IMPROVING SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT WITH ADVANCED PLANNING AND SCHEDULING: EFFECTS AND POSSIBILITIES WITH AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Postgraduate
ABSTRACT
Companies are more and more moving to low wage regions
like Eastern Europe and Asia to stay competitive. Instead of lowering the cost
of production, it has been argued that a company can stay competitive through
making the use of the resources more efficient. In this study the effects a
German resource saving concept, involving reorganization towards processes and
an Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) module, has on Supply Chain
Management (SCM) are investigated. In addition to this a comparison between
German best-practice companies and Swedish companies has been done. This
comparison was conducted in order to determine the changes needed to be made
when taking this German concept to Swedish companies.
The results of this study indicate that through the
German resource saving concept major improvements in delivery performance,
responsiveness, supply chain costs, and asset management can be achieved.
Further, this study has shown that there are very good possibilities for
Swedish companies at reaching these improvements successfully. Barriers to a
success in Sweden include a lack of managerial commitment and hierarchies as
well as outsourced IT departments at Swedish companies. Recommendations to
overcome these barriers consist of training key users more thoroughly and stressing
the importance of committed managers.
PURPOSE
The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate
the effects a German concept, introducing a new organizational structure and an
APS module, has on Supply Chain Management, what the prerequisites to reach
best practice are, and how the concept needs to be changed when implementing it
in Swedish companies.