Propuesta de mejoramiento de la política de inventarios de la empresa Wholesale and Retail Place LLC

Wholesale and Retail place LLC, es una empresa que nace en el año 2012 en la ciudad de Carteret, Nueva Jersey dedicada a la comercialización y distribución de ropa para mujer colombiana en Estados Unidos. De esta manera, la problemática abordada en este proyecto será la influencia de la política de inventarios en el desempeño de la empresa. A partir de esto, se plantea realizar un mejoramiento de la política de gestión de inventarios, recurso que procure cambiar el modelo operativo de negocio mediante un enfoque a la transición, desde una pequeña hasta una mediana empresa, con énfasis en la perdurabilidad y sostenibilidad de la compañía.

Propuesta de mejoramiento del sistema de inventarios para Diageo Colombia en la categoría vinos

La gestión de inventarios es uno de los grandes retos que afrontan las empresas hoy en día, especialmente aquellas que manipulan productos con altas probabilidades de daños y averías, razón por la cual definir políticas o un sistema de gestión de inventarios garantizaría una perdurabilidad y sostenibilidad en el mercado más prolongada. Es por ello que el proyecto planteado a continuación desarrollado en la empresa Diageo, multinacional de consumo masivo del sector licores, está inscrito en la línea de investigación de Gerencia de la Universidad del Rosario. De esta manera, bajo el programa de Áreas funcionales para la dirección que cuenta con un enfoque en perdurabilidad empresarial, la línea de investigación en Gerencia busca generar conocimientos sobre finanzas, mercadeo, operaciones y gestión humana. Por lo anterior, partiendo de la premisa de que una empresa perdurable es aquella que “adecúa su manejo a la intensidad de las condiciones del entorno sectorial y las fuerzas del mercado” (Leal, Guerrero, Rojas, & Rivera, 2011), se hace necesario orientar los recursos y esfuerzos de la empresa hacia una nueva política de inventarios en el portafolio de vinos, de modo que al incrementar el nivel de servicio se afecten positivamente indicadores de rentabilidad y liquidez.

Urban food planning, city logistics and sustainability: the role of the wholesale produce market. The cases of Parma and Bologna food hubs.

At global level, the population is increasingly concentrating in the cities. In Europe, around 75% of the population lives in urban areas and, according to the European Environmental Agency (2010), urban population is foreseen to increase up to 80 % by 2020. At the same time, the quality of life in the cities is declining and urban pollution keeps increasing in terms of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, waste, noise, and lack of greenery. Many of European cities struggle to cope with social, economic and environmental problems resulting from pressures such as overcrowding or decline, social inequity, health problems related to food security and pollution. Nowadays local authorities try to solve these problems related to the environmental sustainability through various urban logistics measures, which directly and indirectly affect the urban food supply system, thus an integrated approach including freight transport and food provisioning policies issues is needed. This research centres on the urban food transport system and its impact on the city environmental sustainability. The main question that drives the research analysis is "How the urban food distribution system affects the ecological sustainability in modern cities?" The research analyses the city logistics project for food transport implemented in Parma, Italy, by the wholesale produce market. The case study investigates the renewed role of the wholesale market in the urban food supply chain as commercial and logistic operator, referring to the concept of food hub. Then, a preliminary analysis on the urban food transport for the city of Bologna is presented. The research aims at suggesting a methodological framework to estimate the urban food demand, the urban food supply and to assess the urban food transport performance, in order to identify external costs indicators that help policymakers in evaluating the environmental sustainability of different logistics measures

Social sustainability initiatives in cocoa supply chains in Africa:an analysis of sustainability reporting of world's major chocolatiers

This research paper focuses on the self-declared initiatives of the four largest chocolate companies to tackle social problems within the context of establishing a sustainable supply chain. After the literature review of sustainability, supply chain management, and cocoa farming, this paper gives an assessment of the extant practices of the chocolatiers and makes a comparative analysis based on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability Reports. This paper uses a case study approach based on secondary-data. A roadmap and benchmarking of social sustainability initiatives were conducted for the supply chain management activities of the world's four largest chocolatiers. This paper analyses the extant sustainability practices of the chocolatiers and offers a model framework for comparison of the measures taken. This paper is based on self-declared secondary data. There is a chance that some practices were not documented by the case companies; or that companies claim what they don't actually do. This paper provides a framework for agricultural businesses to compare their sustainability efforts and improve the performance of their supply chains. Originality and value of this research reside in terms of both literature and methodology. The framework for analysing the social sustainability aspects of agricultural supply chains is original and gives an up-to-date view of sustainability practices. The use of secondary data to compare self-declared initiatives is also a novel approach to business sustainability research.

