1.3 Research questions and objectives Consafe Logistics objective is to help customers attain essential business information and present it in a more visual way. This would not only create possibilities for enhanced decision-making, but also create better supply chain visibility and opportunities for benchmarking. The fact that Consafe Logistics works with global companies in various businesses puts certain demands on which set of metrics to use. Consafe Logistics therefore wants to gain a deeper understanding about the SCOR model as a whole. The main objective of this study is to investigate how the SCOR metrics framework can be applied to the company’s services within warehouse management. Furthermore, Consafe Logistics would like to gain a comprehensive picture of what metrics its customers currently measure in order to identify if KPIs from the SCOR metrics portfolio are applicable. This study should therefore answer some essential questions: 1. What types of metrics do Consafe Logistics’ customers use today regarding warehouse management?
2. To what extent are metrics from the SCOR model applicable for Consafe Logistics’ customers in warehouse management services?
3. How should a possible performance measurement model for warehouse activities based on the SCOR model be designed and used? Expected audience In order to answer the research questions and fulfill the purpose of this study, an in depth research about the SCOR model, and a broad investigation of Consafe Logistics’ customers’ performance measurement processes in warehousing was conducted. This is something Consafe Logistics can benefit from both in the dashboard implementation and when consulting. In addition, the research will also have a large contribution to academia. Not much research has been made on the SCOR model in regards to warehouse management; the result of this study could therefore support others who want to implement the SCOR model.
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1.4 Research focus and delimitations In order to enable a trustworthy study that will really contribute to Consafe Logistics’ warehouse services some delimitations and focus areas had to be set. The focus areas and the delimitations have been derived from discussions with supervisors from both the university and the case company. Due to the limited time frame of this study it was decided that the implementation of the model into Consafe Logistics software offerings was to be left out of the scope. Focus should be on understanding the SCOR theory and gather reliable and significant empirical data to be able to develop a correct PMS and process model. Since the case company wanted the performance system to be based on the SCOR model no other performance frameworks was to be thoroughly studied or considered for the solution. Performance measurement systems also raise additional questions such as measurement frequency and analysis frequency, these areas will however not be investigated in this study. Warehousing is an activity-driven function and the measurements focused on in this study are those that can be retrieved from the Astro WMS and therefore closely tied to warehouse operations. The sections that have been focused on are therefore the execution processes, Source, Make and Deliver. To ensure that all customers no matter industry or country can use the model, a predetermined set of metrics won’t be included in the solution, a process model and a description on how to assemble company specific metrics are the final outcome. The research focus of this study has mainly been in three different areas, warehouse operations, the SCOR model and Consafe Logistics customer’s performance measurement. To be able to develop a process model it was important to see whether customers follow general warehouse theory in terms of warehouse activities and processes. Then there had to be an extensive analysis to see if these could be translated to standard terms and concepts in SCOR. To answer if the SCOR metrics were valid for Consafe Logistics’ customers, a great deal of the work has been on finding what types of metrics customers currently are focusing on within warehousing. Together with the process model this formed the basic structure of the new performance model