Supply Chain Assignment

UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE 56 959/56 522 SUPPLY CHAIN OPERATIONS

2010

Ikea’s Supply Chain ReviewBy Yezuhel González Santana

ABSTRACT

This paper gives an overall idea of IKEA's supply chain to the date, reviewing some of the problems encountered throughout its history and the improvements introduced at to solve them.It also covers the strategies followed by IKEA to assure great relations with its suppliers while always keeping its customers as the core for the business. Making it a well-rounded company, with established values that are passed through the chain and that allows it to be more efficient that any of its competitors.

The covered areas will be: planning, supply, production, packaging inventory, distribution and finally the importance of the customer relations will be discussed.The preparation information has been gathered from multiple sources Journals, IKEA’s website and articles.

INTRODUCTION

Anyone that has been to an IKEA store is aware of the main concept of the company. Everything seems to be easily attainable (physically and financially), aesthetical and

attractive (for people with a taste on modern style) and no one seems to care about being part of its supply chain by agreeing to carry and assemble the furniture themselves.As Normann and Ramirez (1993) explain, IKEA has made of shopping furniture, a family experience, having all the needed infrastructure for kids, elderly and disable, as well as restaurants , shops with its famous dishes, etc.For a company with suppliers all around the world and distributions spread out around the

globe, the service and prices it provides are extremely good.In this paper, rather than focusing in one specific area, a broader view of IKEA’s supply chain will be given, this with the purpose of describing all the major and minor factors that contribute in making it one of the best companies to work for, and makes its owner -Ingvar Kamprad- one of the richest men according to Forbes Magazine.

IKEA CONCEPT“Offering a wide range of well

designed functional home furnishing products at prices so

low that as many people as possible will be able to afford

them. Rather than selling expensive home furnishings than

only a few can buy, the IKEA concept makes it possible to serve the many by providing low priced

products that contribute to helping more people to have a

better life at home”(The never ending List, (Ikea’s website, n.d)

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The innovative complex business model used by IKEA that yet seems so simple was the inspiration to this paper.

HISTORY AND CURRENT FACTS

IKEA was born in 1943 when young Ingvard Kamprad started delivering fish, Christmas trees decoration and seeds in his bicycle in Almhult, Sweden. Years later, he started advertising products made by local manufacturers on the local papers and took advantage of the spare space on the milk delivery trucks to take his products. In 1955 he started his own furniture designs and introduced the flat packing system. Shortly after the first show room was opened, several more stores were opened in Sweden and then Norway. (Kippenberger, 1997).

Image 1. IKEA’s timeline (Ikea’s website, n.d.)

To the date, there are 316 stores worldwide

Image2. (Ikea’s website, n.d.)

Turnover

Image 3. (Ikea’s website, n.d)

IKEA has different groups and committees to perform different activities, but the main coordination tasks are performed by the following bodies:

Image 4. (Harish, 2009)

IKEA maintains a very flat organisation trying to get rid of many management levels and bureaucracy

FINDINGS

In the past, departments within a company used to operate as individual entities with their own objectives (which sometimes where conflicting), metrics and strategies. Business trends in 1990 created the need for supply chain management and thanks to information technological advances; supply chain management has emerged, trying to integrate every stage, creating a smoother flow of resources between them, optimizing the overall process (Kopczak and Johnson, 2003)

The modules of IKEA’s supply chain reviewed in this paper will be:

1. Planning2. Supply3. Operations and Packaging4. Inventory and Distribution5. Customer Relations

1. PLANNINGBefore getting started with the planning process, is worth mentioning, that IKEA follows the Generic Manufacture Strategies: Make to Stock.

Ikea of Sweden

Retail Distribution Trading Areas

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As Kopczak and Johnson (2003) mention: IKEA’s strategy is to dominate its competitors that use Make to Order Strategies, by handling increased inventory, being rapidly responsive to the customer’s needs.But is also well known, that Make to Stock strategies, rely mostly on a good forecast hoping to sell all what has been produced. That is why, in order to calculate demand, IKEA follows a complex process of forecast creation and validation.

