The impact of public holidays to the distribution logistics in the paper indus-try. Case: Stora Enso Oyj Imatra Mills

Abstract

The significance of this research study was to investigate the impact of national public holidays in Finland to the distribution logistics in the paper industry. The work was commissioned by Stora Enso Oyj Imatra Mills. The information was gathered from literature sources of journals, articles, books, taken from the internet and by interview-ing experts in the field of logistics and supply chain management. This research was executed by using a qualitative research method. This thesis study as well followed the guidelines of deductive research. The aim of the study was to concentrate to examine the practices of distribution logistics during festive seasons in Finland. The case company of this thesis was an essential part of the study. There-fore, there was a high importance to concentrate to the investigation of the distribution of consumer packing board reels manufactured by Stora Enso Oyj Imatra Mills. The consumer packing board reels are distributed primarily by rail-, road and sea freight, which were the investigated areas of this study. The literature of lean management was used as the theoretical framework of this study. Lean management was utilized in order to outline the theoretical principles of the methodology and to apply them to the gathered empiricism. Based on the gathered data and conclusions made, it was stated that the national public holidays in Finland do have an effect to the overall distribution logistics in the paper industry. Further re-search will be needed if the theme in question would be examined more intensively among other industries.