Improving the Equipment Availability Forecast in the Container Transport Business
Salin, Hannu (2016)
Salin, Hannu
Metropolia Ammattikorkeakoulu
2016
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201605157856
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201605157856
Tiivistelmä
The objective of this study is to improve the equipment availability forecast process in the container transport business. For the case company, forecast process is part of the equipment control process. Improving the equipment availability forecast is a relevant issue to the case company because of the imbalance of import and export, which in turn is making the forecasting more important than before. Lack of accurate equipment availability forecast is causing the case company problems in booking export cargo, equipment reposition costs and storage costs.
This study starts with the current state analysis where the weaknesses and possible areas of improvement are identified from the current process. After that, the conceptual frame-work from the literature is crafted to provide the theoretical framework for the study. In the two final sections of this study, the proposal for the improved forecast process is crafted with the key stakeholders, and then the proposal is validated using an interview with responsible manager and results from the partial testing the proposed process. Data collection methods used in this study are primarily interviews with the key stakeholders, with additional data used from the statistics and company internal documents.
The results of this study is the proposal for the improved equipment availability forecast process that is part of the equipment control process. The proposal includes two main approaches, firstly, the estimates in the process are replaced with values calculated and constantly updated using collected data, and secondly, tasks and responsibilities in the process are re-organized in order to better use the information available.
This study starts with the current state analysis where the weaknesses and possible areas of improvement are identified from the current process. After that, the conceptual frame-work from the literature is crafted to provide the theoretical framework for the study. In the two final sections of this study, the proposal for the improved forecast process is crafted with the key stakeholders, and then the proposal is validated using an interview with responsible manager and results from the partial testing the proposed process. Data collection methods used in this study are primarily interviews with the key stakeholders, with additional data used from the statistics and company internal documents.
The results of this study is the proposal for the improved equipment availability forecast process that is part of the equipment control process. The proposal includes two main approaches, firstly, the estimates in the process are replaced with values calculated and constantly updated using collected data, and secondly, tasks and responsibilities in the process are re-organized in order to better use the information available.