IKEA: s transvektioner - från råvaror till varuhus - Ekonomihögskolan ...

Date 2004-01-21
Abstract
Level Master thesis in business administration, 10 points.
Authors Jessica Lithén and Lina Sonderegger
Tutor Peter Thilenius
Title The transvections at IKEA- from raw material to the store
Keywords Transvection, distribution and IKEA
Problem A global company, where the distribution system might be
rather complex, could take advantage of everyone in the organisation
understanding the different parts of the system. If
everyone in the organisation has knowledge about the system
and its different parts it would enable the company to achieve
a maximal performance to their customers. The access to
more wide and accurate information about the distribution
system as a whole also contributes to a flexibility that conduce
to the company’s quicker responsiveness to the competitors
actions. In a global company as IKEA, which consists of several
different corporations, it can be assumed that not everyone
in the organisation understands how the distribution system
is structured. The lack of this understanding sometimes
leads to indistinct and inaccurate information from the staff to
the customers. To be able to describe IKEA’s distribution system
the different parts of the system have to be identified. One
way of analyzing a distribution system to get an overall understanding
is to apply Alderson’s transvectional theory. The
transvectional theory contributes with a concrete method
which clearly specifies the activities in a system that should
be analyzed.
Purpose The purpose of this article is to describe IKEA’s distribution
system, important aspects in the system will be identified from
a transvectional point of view to clarify the activities in this
system.
Method The article is founded on a study of IKEA, where the literature
study is concentrated to Alderson’s transvectional theory. Interviews
with four employees at IKEA Västerås and two employees
at IKEA of Sweden have been conducted from a figure
of IKEA’s distribution system. The article is first and foremost
directed to the staff at IKEA. The overall picture of the distri-