOKMANNI-ketjun makeistuoteryhmään. Tutkielman teoriaosassa seurattiin päivittäistavarakauppaan suunnatun ECR-toiminnan teoreettista viitekehystä, josta saatiin tietoa kirjallisuudesta, konsulttiraporteista sekä artikkeleista. Empiirinen osa toteutettiin kvantitatiivisilla kohdeyrityksen tuottamilla dokumenteilla, joita täydennettiin kvalitatiivisilla haastattelututkimuksilla. Tutkielman pohjalta ketjun makeistuoteryhmään rakennettiin uudelleen määritelty ja yhtenäinen valikoima sekä esillepano. Valikoiman selkiyttämisellä ja yhtenäistämisellä parannettiin tuoteryhmän hallittavuutta sekä helpotettiin henkilökunnan työskentelyä tilaustoiminnassa, esillepanossa ja kampanjoinnissa. Lisäksi tuoteryhmän selkiytymisen ja kulutuskysynnän mukaisen valikoiman nähtiin parantavan myös tuoteryhmän kannattavuutta ja asiakaslähtöisyyttä siisteinä, selkeinä hyllyinä sekä kulutuskysynnän mukaisena valikoimana. Teoreettinen malli tuntui toimivan myös käytännössä.

Consumer resistance to mobile commerce services

Oheinen opinnäytetyö on kvalitatiivinen tutkimus kuluttajavastarinnasta mobiilin kaupankäynnin palveluja kohtaan. Tutkimus kohdistuu läntisiin kulttuureihin, joissa kyseisen innovatiivisen palveluryhmän leviämistä tukevat monet aikaisemmat innovaatiot kuten matkapuhelin, Internet, digitaaliset pankkipalvelut. Tutkimus esittelee innovaatioiden vastarintatekijöitä ihmisen luonnollisena reaktiona tämän vakiintuneita elämäntapoja mullistavia keksintöjä kohtaan nimenomaan läntisissä kulttuureissa, joissa kuluttajat ovat perinteisesti hyvin teknologiamyönteisiä. Toisaalta tutkimusalueella on havaittavissa sosiaalisten ryhmien pirstoutuminen yhä pienemmiksi alaryhmiksi, mikä voi hidastaa sosiaalista oppimista. Tutkimus vastaa todelliseen tutkimusaukkoon. Aihe on samalla sekä ajankohtainen että relevantti vastatessaan nykyisin käytävään utopistiseen keskusteluun digitaalisen informaatioyhteiskunnan kehittymisestä ja merkityksestä modernille ihmiskunnalle. Tutkimuksen teoreettinen eksploratiivinen viitekehys rakentuu valikoiduista uusien tuotteiden ja palvelujen kehittämisen, palvelumarkkinoinnin ja sosiaalisen oppimisen teorioista sekä innovaatio- kommunikaatioteorioista. Empiirisen osan muodostavat kansainvälisten markkinatutkimuslaitosten ja haastateltujen asiantuntijoiden näkemykset alan kehityksestä. Tutkimus osoittaa, että kuluttajat eivät ole valmiita vastaanottamaan kehittyvien teknologioiden mahdollistamia mobiilin kaupankäynnin palveluita ennen kuin ne vastaavat kuluttajien perustarpeisiin ja rakenteelliset vastarintatekijät (alhainen käytettävyys, matala lisäarvo, koetut riskit, perinnevastarinta, palveluryhmän huono mielikuva) on poistettu. Tutkimus esittää, että mobiilin kaupankäynnin alalla toimivien yritysten tulisi työskennellä yhteistyössä keskenään ja kuluttajien kanssa luodakseen kuluttajien tarpeita ja toiveita vastaavia turvallisiksi koettuja mobiilin kaupankäynnin palveluita. Tutkimus ehdottaa, että kyselytutkimusten ohella käytettäisiin havaintomenetelmiä, jotta teknologiat voitaisiin valjastaa kuluttajien tarpeita ja kulutustottumuksia vastaaviksi.