IKEA relies in its catalogue for marketing purposes and has done it since a very long time ago.This catalogue is launched once a year and it maintains the prices published all throughout the year. This again, requires a high level of accuracy on its planning process. The catalogue has most of the products sold at the stores and according to IKEA’s website; it was the first publication to be printed on Totally Chlorine Free paper to reduce harm to the environment.

Image 5. (Ikea’s website, n.d.)

According to Harish (2009) the planning process would look like this:It starts with a Strategic Forecast (Long term) made for various products (for all stores) for the current year and for the following 5 years. This forecast is created by the Group Management Team (GM) based on the Business Plan which exhibits the highest level of management objectives in terms of what is intended to be sold and the resources needed to accomplish those sales.

Afterwards, the Demand Planners (DM) create a tactical forecast (Medium Term) based on the growth plans of each business area.These two forecasts (Strategical-Tactical) are then compared and if there are significant variations, they are divided regionally by sales frames. The next step is adjusting variations between frame sales and Sales Plan. This forecast is done from 4 to 48 weeks on a regular basis.At store level then, there are made Operational Forecasts (Short Term) that are based on the replenishment orders. The combination of the last two forecasts (Operational-Tactical) provides another forecast that contains the information for every product in every store.The validity and efficiency of forecasts is reviewed 3 times a year.Distribution Centre requirements are forecasted for 84 weeks, giving visibility to the suppliers and to the procurement department. Then, the needs are planned (MRP in other papers), in which each store provides a forecast that is compared against the existing stock levels, safety stock requirements and any other goods. This is known as the store net requirements. Which in addition to the DCs requirements, provide the DC’s net requirements.After this, IKEA is able to plan the suppliers capacity (by then, each supplier has provided a capacity limit).Reynolds (1993) mentions that as a standard procedure, a 5 weeks back stock is kept. It is clear that although sales plan and forecasts are adjusted, the sales plan has a higher priority since the DMs are adjusting the forecasts to it. Then IKEA must ensure that the demand is adapted to the plans, by different methods depending on the product.

IKEA has now an improved planning process; however, it wasn’t always like this. In the beginning, there was a lot of work done manually and the stores had a higher degree of freedom in terms of planning. This led to

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some stock problems at the stores creating unreliable information and ending up in being stocked out or stocked over. This of course, creates a performance problem. To help to solve the problem in such an intricate decision making process, IKEA hired JDA software group, who developed technologic solutions specific for IKEA’s supply chain. The results were: A reduction of forecasters from 120 to 30, and the forecasts accuracy increased from 60 to 80% (Johnson et al, 2008)It is of great importance to IKEA to enrol only in activities that are feasible and that will be seen through, for risky businesses, IKEA prefers not to take part of.

The planning strategy would be categorised as a combination between Chase Strategy and Level Strategy, because even though the plans are made and are mostly followed, IKEA sometimes makes compromises in order to support its suppliers, i.e. Buying extra stock from them.

This is how the planning process would graphically look like:

Image 6. Planning Process. Harish (2009)

2. SUPPLY

Most of the material used by IKEA comes from different sites of the world so it is vital to coordinate all the elements of the procurement strategy in the most optimal way.IKEA has:

An integrated purchasing strategy, trying to maintain a short list of long term suppliers.

A centralised strategic Procurement system, at IKEA of Sweden, making sure to maintain standards and meet global objectives.

And has Regulated procurement where the centralised unit dictates every step of the process.

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According to Ivarsson and Goran (2010), the responsible personnel for the sourcing strategy are called ISTRAs (IKEA Strategic Purchasers). Besides the normal tasks a purchaser have, they also maintain close relations with technicians who ensure that design and product are cost efficient.These technicians inform the suppliers of the technical requirements the material or products must have.The type of product related to IKEA’s furniture would be Consumer Durables for which good price and a good product performance is expected.Since the demand for this type of product is highly uncertain it is necessary to optimise the supply chain to assure availability to the customer.

SourcingOne of IKEA’s most important goals is to minimise the number of suppliers it makes business with. And for several reasons, for a company to become an IKEA’s supplier, needs to be in compliance with the IWAY (IKEA way) a set of regulations that state the code of values and behaviours their suppliers must follow.

IKEA requires that the whole company is in compliance with them, therefore, for IKEA is better to keep a large share (60%-70%) of the supplier’s business without being completely dependent of IKEA (Ivarsson and Goran, 2010).