Negotiation environment to support enterprise interoperability sustainability

Dissertation to obtain the Master degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Cost-to-serve customers’ optimization: Macro project Unilever – Jerónimo Martins

The objective of this work project is to analyse and discuss the importance of the “Cost to Serve” as a differentiation key factor, by accessing cost to serve customers of a Portuguese subsidiary of a multinational company, which is operating in the sector of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) – Unilever – Jerónimo Martins (UJM). I will also suggest and quantify key proposals to decrease costs and increase customers’ value. Hence, the scope of this work project is focused on logistics and distribution processes of the company supply chain.

Turnaround across diverse global supply chains using shared metrics and change methodology: The Case of Amer Sports Corporation

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to document the outcome of a global three-year long supply chain improvement initiative at a multi-national producer of branded sporting goods that is transforming from a holding structure to an integrated company. The case company is comprised of seven internationally well-known sport brands, which form a diverse set of independent sub-cases, on which the same supply chain metrics and change project approach was applied to improve supply chain performance. Design/methodology/approach - By using in-depth case study and statistical analysis the paper analyzes across the brands how supply chain complexity (SKU count), supply chain type (make or buy) and seasonality affect completeness and punctuality of deliveries, and inventory as the change project progresses. Findings - Results show that reduction in supply chain complexity improves delivery performance, but has no impact on inventory. Supply chain type has no impact on service level, but brands with in-house production are better in improving inventory than those with outsourced production. Non-seasonal business units improve service faster than seasonal ones, yet there is no impact on inventory. Research limitations/implications - The longitudinal data used for the analysis is biased with the general business trend, yet the rich data from different cases and three-years of data collection enables generalizations to a certain level. Practical implications - The in-depth case study serves as an example for other companies on how to initiate a supply chain improvement project across business units with tangible results. Originality/value - The seven sub-cases with their different characteristics on which the same improvement initiative was applied sets a unique ground for longitudinal analysis to study supply chain complexity, type and seasonality.

B2B Integration in Global Supply Chains: An Identification of Technical Integration Scenarios

The competitiveness of businesses is increasingly dependent on their electronic networks with customers, suppliers, and partners. While the strategic and operational impact of external integration and IOS adoption has been extensively studied, much less attention has been paid to the organizational and technical design of electronic relationships. The objective of our longitudinal research project is the development of a framework for understanding and explaining B2B integration. Drawing on existing literature and empirical cases we present a reference model (a classification scheme for B2B Integration). The reference model comprises technical, organizational, and institutional levels to reflect the multiple facets of B2B integration. In this paper we onvestigate the current state of electronic collaboration in global supply chains focussing on the technical view. Using an indepth case analysis we identify five integration scenarios. In the subsequent confirmatory phase of the research we analyse 112 real-world company cases to validate these five integration scenarios. Our research advances and deepens existing studies by developing a B2B reference model, which reflects the current state of practice and is independent of specific implementation technologies. In the next stage of the research the emerging reference model will be extended to create an assessment model for analysing the maturity level of a given company in a specific supply chain.

Value added logistical support service: logistics cost structure and performance in the new concept. Part 3

The aim of this study is to present an Activity-Based Costing spreadsheet tool for analyzing the logistics costs. The tool can be used both by customer-companies and logistics service providers. The study discusses the influence of different activity models on costs. Additionally this paper discusses about the logistical performance across the total supply chain This study is carried out using ananalytical research approach and literature material has been used for supplementing the concerned research approach. Cost structure analysis was based on the theory of activity-based management. This study was outlined to spare part logistics in machine-shop industry. The outlines of logistics services and logisticalperformance discussed in this report are based on the new logistics business concept (LMS-concept), which has been presented earlier in the Valssi-project. Oneof the aims of this study is to increase awareness of different activity modelson logistics costs. The report paints an overall picture about the business environment and requirements for the new logistics concept.

