Evaluating Transport Management Systems and Developing Strategic Recommendations for Global Inbound Logistics: A Case Study of a Multinational Heavy-Vehicle Manufacturer

Sammanfattning

Transport Management Systems (TMS) are increasingly being used to improve coordination, visibility, and decision-making in complex inbound logistics networks. However, despite significant discussion of TMS functionality in previous studies, there is little empirical understanding of how TMS capabilities are used in day-to-day inbound coordination, particularly during deviations and across organizational borders. Existing research pays little attention to the distinction between technological system potential and actual system-in-use capabilities in practice.This thesis examines how TMS-enabled coordination is integrated and implemented within inbound logistics in a complex global manufacturing environment. The study focuses on Alpha, a global heavy-vehicle manufacturer, and investigates how TMS capabilities facilitate coordination among suppliers, carriers, freight forwarders, and manufacturing units. The primary analytical lens used in this study is Organizational Information Processing Theory (IPT), which is complemented by Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) and Paradox Theory. In addition, a maturity-based capability evaluation framework with ten elements and five maturity levels was created and used to evaluate actual coordination capabilities. The study used a qualitative explanatory single-case study design with an abductive research methodology. Empirical data was collected using 29 semi-structured internal interviews, two external benchmarking interviews, internal documentation, system artifacts, dashboards, and process materials. The maturity framework was created iteratively using literature synthesis, expert validation, empirical application, and external benchmarking against two reference cases: Bravo and Charlie.The findings show that Alpha's TMS supports standardised inbound coordination relatively well in stable and recurrent transport flows, particularly in planning, booking, settlement, and internal process standardisation. However, major limitations arise during deviations, multi-leg execution, and cross-organisational cooperation. Visibility gaps, fragmented external integration, differing event quality, and reliance on manual communication channels like emails, phone calls, and spreadsheets continue to impede end-to-end coordination and deviation handling. The study also shows that TMS maturity differs across capability dimensions, with more maturity in internal backbone coordination than in external boundary coordination.The thesis offers a theoretical contribution by defining TMS as a socio-technical coordination capacity rather than a technological system, as well as differentiating between system potential and actual system-in-use maturity. To summarize, the study presents a structured maturity-based assessment framework and indicates areas for improvement in deviation management, external integration, event quality, analytics, and decision support in inbound logistics coordination.