Investigation for Capacity Planning within the Supply Chain: A Case Study

Abstract: Planning for capacity in not just the production, but also in the supply chain, is important. Strategic long-term planning for the supply chain will affect how the company will be able to meet the demand. This Master Thesis will focus on the capacities within the supply chain at PolyPeptide and how they could be planned for in the future. PolyPeptide is a company that manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients with peptide technology. The production plan that is set through an S&OP process sets the basis for the activities that is performed by the supply chain department. Often a high load on the production means a high load on the supply chain, but this is not always the case. Today the company does not have a model or tools to evaluate how the capacities in the SC will be affected by the production, which leads to difficulties in planning load and utilization. The purpose is to investigate and develop an understanding for future capacity planning within the supply chain at PolyPeptide in Malmö. This includes to identify what in the production that generates the workload on the supply chain and how to give a recommendation on how to precede with this. The conclusion of this project is a recommendation for PolyPeptide to use the mapping of time for the activities in the production plan when planning the production.