CALCULATION OF SAFETY STOCK LEVEL – Project topics materials

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Approach

This thesis work contains of both qualitative and quantitative character. Quantitative orientated research implies statistically processed and analyzed in-data, in this case the calculation overview. Examples of qualitative research are data gathered during interviews and other verbal analyze methods, also included in this thesis to provide comprehension and a wider perspective. [6, pp. 23-25]
Qualitative data gathering has been done by interviews. Mainly with a low grade of structuring to capture open individual answers. [6, p. 82] The form has also been semistructured with room for creative response to retrieve additive information. [6, p. 76] For this case, the different research questions demand different approaches. The first question can be handled with an inductive approach. Which means to follow the path of discovery, by exploring the gathered data. The last two questions share that they can be compared with known theories, and are by that mean handled with a deductive approach. In this way, hypotheses of theory will be verified trough comparison with new and historical data. [6, pp. 23-25]

Case

A case study can contain an individual, a group, an organization, an event, an action or problem. A case has its own time and place. Imagine being in a situation or essentially outside. It is possible to work with a historical case or with something new. It could be a development, for example a new design. [7] This case contains a real situation with a real problem inside an organization.
To follow the aim of this thesis and find proper methods to answer the three questions a discussion was done between the two authors and advisors at Jönköping University. Together with them, a case study was chosen as a method for this thesis.
The case was to understand the actual problem Volvo encounter and which area this thesis work will cover. Participation and attendance at the company was required to find the necessary information. Different kind of data was collected through employees and analyzed together with the second contact person.

Data collection

Here follows a thorough exposition of data collection. Through interviews, literature review and collaborate calculation review the authors together with Volvo employees define the vital parts of this case study.

Interviews

All the people that were interviewed are employees at Volvo Trucks in Bangkok. The interviews have been structured as guided conversations held in meeting rooms at Volvo. Those meetings included one or two employees, depending on collaborations between departments and the depth of the actual issue.
None of these interviews were recorded. With the reason to make the employees feel comfortable and willing to be open about how they see the situation and increase the possibility to reach what this case should cover. When a situation is recorded, the informant might get uncomfortable, not willing to tell what he or she feels.
Consequently, providing the research work with less information which may alter the result. [8] Another reason for not recording the interviews is due to confidential information that is preferred to be kept unavailable to public access. The researchers have together with the first contact person, agreed upon that any confidential information must to be handled per a written agreement in between Volvo and the authors.

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1 Introduction
1.1 BACKGROUND
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
1.3 PURPOSE & RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.4 RESEARCH FOCUS
1.5 DISPOSITION
2 Theoretical Framework
2.1 LINK BETWEEN RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND THEORY
2.2 MATERIAL FLOW
2.3 SAFETY STOCK LEVEL
2.3.1 Quantity safeguarding
2.3.2 Time safeguarding
2.4 CALCULATION OF SAFETY STOCK LEVEL
2.4.1 Manual evaluations
2.4.2 Economical aspects
2.4.3 Percentage of lead time
2.4.4 Desired service level
3 Method and Implementation
3.1 LINK BETWEEN RESEARCH QUESTIONS & METHOD
3.2 WORK PROCESS
3.3 APPROACH
3.4 CASE
3.5 DATA COLLECTION
3.5.1 Interviews
3.5.2 Literature review
3.5.3 Calculation review
3.6 DATA ANALYSIS
3.7 CREDIBILITY
4 Current situation
4.1 UD TRUCKS BANGKOK
4.2 BANGKOK PLANT
4.3 CURRENT CALCULATION PARAMETERS
4.3.1 Note Sheet
4.3.2 Master data
4.3.3 Parameters “New safety stock”
4.4 ROOT CAUSES
4.5 PRODUCT AVAILABILITY
5 Analysis
5.1 CHANGES IN CALCULATION PARAMETERS
5.1.1 Note sheet
5.1.2 Parameters “New safety stock”
5.1.3 Parameter dependability
5.2 NEW CALCULATION PARAMETERS
6 Discussion & action proposals
6.1 DISCUSSION QUESTION 1
6.1.1 Action proposal question 1
6.2 DISCUSSION QUESTION 2
6.2.1 Action proposal on research question 2
6.3 RESEARCH QUESTION 3
6.3.1 Action proposal on research question 3
6.4 DISCUSSION ABOUT CASE VALIDITY & RELIABILITY
7 Conclusions