Nutrient enrichment and water depth modify consumer control in rocky shore macroalgal communities

The objective of my thesis is to assess mechanisms of ecological community control in macroalgal communities in the Baltic Sea. In the top-down model, predatory fish feed on invertebrate mesograzers, releasing algae partly from grazing pressure. Such a reciprocal relationship is called trophic cascade. In the bottom-up model, nutrients increase biomass in the food chain. The nutrients are first assimilated by algae and, via food chain, increase also abundance of grazers and predators. Previous studies on oceanic shores have described these two regulative mechanisms in the grazer - alga link, but how they interact in the trophic cascades from fish to algae is still inadequately known. Because the top-down and bottom-up mechanisms are predicted to depend on environmental disturbances, such as wave stress and light, I have studied these models at two distinct water depths. There are five factorial field experiments behind the thesis, which were all conducted in the Finnish Archipelago Sea. In all the experiments, I studied macroalgal colonization - either density, filament length or biomass - on submerged colonization substrates. By excluding predatory fish and mesograzers from the algal communities, the studies compared the strength of the top-down control to natural algal communities. A part of the experimental units were, in addition, exposed to enriched nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations, which enabled testing of bottom-up control. These two models of community control were further investigated in shallow (<1 m) and deep (ca. 3 m) water. Moreover, the control mechanisms were also expected to depend on grazer species. Therefore different grazer species were enclosed into experimental units and their impacts on macroalgal communities were followed specifically. The community control in the Baltic rocky shores was found to follow theoretical predictions, which have not been confirmed by field studies before. Predatory fish limited grazing impact, which was seen as denser algal communities and longer algal filaments. Nutrient enrichment increased density and filament length of annual algae and, thus, changed the species composition of the algal community. The perennial alga Fucus vesiculosusA and the red alga Ceramium tenuicorne suffered from the increased nutrient availabilities. The enriched nutrient conditions led to denser grazer fauna, thereby causing strong top-down control over both the annual and perennial macroalgae. The strength of the top-down control seemed to depend on the density and diversity of grazers and predators as well as on the species composition of macroalgal assemblages. The nutrient enrichment led to, however, weaker limiting impact of predatory fish on grazer fauna, because fish stocks did not respond as quickly to enhanced resources in the environment as the invertebrate fauna. According to environmental stress model, environmental disturbances weaken the top-down control. For example, on a wave-exposed shore, wave stress causes more stress to animals close to the surface than deeper on the shore. Mesograzers were efficient consumers at both the depths, while predation by fish was weaker in shallow water. Thus, the results supported the environmental stress model, which predicts that environmental disturbance affects stronger the higher a species is in the food chain. This thesis assessed the mechanisms of community control in three-level food chains and did not take into account higher predators. Such predators in the Baltic Sea are, for example, cormorant, seals, white-tailed sea eagle, cod and salmon. All these predatory species were recently or are currently under intensive fishing, hunting and persecution, and their stocks have only recently increased in the region. Therefore, it is possible that future densities of top predators may yet alter the strengths of the controlling mechanisms in the Baltic littoral zone.

Drivers and Barriers of Collaboration in the Value Chain of Paperboard-Packed Consumer Goods

