Effektivisering i lagerhanteringen : En fallstudie av it-företaget "X" högfrekventa artiklar

Sammanfattning

Background: In recent years the customers ordering pattern has changed, which has increased the demand for companies efficiency in inventory management. In order to create a profitable logistics company, it is important to design an efficient warehouse design to strengthen competitiveness. When designing a warehouse, it is important to take into account the characteristics of the articles and their demand. Streamlining the company's inventory design can result in reduced costs and improved customer service. Purpose: The purpose of the essay is to identify waste and its underlying causes and to suggest improvement proposals for the warehouse design, in order to improve the efficiency of inventory management for the IT-company”X”. Method: The essay´s starting point is a qualitative research method, where a case study was carried out. The information has emerged through semi-structured interviews and structured observations with the company's employees. To strengthen the data collection, relevant theory and qualitative data from the company's internal material were used. The study used the analysis method to build an explanation, as an understanding of the first research question was needed in order to answer the second research question. Results: After the completed study it was determined through interviews and observations which problems that occur at the IT-company ”X”. Based on the information, connections to theory have been made where waste and its underlying causes have been reported. A few examples of waste that emerged during the answering of the first research question were extra processing, unnecessary transportation, excess movement of employees. The underlying causes were for instance concentrated order picking, item placement according to frequency and picking at different height levels. In order to answer research question 2, improvement proposals have been presented for zone distribution, article placement and picking height level, with the aim of making inventory management more efficient.