Information and Material Flows in Project Business

Tavoitteena diplomityössä oli kuvata projektiliiketoimintaa harjoittavan yrityksen informaatio- ja materiaalivirrat toimitusprojekteissa. Selvitys haluttiin tehdä tulevia kehitysprojekteja varten. Diplomityö toteutettiin kahessa osassa: laatimalla aiheeseen liittyvä teoriakatsaus ja kartoittamalla todellinen tilanne yrityksen sisällä.Teoriaosassa kuvattiin tarkastelualue ja projektiliiketoiminnan erityispiirteitä sekä käsiteltiin tietojärjestelmiä ja materiaalivirran hallintaan liittyviä asioita. Yrityksen informaatio- ja materiaalivirtojen nykytila kartoitettiin laatimalla vuokaaviot kolmen esimerkkituotteen toimitusprojekteista. Kaaviot laadittiin yrityksen sisäisten dokumenttien ja kvalitatiivisten haastattelujen pohjalta. Kaavioiden sisältöä täydennettiin taulukoimalla kaavioissa esiintyvien dokumettien sisältöä. Työn tuloksena muodostui kuva tiedonkäsittelyn nykytilasta myynti- ja toimitusprojekteissa, pelkistetty visio tulevaisuuden tietojärjestelmien rooleista sekä ehdotuksia tulevia kehitysprojekteja varten.

LAIPPATEHTAAN TOIMITUSVARMUUDEN JA LÄPIMENOAIKOJEN KEHITTÄMINEN AIKAPERUSTEISEN PROSESSIJOHTAMISEN KEINOIN

Yritysten sisäiset prosessit ovat usein pysyneet samanlaisina jo vuosia, ellei vuosikymmeniä. Tulevaisuuden haasteet löytyvät mitä suurimmassa määrin yritysten omista, monessa tapauksessa vielä tunnistamattomista prosesseista. Näiden haasteiden pohjalta, tämän diplomityön perusajatuksena on prosessijohtaminen. Diplomityön tutkimusongelma on laippatehtaan vaihteleva ja usein liian alhainen viikoittainen toimitusvarmuus, pitkät tilaus-toimitusketjun läpimenoajat ja alihankintalaippojen maahantuonnin vaikutus tehtaan toimitusvarmuuteen. Työn tarkoituksena on tutkia, kuvata ja analysoida tehtaan tuotannonohjauksen ja prosessien nykytilanne. Kirjallisuustutkimuksen ja analyysien pohjalta tavoitteena on tehdä ja toteuttaa erilaisia kehitysvaihtoehtoja toimitusvarmuuden, läpimenoaikojen ja tuotannon seurannan kehittämiseksi. Työssä analysoitiin Ferral Components Oy:n tuotannon nykytilaa, joka on perinteisesti ollut standardituotteiden varasto-ohjattua toimintaa. Analyysin perustietoina käytettiin yrityksen tuotannonohjausjärjestelmästä saatavia tilaus-toimitustietoja pääosin vuosilta 2003 ja 2004, joiltakin osin myös vuoden 2005 tietoja. ABC-analyysin tuloksena saatiin selville yrityksen tuotteiston rakenne ja sen pohjalta päätuoteryhmien tilaus-toimitusketjut. Päätuoteryhmien tilaus-toimitusketjujen selvittämisen jälkeen voitiin analysoida niiden nykytilanne. Nykytila-analyysin tulokset osoittivat, että tilaustoimitusketjut eivät ole suorituskykyisiä käytettyjen menetelmien ja mittareiden valossa ja kehitystarvetta on olemassa. Nykytila-analyysin, kirjallisuustutkimuksen ja projektikokousten avulla löydettiin kehityskohteita prosessien luomiseksi, sekä niiden kehittämiseksi. Pääasiallinen kehityskohde löydettiin analyysin pohjalta määritettyjen tilaus-toimitusketjujen eriyttämisestä omiksi ydinprosesseikseen. Ydinprosessit kuvattiin etulehtien, prosessikaavioiden ja tekstisivujen avulla. Lisäksi ydinprosesseille hahmoteltiin uusi prosessien mukainen tuotannon layout ja määriteltiin prosessien seurantaan soveltuvat mittarit. Lopuksi listattiin ydinprosesseille nykytila-analyysin pohjalta havaittuja kehitysideoita ja niiden mahdollisia positiivisia vaikutuksia sekä tehtiin taulukkolaskentaohjelmalla taulukko varasto-ohjattavien tuotteiden hälytysrajojen määrittämiseksi.

