University of Twente Student Theses
The optimization of planning parameters
Takian, Sadir (2021) The optimization of planning parameters.
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| Abstract: | Management Summary This research is conducted at Zwanenberg Food Group (ZFG) as part of the education program Master of Science in Business Administration. ZFG is one of the leading European producers and exporters of meats, preserved meat, snacks, soups, sauces, vegetarian and vegan products. The versatility of its products and the rapid growth of the company do require attention for more efficient production planning. This thesis focuses on the Zwanenberg Food Group Oss (ZFO) production location, which was acquired in 2018 by ZFG from Unilever. The need to have clear planning parameters for achieving the best results for the production location as a part of ZFG is key for an organization. Furthermore, the level of cost savings will be analyzed through the reduction of obsolescence by implementing the new Q, R policy. The acquisition of the production location in Oss led also to a vendor-managed inventory at the warehouse in Veghel (The Netherlands), this triggered the interest to optimize the stock levels. To conceptualize these problems the following research question is designed; How to determine the optimal production parameters to minimize setup costs and the inventory holding costs, by considering the obsolescence of products? The added scientific value of this thesis to the existing research is to determine the relationship of planning parameters to setup costs. Giving insights whether the setup costs can be considered a direct improvement to the heuristic production planning. The research design which enabled to answer the research question as unambiguously as possible. The research question refers to a performance measurement of a process, this means that the interconnected information and material flow, and supply chain are interlinked. The main objective of the thesis is cost reduction, efficient supply chain is needed to minimize the production costs. The production location Oss includes multiple factories that produce soup, sauce, and meat products. The scope of this thesis holds the current three production lines that produce at max capacity throughout the week, these are the Line-A, Line-B, and the Line-C production lines. By means of gathered information from the sub-questions is fundamental in answering the main research question. Chapter four, literature review, introduces previous research of what kind of planning tools are used to optimize the production planning. Second, the theoretical framework to redesigning the inventory policy will elaborate on how planning parameters introduced earlier be able to smooth the production. Third, a set of three sub-questions will elaborate on the topics set-up time, obsolescence, and inventory costs. Finally, the conclusion of the thesis and the implementation of the new design in the factory are discussed. The research methodology is as follows; Literature review (Chapter 4) Which theoretical framework is needed to redesign the policy? (Chapter 5) What is the effect of the new policy on the set-up time? (Chapter 6.1) What is the effect of the new policy on obsoletes? (Chapter 6.2) What is the effect of the new policy on the inventory costs? (Chapter 6.3) Conclusion and recommendations (Chapter 7) |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Clients: | Zwanenberg BV |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 85 business administration, organizational science |
| Programme: | Business Administration MSc (60644) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/89152 |
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