These are the critical areas set for suppliers selection:

Table 1. (Ivarsson and Goran, 2010)

As Normann and Ramirez (1993) mention, a whole new world of opportunities appears before a new IKEA’s supplier, gaining access to global markets, receiving technical assistance to make their processes more efficient, get financial assistance if needed, can lease equipment, etc. This support, started as part of the innovative process of using suppliers to manufacture something else besides their core product. i.e. in 1970’s partnered with a bucket company, manufacturing the first plastic sofa.(Ikea’s website, n.d.)Besides the ISTRA’s, there a unit in Sweden called IKEA Development Centre which is the equivalent to R&D department. And there are the “free movers” which are personnel with developed expertise at some specific area and can often assist suppliers (Ivarsson and Goran, 2010).There are two possible paths when introducing a product:

Image 7. Path 1.(Ivarson and Goran, 2010)

In this model, suppliers have an active role in the design and by the time the product is finalised several modifications have taken place. It takes from 1 to 2 years in a typical process.

Image 8. Path 2.(Ivarson and Goran, 2010)

This strategy is used to cut down production costs.Since such close relationships are kept with suppliers, negotiation and compromises can Ch

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be made which lead to an increase of loyalty from both parties.

3. OPERATIONS AND PACKAGING

Value CreationAdding value to the supply chain can be done in many different stages of the overall process. IKEA manages to do it in several of them.IKEA adds value to its chain by working partnerships upstream with its suppliers and downstream with its customers creating a value combination of design/quality/price. (Walters and Rainbird, 2007)

Image 9. Added Value Chain Model. (Walters and Rainbird, 2007)

The following is the IKEA’s value co-creation business model:

Table 2. (Yang and Li, 2009)

DesignThere’s an important remark in regards to the design process: IKEA sets the price tag before the design is done. This price is set, trying to make it affordable for the majority of people. And from there, the designers and suppliers will engage in the tasks of finding the optimal design and resources management. (Edvardsson et al, 2006)The designers are usually close to the Production environment, not isolated in an office with any access to the real manufacturing tools.This methodology ensures a continuous

feedback from all the people involved in the creation process, making it easier to pre-empty errors sooner, and being able to consider all the trade-offs of quality against price and design.

IKEA has moved from Designing for Manufacturability (DFM) to Designing for Logistics (DFL), focusing always on smart logistics that shorten lead times, maximise the ease of transport and reduces the costs. ( Li et al, 2008)However, it is very important to keep the assembly process simple for the customers, or the DFL will not be efficient and customers will not prefer it over the competitors.Klevas (2005) describes the product development as follows:The start-to-end members of a Product development teams are: Product Developer, Purchasing Strategist and Product technicians. Other late involved members are: Supply planners, packaging technician, commercial manager, store support, etc. The product designer defines a design briefing (considering, product presentation, quantities to be packaged, to be sold, etc.), the product technicians can collaborate to further adjustments. The packaging designer only is involved if the product if packaging might be difficult, otherwise, the product technician will consider the packaging solutions. After a prototype is created, it is reviewed and the project can continue or can be cancelled. If the product is given a go, the sourcing process starts as well as risk analysis.Before presenting the final product to the Product council a previous revision is done with people involved in the project.

Image 10. Product Development Process. Klevas (2005)

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Using the e-wheel product designers ensure to respect the environmental values that distinguish IKEA. This wheel applies for all phases of the product’s life cycle

Image 11. (Ikea’s website, n.d)

Production

Swedwood is IKEA’s own subsidiary and produces goods that are not suitable from other suppliers. As found in Swedwood’s official website, the main objective is to provide for IKEA when necessary.Lean Manufacturing techniques have been adapted, Minimising waste when possible( i.e. IKEA uses the waste from one manufacturing process as the resource for another product). Sweadwood has more than 40 Production Units (Kallin, 2009)

The LEAN methodology followed by Swedwood is SWOP (Swedwood Way Of Production) having a Continuous Improvement mentality.

