Ordering routines at Scania Deutschland GmbH: a case study
with focus on improving the spare-part order process

Abstract: With a decreasing market for trucks and low volumes of sales, service and
maintenance has come to constitute an important source of income for truck
manufacturers. A further tendency in the business is that the general
interest in service quality, for instance within sales warranties and
maintenance, has increased considerable. Hence, it has become extremely
important to focus on handling and improving service quality. Nowadays,
when the customer perceives little technical difference between competing
offers, manufacturing companies need to create differential advantages
through added value. For Scania Deutschland GmbH, this implies focusing on
the customers, as well as improving the section of service and maintenance.

An important factor within service and maintenance is to secure supply of
spare-parts to the retailers. It has further been shown essential to
maintain a stable inventory management at the central warehouse as well as
at the retailers. Hence, the order routines must function smoothly. This
thesis work is a product of the endeavour for lowering costs and improving
the order process, with focus on the order placement between the retailers
and the central warehouse. The aim for Scania Deutschland GmbH is to
increase the orders placed on a daily basis, i.e daily stock orders,
implying an increased inventory planning at the retailers. Consequently,
the purpose of this thesis is to identify factors that restrain an
increased level of daily stock orders.

I have explored and described the order process at Scania Deutschland GmbH,
and as a result identified factors that restrain the level of daily stock
orders. The findings show that an increased level of daily orders would
lower the transportation costs for Scania Deutschland GmbH. It can also be
concluded that placing daily stock orders involve lower costs for the
retailers than for other types of orders. A strict inventory control
including control of problem spare-parts, together with a higher safety
stock, will secure the supply of spare-parts. Finally, it was found that
increased feedback and improved information flow would have a positive
impact on the usage of daily orders.