Developing a Supply Chain Mapping Framework – A case study at IKEA's Comfort Category

Abstract: Title: Developing a Supply Chain Mapping Framework: A case study at IKEA’s Comfort Category. Authors: Rohit Jacob and Monica Mora Chaves Supervisors: • Dag Näslund, Department of Industrial Management and Logistics, Lund University. • Lenny Nilsson, Logistics Manager Category Area Comfort at IKEA of Sweden • Marcus Johansson, Project Leader, Supply Chain at IKEA of Sweden. Background: As a low-cost company, IKEA of Sweden strives for a cost-efficient value chain. IKEA’s comfort category supply chain is complex because of its diverse and bulky products; and high percentage of supply chain cost, up to 30% in some cases and almost double the HFB average rate (15,6%). Therefore, the company wants to explore the comfort category supply chain to identify potential improvement opportunities. Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis project is to develop a supply chain mapping framework to identify potential improvement opportunities and explore IKEA’s comfort category. Research questions: • RQ1. What are the steps to follow to perform a supply chain mapping? • RQ2. How to use the framework to map IKEA’s comfort supply chain and identify improvement opportunities? Findings: This project contributes to the formulation of a supply chain mapping framework, through a thorough literature review. Its step-by-step structure is easy to follow to analyze the supply chains and identify critical areas in need of improvement. Later, these problems are prioritized, concluding in the areas where IKEA should focus its efforts. After the application of the developed framework, it is proposed a distribution of time and criticality of the steps for the mapping effort. The approach of developing the framework and later applying it provides a clear example and guarantees the applicability of the mapping tool built.