Purchase optimization by streamlining internal procedures in the order processing - Automatization of internal order management at Kronospan Trading

Bázsa Péter (2021) Purchase optimization by streamlining internal procedures in the order processing - Automatization of internal order management at Kronospan Trading. Külkereskedelmi Kar.

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Absztrakt (kivonat)

Any businesses of today’s fast-moving economy are constantly searching for new ways to become more efficient and to embrace the constant pressure of our world of scarce resources, to do more with less. Leaning out operations, adapting to emerging business environments and committing to continuous improvement are ongoing objectives and are essential for future success (Industrial Distribution, 2015). Having this statement as a starting point, this paper examines such perspective through a Belgian distributor facility, Kronospan Trading, as part of a worldwide multinational organization, Kronospan Group, operating in the wood industry. At the headquarter of Kronospan Trading, in Mouscron (Belgium) there is no production at place. The company is only trading with Kronospan associated products. Although Kronospan Trading is a distributor facility of Kronospan products exclusively in the Belgium market, the company is an independent profit-oriented facility in terms of business, which mostly earns its margins from the sales of oriented strand board (OSB), which accounts for the 86% of the company’s yearly sales volume. The company is occupying 35% market share in the OSB market in Belgium. Keeping high volume of OSB sales is an essential factor for Kronospan Trading, since this is what has been running and making the company grow over the years. Although OSB is running high, Kronospan Trading’s new market strategy is looking to defend and boost its volume in the lacquered and bonded panel industry, pursuing obtainable sales increase with its Kronodesign collection on the melamine-faced particleboard (MFPB) and high-pressure laminate (HPL) market. By assessing Kronospan Trading’s number terms and sales results, it can be stated that the Belgian subsidiary is on a right track in terms of financial growth. However, as the company is growing, daily operations and workload is also growing within. Given current procedures and workflow do not utilize Kronospan Trading’s internal operations the most efficient way anymore. Current way of order processing is a time-consuming procedure with high risk of errors, due to the highly manual data entry based system, that the company wishes to automate by standardized means till the end of 2021. For a trading facility, where production is not existing, production theoretically equals with the buying of goods from other entities. Kronospan Trading’s operations is highly reliant on the Kronospan production sites as elemental suppliers, therefore efficient purchase planning and purchase allocation is one of the most important factors in its business operations. Moreover, the new market penetration strategy perceives an exponentially growing significant amount of incoming customer orders, where fast order processing is a crucial factor concerning future success in the MFPB and HPL hence continuous business growth by improved customer service. In order to mitigate inefficiencies inside Kronospan Trading’s order processing, a proposed solution has been set up, which consist the implementation of a web-based ordering platform, a web-shop along with direct links between departments (Sales and Purchasing) and information systems (EDI) that are aimed to be streamlined to provide a straight line of data flow, therefore fast and error-free automated order processing in internal operations. The research has been heavily based on and conducted through experimental research design elements with a phenomenological research approach (automated order processing) through a grounded theory (process standardization). Data have been collected by observations, experiences and qualitative methods, such as structured interviews with sales experts in order to give external validity to the proposed solution. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, customers and actual customer feedbacks were not available to collect, which may affect the external validity of the research. The feasibility of automated systems, was carried out in two different phases of action as a pilot experiment, examining technical and aesthetical perspectives. Ten test purchases have been carried out to see whether the web-based platform along with EDI is capable to process. The aesthetical perspective intended to draw conclusion about the user-friendliness of the platform. With sufficient support from LIRA Services, the basics of the web-shop has been set up which were tested successfully. The web-shop proved to be functional and passed the quality control test. A partial integration of automation system has been achieved that removes the inefficiencies of manual data entry by standardized means on the Sales side. In order to fully integrate automatized order processing procedures inside Kronospan Trading’s technology system, namely creating direct link between Sales and the Purchasing department, requires additional IT intervention. Interviews revealed that Sales professionals are confident that the web-shop is a good way in future way of doing business. If web-shop is sufficiently managed and necessary efforts are made to provide proper guidance to customers in the introductory phase, customers will use the web-shop, since demand for fast information is high. The implementation of the Kronospan Trading web-shop would provide remedy to the business issue (replacing manual data entry to automated order processing procedures), however the real applicability of the web-shop becomes only approvable, when target customers are defined and the system is put to the test in a real business-to-business environment.

Intézmény

Budapesti Gazdasági Egyetem

Kar

Külkereskedelmi Kar

Tanszék

Nemzetközi Gazdaságtan Tanszék

Tudományterület/tudományág

NEM RÉSZLETEZETT

Szak

Nemzetközi gazdálkodás szak (angol)

Mű típusa:	diplomadolgozat (NEM RÉSZLETEZETT)
Kulcsszavak:	automatizáció - automatizálás, feldolgozás, hatékonyság, Kronospan Trading, optimalizálás, üzleti környezet, vásárlás
SWORD Depositor:	Archive User
Felhasználói azonosító szám (ID):	Archive User
Rekord készítés dátuma:	2021. Már. 01. 13:07
Utolsó módosítás:	2021. Szep. 21. 11:46

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