Instead of the new tendencies for production, IKEA manages a push system that seems to work very well because Push systems work better when demand is highly uncertain. Depending on the Seadwood there’s a different Production Structure, but all follow the same Lean Philosophy, normally 3 shifts are used but there can be more if necessary (Kallin, 2009)Since IKEA is environmental conscious, it only uses wood that is certified and legal. To ensure

this, there are forest specialists, tracking the material to its origins.

Packaging

Actually, IKEA maintains a record of the small or big improvements that have been integrated in their processes, called the “Never Ending List”

Klevås (2005) argues that most of the times, the packaging is developed once the product is ready and that limits its efficiency. In more recent years however, some industries (i.e. Food industries) have paid more attention to the need of developing the product along with its packaging.

IKEA has introduced an innovative concept in regards to packaging, translating into savings

for the company as well as for the customer.The flat packaging method was introduced 1956 with the objective of reducing waste of space when transporting the goods and to minimise stock. (Ikea’s website, n.d.).

Originally IKEA intended to have product specialists and packaging specialist, but because of the constant contact between each other, the specialists

cross-trained and they all were “general technicians”, this caused obvious results in the stores where packaging lost some standardization.

So in 1999 the Packaging concept is developed and 3 forums to maintain it:

1. Strategic Packaging Council – Sets strategies that are part of the input for

IMPROVEMENT # 1“We don’t design flat packs to

sell more but to save more. Flat packs mean optimised loads and fewer transports, which reduces emissions. Our use of recyclable

packaging requiring minimal raw material helps, too. Brown

cardboard is one of our best friends – it saves costs and the

environment.”(The never ending List, (Ikea’s website, n.d)

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the business plan. (Vice-Sales managers and retail representatives)

2. Packaging Council – Is the link between the 3 forums. Packaging experts are re-quired as members of this forum. Tech-nical BA packing decisions are made here.

3. Packaging Competence Forum – This is formed by the technicians that discuss any packaging issues on a monthly ba-sis. (Klevas, 2005)

4. INVENTORY/DISTRIBUTION

Inventory and distribution are vital steps of the process, bad inventory or distribution strategies will incur in dramatically company losses.

At IKEA, The information flow, runs directly from the cash registers at the Stores to the closest warehouse and to the Headquarters in Sweden. Then in Älmhult the information is analysed and used to plan the shipping strategy.(Normann and Ramirez, 1993)

The warehouses act as intelligent agents that not only store products, but help to coordinate the logistics process. Warehouses use AS/RS (Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems). All the warehouse processes and procedures are managed by the Warehouse Management System (WSM). It is an IT system used to manage IKEA’s inventory and one of its main objectives is to minimise the time the distribution media is empty. This applies as well as to lift drivers as to the cranes the store the pallets. It is called the interleaving manner. An example of a DC will be given in a simple flow diagram

Image 12. DC Flow diagram. (Harish, 2009)

Harish (2009) also mentions that in order to ensure that the loading processes are the optimal; IKEA records the process on the suppliers’ site and if there are any faulty products, then provides the appropriate feedback.

As described previously, one of the added values in IKEA’s supply chain is that the customer absorbs the distribution tasks by collecting the items directly in the store. IKEA has 28 distribution centres in 16 countries finding the most direct, cheapest and environmentally-friendly supplier-to-customer route as possible. According to Konzelmann et al (2005) IKEA looks for less expensive areas to build their stores where the customers can go and pick up the products themselves.

The distribution strategy must not only intent to move goods from one point to another but to be as efficient as possible controlling all the issues that might affect this performance.Inbound transportation, makes reference to the movement of goods to warehouses and requires the coordination of activities such as selecting the transport mode, times, quantities, etc. (Watson and Pitt, 1993)Outbound transportation is movement of goods to the final destinationIKEA manages primary (inbound) and secondary (outbound) distribution depending on the product and on the proximity of either DCs or Stores.And for customers who don’t have an easy Ch

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access to any store, there’s always the online site, through which customers can order their products.The transports used by IKEA are rail, sea and road and is always trying to minimise the use of road because of its environmental impact (The trains run on renewable energy), so most of the Distribution Centres are closed to the Seaports, but trying of course to be close to the stores as well. The products that move fast can be delivered directly to stores or to DCs when they are nearer than the stores. (Harish, 2009) According to Watson and Pitt (1993) the main factors to IKEA distribution strategy are always trying to keep costs at the minimum and are the following:• Design products that can be packaged saving as much as possible• Package the goods as compact as possible.• Design packages easy to use and to transport

