https://www.mdu.se/

ABSTRACT

In today’s turbulent environment, there is no longer any possibility of manufacturing and marketing acting independently of each other. Organization cannot longer act as an isolated and independent entity in competition with others similarly 'stand-alone' organizations.

Customers are more informed and express more concern on reduced lead time; just-in-time delivery and value-added services .They want greater responsiveness and reliability from their suppliers; whereas logistics managers want low costs so that they remain competitive as well.

Logistics, being the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient, cost-effective flow and storage of materials and information is now looked upon as a key corporate point for simultaneously increasing shareholder and customer value.

Logistics performance is described in terms of superior customer value at less cost, and this customers value is derived from tailored services, reliability, and responsiveness whereas a cost advantage comes through capacity utilization, asset turn and synchronous supply.

Instead the need to create value delivery systems that are more responsive to fast changing markets and are much more consistent and reliable in the delivery of that value requires the agility of a supply chain design and collaboration be focused on the achievement this goal.

The underlying philosophy behind the logistics and supply chain concept is that of planning and co-ordination the materials flow from source to user as an integrated system rather than, as a series of independent activities.

The goal of this approach is to link the marketplace, the distribution network, the manufacturing process and the procurement activity in such a way that customers are serviced at high levels and yet at low cost.

The objective of this project has been to develop a framework that supports the design of a lean agile supply chain towards improving logistics performance. At the course of this process, three research questions have been formulated which stems for identifying those efficient metrics that affect logistics performance and the implementation of a lean-agile supply chain design to improve on them. Contributions to these research questions have been through literature studies as well as empirical research from a number of case studies which have ended up answering the entire thesis.

Therefore results and conclusions to this project is a framework which supports the need for a lean agile supply chain design towards improving logistics performance. It has supported the fact that a lean logistics system will provide an efficient flow of material through the supply chain by eliminating waste, minimizing stocks and costs, gives shorter lead times and work toward a JIT process, Whereas agility at the other hand, though argued by many literature studies that its ability to provide high customer service by responding quickly to different or changing circumstances is more of rhetoric with little substance and can probably excel most in a situation of fashionable or bespoke products, has equally proven beyond convincing doubts that it’s manifestation in every industrial landscape is unstoppable through its ability to give flexible manufacturing systems that can switch rapidly to fast changing market demands.