Global Sourcing of an E-tailing Company: A case study of supplier relationship, forecasting and inventory control of a Swedish e-tailer sourcing from China
(2018) MTTM02 20181Engineering Logistics
- Abstract
- Background: Under a background of increasingly competitive environment in global sourcing e-tailing industry, companies have an urgent need to improve the performance and obtain more profits. However, there is a lack of research specially conducted for the companies under development. Thereby, it triggers a necessity of researching specific strategies from those companies’ perspective, to have a better performance in global sourcing.
Purpose: The purposes of the study are refined to (i) analyse the Chinese supplier of the investigated company and explore strategies to improve the buyer-supplier relationship (ii) identify a suitable demand forecast method and modify the previous forecast model accordingly and (iii) generate an inventory... (More) - Background: Under a background of increasingly competitive environment in global sourcing e-tailing industry, companies have an urgent need to improve the performance and obtain more profits. However, there is a lack of research specially conducted for the companies under development. Thereby, it triggers a necessity of researching specific strategies from those companies’ perspective, to have a better performance in global sourcing.
Purpose: The purposes of the study are refined to (i) analyse the Chinese supplier of the investigated company and explore strategies to improve the buyer-supplier relationship (ii) identify a suitable demand forecast method and modify the previous forecast model accordingly and (iii) generate an inventory level control model that can minimize the inventory cost to improve the performance of global sourcing.
Methodology: In order to fulfill the purpose, the study follows a system approach and an abductive research process. A single case study is used, and both qualitative and quantitative data are collected through interviews, company websites and archival records.
Conclusions: After conducting comparative analysis in all supplier relationship, demand forecasting and inventory control areas, strategies for improving the performance of each area are obtained. the investigated company is suggested to maintain the strategic relationship and develop a further deeper collaboration with the Chinese supplier. A forecasting method with the smallest forecast errors is suggested to the company in order to pursue a lower operating cost. Finally, an inventory control model which can provide an optimal order quantity and average inventory level is generated with the purpose of economic considerations. It is also proved that through applying these three strategies, the global sourcing performance of the company can be improved. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8947051
- author
- Wang, Kaiyun LU and Shen, Ruying LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MTTM02 20181
- year
- 2018
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- E-tailing, Global Sourcing, Chinese Supplier, Supplier Relationship, Demand Forecasting, Inventory Control
- report number
- 5854
- language
- English
- id
- 8947051
- date added to LUP
- 2018-06-11 11:31:34
- date last changed
- 2018-06-12 13:39:33
@misc{8947051,
abstract = {{Background: Under a background of increasingly competitive environment in global sourcing e-tailing industry, companies have an urgent need to improve the performance and obtain more profits. However, there is a lack of research specially conducted for the companies under development. Thereby, it triggers a necessity of researching specific strategies from those companies’ perspective, to have a better performance in global sourcing.
Purpose: The purposes of the study are refined to (i) analyse the Chinese supplier of the investigated company and explore strategies to improve the buyer-supplier relationship (ii) identify a suitable demand forecast method and modify the previous forecast model accordingly and (iii) generate an inventory level control model that can minimize the inventory cost to improve the performance of global sourcing.
Methodology: In order to fulfill the purpose, the study follows a system approach and an abductive research process. A single case study is used, and both qualitative and quantitative data are collected through interviews, company websites and archival records.
Conclusions: After conducting comparative analysis in all supplier relationship, demand forecasting and inventory control areas, strategies for improving the performance of each area are obtained. the investigated company is suggested to maintain the strategic relationship and develop a further deeper collaboration with the Chinese supplier. A forecasting method with the smallest forecast errors is suggested to the company in order to pursue a lower operating cost. Finally, an inventory control model which can provide an optimal order quantity and average inventory level is generated with the purpose of economic considerations. It is also proved that through applying these three strategies, the global sourcing performance of the company can be improved.}},
author = {{Wang, Kaiyun and Shen, Ruying}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Global Sourcing of an E-tailing Company: A case study of supplier relationship, forecasting and inventory control of a Swedish e-tailer sourcing from China}},
year = {{2018}},
}