5. CUSTOMER RELATIONS

Good Customer Relations are the key for a business’ success, and they are to be taken in account throughout the entire product life cycle. It implies gathering information on what the customer wants (demand), on how he would like the product to be (design and production) and on how he would like to have access to it (distribution and delivery methods).As mentioned before, IKEA makes the customer a player in the value chain.This player is willing to make a little extra effort by locating the product, picking it up from the warehouse, transporting it, and finally assembling it. In order for this to happen, the benefits of course have to be more significant than the downsides.

That’s when smart IKEA decides to create a whole experience around the shopping activity.

It is true, that very few help personnel can be found in the stores, but information is rather accessible for everyone. The store layouts are engineered to be followed in a specific direction, so the paths are marked down the floor, all the tools needed to ensure that the right product is bought are there: rulers, sheets to write product’s parts and location specifications, pencils, catalogues, even IKEA’s cards that reward frequent buyers with points and a free drink in the restaurant area. It offers, Professional Furnishing Advices in some stores and free of charge.

After the shopping and transportation activity, there’s still left the assembly task.IKEA creates clear straight forward assembly manuals, that instruct the customer step by step. These manuals are found online as well.Kayser (2009) has studied the results of the IKEA effect, finding that the customers add a value to the products they have assembled themselves. For the simple fact of the contribution they’ve made to the furniture. The main benefit nevertheless is the combination quality-price that IKEA offers to its customers. It is very hard for competitors to match these prices that are a result of such an integrated chain. This integration builds really strong relations on every direction and the loyalty is improved.

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CONCLUSIONS

There’s an important remark to discuss: Sweden has a very different view on wealth distribution within its society than other capitalists markets and IKEA is a living exemplification of its sharing mentality. It is indeed a Company proud of its roots, but it makes everyone feel welcomed and happy to be part of the experience.

It is a challenge for any company to reach to a balance point in the Cost/Quality/Time Triangle.Possibly it might not even be every company’s objective, since their strategy might be tackling only one or two of the triangle’s factors. IKEA’s objective though is to accomplish the balance but designing with a price set from the beginning.

The author of this paper has had an ongoing discussion on whether designing for Logistics is beneficial for the rest of the factors, given that the first target is price; there’s a risk that this constrains the design’s creative process or the quality of materials.

It is not clear in any of the references, on how are the trade-offs between these factors handled and how can the balance between them be kept.

Obviously IKEA’s supply chain works, as it is continuously monitoring the effectiveness of its processes, its products, keeps developing its personnel’s skills, its supplier’s skills, always looking for unconventional and original ways of doing things, but the main thing is to never lose the perspective of the customer’s point of view. Because the success of a company is never guaranteed no matter how good the product might be. It is imperative to be aware at all times and constantly ask and absorb every feedback in order to keep the market share, to increase it and to maximise its competitive advantage. If this happens, then IKEA has many years of success to come in the industry

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FURTHER READING

1. GOSS, B., BENFIELD, C., GWILLIM, R., BLISS, M., STROBEL, M., GOTTSCHALG, R., 2009, Large scale evaluation of photovoltaic technologies in different climates, Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2009 34th IEEE [online], vol., no., pp.001418-001421, Available through: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5411305&isnumber=5411118 [Accessed 4 Dic 2010]

2. JONSSON, A., 2008, A transnational perspective on knowledge sharing: lessons learned from IKEA's, Entry into Russia, China and Japan, The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research [online], Vol. 18, Iss: 1, pp. 17-44, Available through: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09593960701778044 [Accessed 4 Dic 2010]

3. JONSSON, A., ELG, U., 2006, Knowledge and knowledge sharing in retail internationalization: IKEA's entry into Russia, The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research [online], Vol. 16, Iss: 2, pp. 239-256. Available through: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09593960600572316 [Accessed 4 Dic 2010]

4. LAULAJAINEN, R., 1991, Two retailers go global - the geographical dimension, The International [online], Available through: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a739433130~frm=titlelink [Accessed 4 Dic 2010]

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