Developing Purchasing and Inventory Management of filters in Storent Oy

The aim of this thesis was to develop purchasing and the inventory management of spare parts in the case company Storent Oy by highlighting the key improvement areas. During the time of this study the case company used an ERP system, which had basic data of current inventory, but the system did not support reordering or stocking decisions. Therefore, the purchasing of spare parts was not automated and purchasing decisions were made when the demand occurred in real time. The research approach was qualitative, and the data was collected by interviewing the Head Manager and Technical Manager of the case company and using the author’s own observations while working in the company and data from the ERP-system. The author conducted a SWOT analysis based on the results of the interviews. An ABC analysis was also made for one specific spare part product group, filters, which are used for maintenance for rental machines. Academic articles and literature were used as secondary data to create the theoretical framework which focused on understanding the purchase processes, inventory management techniques and policies, and how to analyse inventory data. Problems with product naming and interchangeable filters were identified, and these were solved by implementing a better product naming and a cross-reference-list for the target product group of filters. Processes where these spare parts were processed changed during the writing of this thesis. Categorising the inventory to support stocking decisions, inventory size reduction, improving data quality were the actions suggested to be developed in the case company. Results of the study can be used to develop the inventory management of other product groups in the case company