Improving Supply Chain Efficiency in-store with a Lean Approach; A case study of Intersport Sweden AB

Abstract

With improved transportation and a more open market, supply chain management has evolved into becoming increasingly complex, resulting in longer supply chains and a need for operational excellence to stay competitive. Within the sector of retail this is further complicated by the demand for shorter product lifecycles and new products on a frequent basis to meet customer expectations. Although, the supply chain as a whole is important, the store itself crystallises as perhaps the most important part of the supply chain. Theory implies that the costs within the store itself constitutes for the major part of the total supply chain costs. By investigating Intersport Sweden, a sports company in the Swedish retail sector, it has been shown that there are challenges and waste activities within the store contributing to current inefficiency. The purpose of this thesis has therefore served to identify waste activities and improve the efficiency within the retail stores of Intersport Sweden. To gather empirical material, a qualitative research approach has been chosen, where the authors visited twelve Intersport stores across Sweden and conducted interviews and observations. Since Lean philosophy aims to identify and eliminate waste, its tools and methods has been used together with the empirical material to ultimately be able to improve the process. Furthermore, this thesis adds an interesting theoretical contribution, seeing as theory concerning Lean and retail mainly has investigated the supply chain as a whole rather than investigated the store in depth. The empirical findings reveal that there are plenty of room for improvements within the store and back-storage area. For instance, the stores operate differently in their day-to-day activities where certain best practices are displayed. In general, standardisation and structuring are needed and results have shown that additional lead time may arise due to a poorly conducted transition into the store itself. Our recommendations therefore include standardising routines (Kaizen), structure the back-storage area with a 5S approach, and implement Kanban squares to further smoothen the transition of products from back-storage to store. In addition, the thesis signifies trends and current literature that emphasize the promises of implementing technology such as RFID and to investigate potentials of outsourcing certain activities.