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Utveckling av ett automatiskt lagerstyrningssystem för e-handel

Fors, Peter and Ingwall, Martin (2004) MIO920
Production Management
Abstract
Inventories are one of the largest investments made by trading companies and as a
result an e®ective inventory control is important to obtain a low opportunity cost of
capital for the carried items. Despite this, many small and middle sized companies
lack access to a high-quality tool for this purpose. The past few years have also
showed that the Internet as a sales channel has become of greater importance.
An inventory control system that can be integrated into an e-commerce system is
therefore highly desirable.
This thesis describes the development of a modern, easily integrated and au-
tomatic inventory control system, particularly well suited for e-commerce. The
latest technologies have been used to create an e±cient and... (More)
Inventories are one of the largest investments made by trading companies and as a
result an e®ective inventory control is important to obtain a low opportunity cost of
capital for the carried items. Despite this, many small and middle sized companies
lack access to a high-quality tool for this purpose. The past few years have also
showed that the Internet as a sales channel has become of greater importance.
An inventory control system that can be integrated into an e-commerce system is
therefore highly desirable.
This thesis describes the development of a modern, easily integrated and au-
tomatic inventory control system, particularly well suited for e-commerce. The
latest technologies have been used to create an e±cient and °exible system. The
communication with the e-commerce system is performed through the use of a
web service, enabling integration over the Internet. The automatic behaviour is
attained by a feature in which the system analyses the statistics of past sales to
determine the most suitable among a variety of forecasting methods. The accuracy
of the forecasts is continuously reviewed and the system will automatically change
forecasting method if necessary. Based on the forecasts, the system will then make
a recommendation for when and in what quantity an article should be ordered
from its supplier. The system also o®ers grouping of articles according to the ABC
classi¯cation or similar and provides functionality for extended control of supplier
lead times.
In addition, the thesis suggests a modi¯cation of the Holt-Winters' seasonal
forecasting method. This modi¯cation allows a value of zero for the seasonal indices
and can therefore be used for articles with the majority of their sales occurring
during a short period of time each year. This modi¯cation also allows shorter
forecasting period lengths than with the original Holt-Winters' method.
Simulations show that the developed system works very well in practice and
could be used to make the inventory control more e®ective at many companies.
The thesis exempli¯es this by exploring how the system could be used to improve
the inventory control at a visited trading company. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Fors, Peter and Ingwall, Martin
supervisor
organization
course
MIO920
year
type
M1 - University Diploma
subject
other publication id
04/5197
language
Swedish
id
2007232
date added to LUP
2011-06-30 13:56:55
date last changed
2011-06-30 13:56:55
@misc{2007232,
  abstract     = {{Inventories are one of the largest investments made by trading companies and as a
result an e®ective inventory control is important to obtain a low opportunity cost of
capital for the carried items. Despite this, many small and middle sized companies
lack access to a high-quality tool for this purpose. The past few years have also
showed that the Internet as a sales channel has become of greater importance.
An inventory control system that can be integrated into an e-commerce system is
therefore highly desirable.
This thesis describes the development of a modern, easily integrated and au-
tomatic inventory control system, particularly well suited for e-commerce. The
latest technologies have been used to create an e±cient and °exible system. The
communication with the e-commerce system is performed through the use of a
web service, enabling integration over the Internet. The automatic behaviour is
attained by a feature in which the system analyses the statistics of past sales to
determine the most suitable among a variety of forecasting methods. The accuracy
of the forecasts is continuously reviewed and the system will automatically change
forecasting method if necessary. Based on the forecasts, the system will then make
a recommendation for when and in what quantity an article should be ordered
from its supplier. The system also o®ers grouping of articles according to the ABC
classi¯cation or similar and provides functionality for extended control of supplier
lead times.
In addition, the thesis suggests a modi¯cation of the Holt-Winters' seasonal
forecasting method. This modi¯cation allows a value of zero for the seasonal indices
and can therefore be used for articles with the majority of their sales occurring
during a short period of time each year. This modi¯cation also allows shorter
forecasting period lengths than with the original Holt-Winters' method.
Simulations show that the developed system works very well in practice and
could be used to make the inventory control more e®ective at many companies.
The thesis exempli¯es this by exploring how the system could be used to improve
the inventory control at a visited trading company.}},
  author       = {{Fors, Peter and Ingwall, Martin}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Utveckling av ett automatiskt lagerstyrningssystem för e-handel}},
  year         = {{2004}},
}