Puutuoteteollisuusyrityksen tilaus-toimitusketjun liiketoimintamallien kehittäminen

Tämä diplomityö on osa Puutavaralogistiikan läpinäkyvyyden kehittäminen – hanketta (PuLK-hanke), joka tähtää puutuoteteollisuudessa toimivan yrityksen tilaus-toimitusketjun läpinäkyvyyden lisäämiseen. Hanke on aloitettu kohdeyrityksen tarpeesta parantaa tilaus-toimitusketjun toimintaa uusien toimintaympäristön haasteiden edessä. Tämän työn tavoitteena oli selvittää kohdeyrityksen tilaus-toimitusketjun nykytila sekä tuottaa hankkeessa myöhemmässä vaiheessa toteutettavan systeemiteoreettisen mallinnuksen alkutiedoksi sopiva ylätason liiketoimintamalli. Nämä tehtiin kolmella eri lähestymistavalla, joiden avulla saatiin muodostettua kattava kuva nykytilasta sekä selvitettyä tarvittavalla tarkkuudella liiketoiminnan ylätason malliin vaaditut tiedot. Tärkeimmät käytetyt menetelmät olivat liiketoiminnan mallinnus, swot-analyysi kyselytutkimuksen tuloksista ja kirjallisuustutkimus tuettuna haastatteluilla, tutustumiskäynneillä ja yhteistyöosapuolien resurssien käytöllä. Liiketoiminnan mallinnus osoittautui hyödylliseksi työkaluksi paljastaen toiminnan epäkohdat koko ketjun tasolla niin, että korjaavien toimenpiteiden toteutus helpottui. Systeemiteoreettisen simulointimallin muodostaminen aloitettiin liiketoiminnan mallinnuksen tuottaman informaation pohjalta.

E-PORT. Improving efficiency of Finnish port community by intelligent systems Final report of the Mobile Port project

The management of port-related supply chains is challenging due to the complex and heterogeneous operations of the ports with several actors and processes. That is why the importance of information sharing is emphasised in the ports. However, the information exchange between different port-related actors is often cumbersome and it still involves a lot of manual work and paper. Major ports and port-related actors usually have advanced information systems in daily use but these systems are seldom interoperable with each other, which prevents economies of scale to be reached. Smaller ports and companies might not be equipped with electronic data transmission at all. This is the final report of the Mobile port (MOPO) project, which has sought ways to improve the management and control of port-related sea and inland traffic with the aid of ICT technologies. The project has studied port community systems (PCS) used worldwide, evaluated the suitability of a PCS for the Finnish port operating environment and created a pilot solution of a Finnish PCS in the port of HaminaKotka. Further, the dry port concept and its influences on the transportation system have been explored. The Mobile Port project comprised of several literature reviews, interviews of over 50 port-related logistics and/or ICT professionals, two different kinds of simulation models as well as designing and implementing of the pilot solution of the Finnish PCS. The results of these multiple studies are summarised in this report. Furthermore, recommendations for future actions and the topics for further studies are addressed in the report. The study revealed that the information sharing in a typical Finnish port-related supply chain contains several bottlenecks that cause delays in shipments and waste resources. The study showed that many of these bottlenecks could be solved by building a port community system for the Finnish port community. Almost 30 different kinds of potential services or service entities of a Finnish PCS were found out during the study. The basic requirements, structure, interfaces and operation model of the Finnish PCS were also defined in the study. On the basis of the results of the study, a pilot solution of the Finnish PCS was implemented in the port of HaminaKotka. The pilot solution includes a Portconnect portal for the Finnish port community system (available at https://www.portconnect.fi) and two pilot applications, which are a service for handling the information flows concerning the movements of railway wagons and a service for handling the information flows between Finnish ports and Finland-Russian border. The study also showed that port community systems can be used to improve the environmental aspects of logistics in two different ways: 1) PCSs can bring direct environmental benefits and 2) PCSs can be used as an environmental tool in a port community. On the basis of the study, the development of the Finnish port community system should be continued by surveying other potential applications for the Finnish PCS. It is also important to study if there is need and resources to extend the Finnish PCS to operate in several ports or even on a national level. In the long run, it could be reasonable to clarify whether there would be possibilities to connect the Finnish PCS as a part of Baltic Sea wide, European-wide or even worldwide maritime and port-related network in order to get the best benefit from the system

