Improving the Supply Chain Performance Management System in a Finnish paper mill

This Master’s Thesis studies performance management system and its benefits, risks and costs. Objective of the thesis is to describe and evaluate currently used supply chain performance management system (SCPMS) in a Finnish paper mill and its interfaces with its business unit’s SCPMS. As a result, the host company has improvement road map for improving its SCPMS. Used SCPMS in the host company and its interfaces to business unit’s SCPMS are described based on interviews held in the host company and the business unit. Evaluation of the host company’s SCPMS is based on literature study. For improvement road map, three areas in need of improvements are chosen. The study shows the need of high level top management commitment in successful performance management system implementation and usage, especially when the system is deployed to lower levels in the organization.

e-Business and collaboration: A case study of pulp supply chain

This thesis studies how the case company could digitalize its supply chain and what kind of advantages this would create in the light of supply chain efficiency. The case company manufactures several pulp products that are used for paper, fabrics and packaging products by customers worldwide. The paper and pulp industry has been paying more and more attention to increasing supply chain efficiency with new operating and service models made possible by today’s information technology. The main focus of this study is on the supply chain between the case company and its key customers and the goal is to find ways to make the operations between them as efficient as possible. The study relays heavily on collaboration techniques and digitalization technologies. In addition to a theoretical framework, the study includes several empirical studies that offer real-life examples of how these theories and technologies are applied in operating environments similar to the case company. A plan with strategic and operational levels is created according to the findings of the previous sections to support the case company’s future operations. The plan is based on an RFID-supported collaboration model that aims to advance information sharing between the supply chain partners. The time for an RFID-investment is sought to be very optimal and the benefits of such system to be noteworthy, but challenging to measure in monetary terms.

Raskaita teräsrakenteita valmistavan tilauskonepajan tuotannon kehittäminen

Diplomityössä tarkastellaan raskaita teräsrakenteita valmistavan tilauskonepajan tuotannon kehittämiskohteita. Tuotannon kehittämisellä halutaan nopeuttaa tuotannon läpimenoaikoja, vähentää laatukustannuksia ja parantaa yrityksen tiedonkulkua. Näillä toimenpiteillä pyritään vaikuttamaan yrityksen kilpailukykyyn, jolloin se voi nousta suomalaisessa toimittajaverkostossa korkeammalle portaalle. Työn teoriaosassa paneudutaan tuottavuus- ja laatuajatteluun hitsaavassa konepajassa. Samalla esitellään eräitä konepajoissa tyypillisimmin käytettyjä laatustandardeja, joita ovat: SFS-EN ISO 9001, SFS-EN ISO 3834 ja SFS-EN 1090. Lisäksi teoriaosiossa on kerrottu erilaisista tuotannonohjausjärjestelmistä ja layout-teorioista. Tämän diplomityön kohdeyritys on Karjalan Konepaja Oy. Yrityksen nykytilanteen kartoittamiseksi suoritettiin useita haastatteluita sekä laadittiin koko organisaatiota koskeva kysely. Tilauskonepajan haasteena ovat alati muuttuvat tilaukset. Tilauskonepajan tuotannon kehittäminen tulee aloittaa sopivien tuotannontehokkuutta mittaavien mittareiden määrittämisellä. Usein kapasiteetti ja tuottavuus kuvastavat parhaiten työvaiheiden tehokkuutta. Mittareiden tarkoitus on auttaa konepajaa löytämään ne tuotannon pullonkaulat, joista yrityksen kehittäminen tulisi aloittaa. Lean-filosofian avulla tulee kehittää tuotannosta hitaimmin suoriutuvia työvaiheita. Tarkoituksena on poistaa valmistusketjusta sellaiset työvaiheet, jotka eivät anna tuotteelle lisäarvoa. Lisäksi työpisteiden layout kannattaa kyseenalaistaa aika ajoin, sillä jo pienilläkin muutoksilla voidaan saada parannuksia työpisteiden tuottavuuteen ja kapasiteettiin.

Global Spare Parts Supply Chain Analysis

In today’s global industrial service business, markets are dynamic and finding new ways of value creation towards customers has become more and more challenging. Customer orientation is needed because of the demanding after-sales business which is both quickly changing and stochastic in nature. In after-sales business customers require fast and reliable service for their spare part needs. This thesis objective is to clarify this challenging after-sales business environment and find ways to increase customer satisfaction via balanced measurement system which will help to find possible targets to reduce order cycle times in a large metal and mineral company Outotec (Filters)’ Spare Part Supply business line. In case study, internal documents and data and numerical calculations together with qualitative interviews with different persons in key roles of Spare Part Supply organizations are used to analyze the performance of different processes from the spare parts delivery function. The chosen performance measurement tool is Balanced Scorecard which is slightly modified to suit the lead time study from customer’s perspective better. Findings show that many different processes in spare parts supply are facing different kind of challenges in achieving the lead time levels wanted and that these processes’ problems seem to accumulate. Findings also show that putting effort in supply side challenges and information flows visibility should give the best results.

The radio frequency identification technology in the supply chain management: a case of a big logistics company

Nowadays global business trends force the adoption of innovative ICTs into the supply chain management (SCM). Particularly, the RFID technology is on high demand among SCM professionals due to its business advantages such as improving of accuracy and veloc-ity of SCM processes which lead to decrease of operational costs. Nevertheless, a question of the RFID technology impact on the efficiency of warehouse processes in the SCM re-mains open. The goal of the present study is to experiment the possibility of improvement order picking velocity in a warehouse of a big logistics company with the use of the RFID technology. In order to achieve this goal the following objectives have been developed: 1) Defining the scope of the RFID technology applications in the SCM; 2) Justification of the RFID technology impact on the SCM processes; 3) Defining a place of the warehouse order picking process in the SCM; 4) Identification and systematization of existing meth-ods of order picking velocity improvement; 5) Choosing of the study object and gathering of the empirical data about number of orders, number of hours spent per each order line daily during 5 months; 6) Processing and analysis of the empirical data; 7) Conclusion about the impact of the RFID technology on the speed of order picking process. As a result of the research it has been found that the speed of the order picking processes has not been changed as time has gone after the RFID adoption. It has been concluded that in order to achieve a positive effect in the speed of order picking process with the use of the RFID technology it is necessary to simultaneously implement changes in logistics and organizational management in 3PL logistics companies. Practical recommendations have been forwarded to the management of the company for further investigation and procedure.

Reporting of Green Supply Chain Management and Industrial Symbiosis

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the reporting of operations related to green supply chain management and industrial symbiosis has evolved in UPM, Fortum and Kemira within the last ten years. The focus is on the improved operations, which are studied based on annual reports of these companies. The study provides a deeper understanding of the nature of green supply chain management and industrial symbiosis as well as the possibilites that their combination offers. The research is part of the DemaNET research project The study indicates that the environmental regulations and reporting standards have forced the studied companies to report their operations related to green supply chain management and industrial symbiosis more in detail during the last ten years. The operations related to green supply chain management in the studied companies are more common compared to operations related to industrial symbiosis. Often these two operations were also partially integrated, indicating a hybrid model. Even though firms often used hybrid models they still focused mainly on greening the internal operations rather than finding alternative ways for symbiosis outside the organization. The integration of green supply chain management and industrial symbiosis is most likely to occur when mutually beneficial relationships align the interests of all parties, thus resulting in the co-creation of value. The findings suggest that identifying mutual benefits and the flow of by-products are the ones that companies should give more attention to.