Developing Purchasing Process and Forecasting Practices in Retail Business
Levomäki, Antti (2019)
Levomäki, Antti
2019
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201905098821
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201905098821
Tiivistelmä
This thesis focused on developing the purchasing process and forecasting practices of the case company. The purchasing process in the purchasing department of the case company has been working well overall in the past, but the constant growth of the company in the recent years has put pressure on the performance of the company and especially the purchasing. The case company is also implementing a new version of the ERP system during 2019 and this gave a good opportunity to improve the purchasing process and forecasting practices, while taking into account the characteristics of the new ERP.
The study was based on design research, which is not its own research methodology but a method of approach which uses both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The study was conducted in four parts, including three data collection rounds. Data was gathered mainly in three workshops with key stakeholders.
This study revealed some inconsistencies and deficiencies in the purchasing process of the case company. The current state analysis pointed the most significant problems being in product categorization, safety stocks and forecasting. With the help from conceptual framework constructed from the literature review, the improvement proposal was conducted. This study proposes several improvements to the three aforementioned steps of the purchasing process, as well as to some other issues encountered during the research.
By applying the improvements proposed in this study, the case company can increase efficiency, reliability and customer satisfaction, and reduce costs. The improvements proposed in this thesis will start taking place after this study is finished.
The study was based on design research, which is not its own research methodology but a method of approach which uses both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The study was conducted in four parts, including three data collection rounds. Data was gathered mainly in three workshops with key stakeholders.
This study revealed some inconsistencies and deficiencies in the purchasing process of the case company. The current state analysis pointed the most significant problems being in product categorization, safety stocks and forecasting. With the help from conceptual framework constructed from the literature review, the improvement proposal was conducted. This study proposes several improvements to the three aforementioned steps of the purchasing process, as well as to some other issues encountered during the research.
By applying the improvements proposed in this study, the case company can increase efficiency, reliability and customer satisfaction, and reduce costs. The improvements proposed in this thesis will start taking place after this study is finished.