Working capital management in the small and medium-sized enterprises Case: Project-based business environment in Flowrox Oy

This Master´s thesis illustrates how growing a business ties up the company´s working capital and what the cost of committed capital. In order to manage a company´s working capital in rapid business growth phase, the thesis suggests that by monitoring and managing the operating and cash conversion cycles of customers´ projects, a company can find ways to secure the required amount of capital. The research method of this thesis was based on literature reviews and case study research. The theoretical review presents the concepts of working capital and provides the background for understanding how to improve working capital management. The company in subject is a global small and medium-sized enterprise that manufactures pumps and valves for demanding process conditions. The company is expanding, which creates lots of challenges. This thesis concentrates to the company´s working capital management and its efficiency through the supply chain and value chain perspective. The main elements of working capital management are inventory management, accounts receivable management and accounts payable management. Prepayments also play a significant role, particularly in project-based businesses. Developing companies´ working capital management requires knowledge from different kind of key operations´ in the company, like purchasing, production, sales, logistics and financing. The perspective to develop and describe working capital management is an operational. After literature reviews the thesis present pilot projects that formed the basis of a model to monitor working capital in the case company. Based on analysis and pilot projects, the thesis introduces a rough model for monitoring capital commitments in short time period. With the model the company can more efficiently monitor and manage their customer projects.

The Cycle Times of Working Capital: Financial Value Chain Analysis Method

Interest towards working capital management increased among practitioners and researchers because the financial crisis of 2008 caused the deterioration of the general financial situation. The importance of managing working capital effectively increased dramatically during the financial crisis. On one hand, companies highlighted the importance of working capital management as part of short-term financial management to overcome funding difficulties. On the other hand, in academia, it has been highlighted the need to analyze working capital management from a wider perspective namely from the value chain perspective. Previously, academic articles mostly discussed working capital management from a company-centered perspective. The objective of this thesis was to put working capital management in a wider and more academic perspective and present case studies of the value chains of industries as instrumental in theoretical contributions and practical contributions as complementary to theoretical contributions and conclusions. The principal assumption of this thesis is that selffinancing of value chains can be established through effective working capital management. Thus, the thesis introduces the financial value chain analysis method which is employed in the empirical studies. The effectiveness of working capital management of the value chains is studied through the cycle time of working capital. The financial value chain analysis method employed in this study is designed for considering value chain level phenomena. This method provides a holistic picture of the value chain through financial figures. It extends the value chain analysis to the industry level. Working capital management is studied by the cash conversion cycle that measures the length (days) of time a company has funds tied up in working capital, starting from the payment of purchases to the supplier and ending when remittance of sales is received from the customers. The working capital management practices employed in the automotive, pulp and paper and information and communication technology industries have been studied in this research project. Additionally, the Finnish pharmaceutical industry is studied to obtain a deeper understanding of the working capital management of the value chain. The results indicate that the cycle time of working capital is constant in the value chain context over time. The cash conversion cycle of automotive, pulp and paper, and ICT industries are on average 70, 60 and 40 days, respectively. The difference is mainly a consequence of the different cycle time of inventories. The financial crisis of 2008 affected the working capital management of the industries similarly. Both the cycle time of accounts receivable and accounts payable increased between 2008 and 2009. The results suggest that the companies of the automotive, pulp and paper and ICT value chains were not able to self-finance. Results do not indicate the improvement of value chains position in regard to working capital management either. The findings suggest that companies operating in the Finnish pharmaceutical industry are interested in developing their own working capital management, but collaboration with the value chain partners is not considered interesting. Competition no longer occurs between individual companies, but between value chains. Therefore the financial value chain analysis method introduced in this thesis has the potential to support value chains in improving their competitiveness.