Developing warehouse managing system and procurement at company X

The thesis is conducted in cooperation with company X, a food importer in Finland. The company is growing, resulting in the storage is running out of space and the staff working ability is low. They adopt an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to improve productivity across departments, including warehouse operations. Plus, the procurement process is complicated because of the COVID-19 epidemic. They seek to find new vendors for new products. The research objectives are to outline their challenges in warehouse management and procurement procedures and suggest applicable solutions to them. Addi- tionally, the thesis aims to evaluate how well the ERP performs. The thesis consists of the theory part describing the concepts used in the thesis and litera- ture review of previous researches, and the practical research part outlining the research objectives. The theoretical framework is based on definitions of the research objects, in- cluding warehouse management, inventory management, procurement, and the concepts used to suggest solutions. The qualitative research method is used primarily in the thesis, accompanied by quantita- tive and desktop study methods. Firstly, primary data is collected via structural interviews with the manager to describe the business practices, the ERP implementation, the chal- lenges, and the impacts of the epidemic on the business. Secondly, a survey is conducted with the personnel who use the ERP system to collect their evaluations. Finally, secondary data is collected to suggest potential solutions and support their possibility and fitness. The practices at the company are primarily manual, making errors are easy to occur. Plus, they have quite a lot of excess stocks clogging the warehouse flow. Firstly, liquidating stock is suggested by discounting and donating. Secondly, adopting advanced storage so- lutions, rearranging inventory are recommended as it helps to utilize more space and im- prove productivity. For the ERP system appraisal, most of the staff evaluate it as good, as they grade it 7.6 on average on a scale of 10 though it sometimes indicates inaccurate data. In addition, the epidemic causes difficulties in the sourcing process. Subsequently, the strategies to select vendors and mitigate risks are presented. In a nutshell, the thesis suggests possible alternatives to the case company that may suit their needs based on the research findings. Companies should continue to develop to be more competitive in the market, and it can begin by enhancing operations within the com- pany and further activities. As the technology trend drives the modern world, it is considerable to adopt such applications to develop