Value chain collaboration has been a prevailing topic for research, and there is a constantly growing interest in developing collaborative models for improved efficiency in logistics. One area of collaboration is demand information management, which enables improved visibility and decrease of inventories in the value chain. Outsourcing of non-core competencies has changed the nature of collaboration from intra-enterprise to cross-enterprise activity, and this together with increasing competition in the globalizing markets have created a need for methods and tools for collaborative work. The retailer part in the value chain of consumer packaged goods (CPG) has been studied relatively widely, proven models have been defined, and there exist several best practice collaboration cases. The information and communications technology has developed rapidly, offering efficient solutions and applications to exchange information between value chain partners. However, the majority of CPG industry still works with traditional business models and practices. This concerns especially companies operating in the upstream of the CPG value chain. Demand information for consumer packaged goods originates at retailers' counters, based on consumers' buying decisions. As this information does not get transferred along the value chain towards the upstream parties, each player needs to optimize their part, causing safety margins for inventories and speculation in purchasing decisions. The safety margins increase with each player, resulting in a phenomenon known as the bullwhip effect. The further the company is from the original demand information source, the more distorted the information is. This thesis concentrates on the upstream parts of the value chain of consumer packaged goods, and more precisely the packaging value chain. Packaging is becoming a part of the product with informative and interactive features, and therefore is not just a cost item needed to protect the product. The upstream part of the CPG value chain is distinctive, as the product changes after each involved party, and therefore the original demand information from the retailers cannot be utilized as such – even if it were transferred seamlessly. The objective of this thesis is to examine the main drivers for collaboration, and barriers causing the moderate adaptation level of collaborative models. Another objective is to define a collaborative demand information management model and test it in a pilot business situation in order to see if the barriers can be eliminated. The empirical part of this thesis contains three parts, all related to the research objective, but involving different target groups, viewpoints and research approaches. The study shows evidence that the main barriers for collaboration are very similar to the barriers in the lower part of the same value chain; lack of trust, lack of business case and lack of senior management commitment. Eliminating one of them – the lack of business case – is not enough to eliminate the two other barriers, as the operational model in this thesis shows. The uncertainty of the future, fear of losing an independent position in purchasing decision making and lack of commitment remain strong enough barriers to prevent the implementation of the proposed collaborative business model. The study proposes a new way of defining the value chain processes: it divides the contracting and planning process into two processes, one managing the commercial parts and the other managing the quantity and specification related issues. This model can reduce the resistance to collaboration, as the commercial part of the contracting process would remain the same as in the traditional model. The quantity/specification-related issues would be managed by the parties with the best capabilities and resources, as well as access to the original demand information. The parties in between would be involved in the planning process as well, as their impact for the next party upstream is significant. The study also highlights the future challenges for companies operating in the CPG value chain. The markets are becoming global, with toughening competition. Also, the technology development will most likely continue with a speed exceeding the adaptation capabilities of the industry. Value chains are also becoming increasingly dynamic, which means shorter and more agile business relationships, and at the same time the predictability of consumer demand is getting more difficult due to shorter product life cycles and trends. These changes will certainly have an effect on companies' operational models, but it is very difficult to estimate when and how the proven methods will gain wide enough adaptation to become standards.

Cost-efficient virtual machine management : provisioning, admission control, and consolidation

One of the main challenges in Software Engineering is to cope with the transition from an industry based on software as a product to software as a service. The field of Software Engineering should provide the necessary methods and tools to develop and deploy new cost-efficient and scalable digital services. In this thesis, we focus on deployment platforms to ensure cost-efficient scalability of multi-tier web applications and on-demand video transcoding service for different types of load conditions. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) clouds provide Virtual Machines (VMs) under the pay-per-use business model. Dynamically provisioning VMs on demand allows service providers to cope with fluctuations on the number of service users. However, VM provisioning must be done carefully, because over-provisioning results in an increased operational cost, while underprovisioning leads to a subpar service. Therefore, our main focus in this thesis is on cost-efficient VM provisioning for multi-tier web applications and on-demand video transcoding. Moreover, to prevent provisioned VMs from becoming overloaded, we augment VM provisioning with an admission control mechanism. Similarly, to ensure efficient use of provisioned VMs, web applications on the under-utilized VMs are consolidated periodically. Thus, the main problem that we address is cost-efficient VM provisioning augmented with server consolidation and admission control on the provisioned VMs. We seek solutions for two types of applications: multi-tier web applications that follow the request-response paradigm and on-demand video transcoding that is based on video streams with soft realtime constraints. Our first contribution is a cost-efficient VM provisioning approach for multi-tier web applications. The proposed approach comprises two subapproaches: a reactive VM provisioning approach called ARVUE and a hybrid reactive-proactive VM provisioning approach called Cost-efficient Resource Allocation for Multiple web applications with Proactive scaling. Our second contribution is a prediction-based VM provisioning approach for on-demand video transcoding in the cloud. Moreover, to prevent virtualized servers from becoming overloaded, the proposed VM provisioning approaches are augmented with admission control approaches. Therefore, our third contribution is a session-based admission control approach for multi-tier web applications called adaptive Admission Control for Virtualized Application Servers. Similarly, the fourth contribution in this thesis is a stream-based admission control and scheduling approach for on-demand video transcoding called Stream-Based Admission Control and Scheduling. Our fifth contribution is a computation and storage trade-o strategy for cost-efficient video transcoding in cloud computing. Finally, the sixth and the last contribution is a web application consolidation approach, which uses Ant Colony System to minimize the under-utilization of the virtualized application servers.

