ICT and e-Business Impact in the Furniture Industry - empirica

More documents

Recommendations

Info

ICT and e-business impact in the furniture industry5.9 e-Business and B2B-integration to sourced warehouseat Stokke, NorwayAbstractStokke AS designs and creates products for children in three product categories:seating, nursery, and transportation. Stokke is located in the west coast town ofAalesund in Norway. The company has an export share of 95 % and in the past threeyears its annual turnover has grown by 25%-30%. Stokke’s production and warehouselogistics activities are outsourced; 90% of the value added activities are createdabroad. This case study focuses on Stokke’s implementation and improved e-businesssolutions, experiences with implementing and improving sourcing strategy, especiallywithin the area of warehouse and outbound logistics. Improvement in the sourced e-business value-chain over the last years is one of the important success factors for thedevelopment for Stokke.Case study fact sheetFull name of the company:Location (HQ / main branches):Main business activity:Year of foundation: 1975Number of employees:Turnover in last financial year:Stokke ASSkodje, NorwayManufacturing of products for children: high chairs,stroller, beds140, 2/3 employed outside Norway750.000 eurosPrimary customers: Retailers, large chains and “mom & pop” shops , -special stores for childrenMost significant geographic market:Main e-business applications studied:EU, US, JapanBenefits of ICT and e-businessDrivers of ICT and e-businessERP – Enterprise Resource Planninge-SalesICT and e-business impacts on work processes5.9.1 Background and objectivesAbout StokkeThe company’s business goal is to be the world's leading baby furniture manufacturerwithin selected products; the company sells and distributes highchairs, strollers and bedsto specialised retailers in the area of special stores for children. Stokke’s products aredesigned for children from 0 to 10 years. The most important markets are EU, US andJapan.Stokke is one of the leading suppliers in the highchair market in EU and has recorded anannual sales growth rate between 25 and 30% in the past three years. Because of theincreasing competition on Internet sales, at the end of the nineties Stokke started to focuson e-business development, both B2B and B2C.141
ICT and e-business impact in the furniture industryImplementing integration strategy towards Sourced Warehouse: objectivesTaking into consideration the fact that B2B markets are mostly oriented towards reducingcosts in the value chain, and on the “ease of doing business with”, Stokke has developeda consistent sourcing strategy within production, logistics and warehouse. Since 1998 thee-business strategy and solution towards “sourced warehouse” has been improved inseveral steps. The market growth in this period has been around 400%, and has thusdemanded improved efficiency in the internal and external value chains.From 1998 to 2000, Stokke changed its distribution strategy from 80% sales throughfurniture stores and 20% children special stores, to 20% furniture stores and 80%children special stores. In the same period the product line strategy changed fromcovering the general need “to sit” to covering children’s basic needs. Product materialschanged from wood to be function-oriented, production changed from partly in-house tooutsourced and the number of warehouses, from the existing 16, was limited to one.By organising warehouse operations into one outsourced location, the first warehousesolution was implemented by focusing on the reduction of time from order to delivery in allthe major markets. It was considered to be strategically important to build a new positionwithin the market, by shipping the goods from the warehouse at latest on the day after thereceipt of the order.Several limitations in the sourcing partners’ IT-resources and possibilities to integratedifferent system-platforms were identified; hybrid solutions were chosen as the optimumcost-benefit-solution. From 2000 to 2006, a period characterised by a considerablebusiness growth, several areas of improvements at and towards the sourcing partnerwere identified and actions were taken to implement the existing solutions.5.9.2 e-Business approachProject descriptionStokke’s project aimed to implement the integration towards sourced warehouse. Thestrategic goal was to reduce the time from order to delivery in all the main marketsconcentrating warehousing operating within one location thus reducing costs in the valuechain, to efficiently manage constantly increasing business volumes and to increasewarehouse efficiency and effectiveness.Implementing BIT branch-standard MRP-system (Movex), 1997-2004Between 1999 and 2005 Stokke outsourced and centralized warehouse operations at onelocation (from the existing 16 warehouse locations). One of the major achievements wasto link services based on Stokke’s infrastructure and systems with the warehousesourcing partner and this objective required change in the working process, organization,systems, technology and quality of data.The combination of both upgrading into a new ERP system and the major change intoone warehouse operation was a complex task. Implementation required more resourcesand time than planned. Planning was done together with the warehouse-sourcing partnerand the ERP-vendor. The sourcing partner had no or limited possibilities to exchangeEDI-files (this was restricted by proprietary systems). In 1999 Stokke upgraded to the142
Page 1 and 2:
ICT and e-Business Impact in theFur
Page 4 and 5:
ICT and e-business impact in the fu
Page 6 and 7:
Page 8 and 9:
Page 10 and 11:
Page 12 and 13:
Page 14 and 15:
Page 16 and 17:
Page 18 and 19:
Page 20 and 21:
Page 22 and 23:
Page 24 and 25:
Page 26 and 27:
Page 28 and 29:
Page 30 and 31:
Page 32 and 33:
Page 34 and 35:
Page 36 and 37:
Page 38 and 39:
Page 40 and 41:
Page 42 and 43:
Page 44 and 45:
Page 46 and 47:
Page 48 and 49:
Page 50 and 51:
Page 52 and 53:
Page 54 and 55:
Page 56 and 57:
Page 58 and 59:
Page 60 and 61:
Page 62 and 63:
Page 64 and 65:
Page 66 and 67:
Page 68 and 69:
Page 70 and 71:
Page 72 and 73:
Page 74 and 75:
Page 76 and 77:
Page 78 and 79:
Page 80 and 81:
Page 82 and 83:
Page 84 and 85:
Page 86 and 87:
Page 88 and 89:
Page 90 and 91:
Page 92 and 93: ICT and e-business impact in the fu
Page 141: ICT and e-business impact in the fu
show all

ICT and e-Business Impact in the Furniture Industry - empirica

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?