Logistics Cost Optimization of Road Freight Shipments in a Consumer Goods Company

In the industry of the case company, transportation and warehousing costs account for more than 10% of the total cost which is more than on average. A Finnish company has an understanding that by sending larger shipments in parcels, they could save tens of thousands of euros annually in freight costs in Finland’s domestic shipments. To achieve these savings and optimize total logistics cost, company’s interest is to find out which is the cost efficient way of shipping road shipments of certain volumes; in parcel boxes or on pallets, and what should be the split volume determining the shipment type. Distribution center (DC) costs affect this decision and therefore they need to be also evaluated to determine the total logistics cost savings. Main results were achieved by executing activity-based costing-calculations including DC and road freight costs to determine the ideal split volume with which the total logistics cost is optimal. Calculations were done for Finland’s DC, separately for two main road freight destinations, Finland and Sweden, which cover 50% of road shipment spend. Data for calculations was collected both manually and automatically from various internal and external sources, such as the company ERP system and logistics service providers’ (LSP) reporting. DC processes were studied in practice and compared to model processes. Currently used freight rates were compared to existing pricing models and freight service tendering process was evaluated by participating in the process and comparing it to the models based on literature. The results show that the potential savings are not as significant as the company hoped for, mainly because of packing work increasing DC labor cost. Annual savings by setting ideal split volume per country would account for 0,4 % of the warehousing and transportation costs of shipments in scope of this thesis. Split volume should be set separately for each route, mainly because the pricing model for road freight is different in each country. For some routes bigger parcels should be sent but for some routes pallets should be used more. Next step is to do these calculations for remaining routes to determine total savings potential. Other findings show that the processes in the DC are designed well and the company could achieve savings by executing tenders more efficiently. Company should also pay more attention to parcel pricing and packing the shipments accordingly.

Architecture for IoT Node and Platform

Only recently, during the past five years, consumer electronics has been evolving rapidly. Many products have started to include “smart home” capabilities, enabling communication and interoperability of various smart devices. Even more devices and sensors can be remote controlled and monitored through cloud services. While the smart home systems have become very affordable to average consumer compared to the early solutions decades ago, there are still many issues and things that need to be fixed or improved upon: energy efficiency, connectivity with other devices and applications, security and privacy concerns, reliability, and response time. This paper focuses on designing Internet of Things (IoT) node and platform architectures that take these issues into account, notes other currently used solutions, and selects technologies in order to provide better solution. The node architecture aims for energy efficiency and modularity, while the platform architecture goals are in scalability, portability, maintainability, performance, and modularity. Moreover, the platform architecture attempts to improve user experience by providing higher reliability and lower response time compared to the alternative platforms. The architectures were developed iteratively using a development process involving research, planning, design, implementation, testing, and analysis. Additionally, they were documented using Kruchten’s 4+1 view model, which is used to describe the use cases and different views of the architectures. The node architecture consisted of energy efficient hardware, FC3180 microprocessor and CC2520 RF transceiver, modular operating system, Contiki, and a communication protocol, AllJoyn, used for providing better interoperability with other IoT devices and applications. The platform architecture provided reliable low response time control, monitoring, and initial setup capabilities by utilizing web technologies on various devices such as smart phones, tablets, and computers. Furthermore, an optional cloud service was provided in order to control devices and monitor sensors remotely by utilizing scalable high performance technologies in the backend enabling low response time and high reliability.