Purpose: The purpose of this research is to analyze the CDP-method in order to develop and refine the method. The method is developed and presented in Bäckstrand (2012), with the aim to strengthen the competitiveness of manufacturing companies. Someone outside of the development context has never, until now and to the researchers knowledge, refined the method.

Methodology: A multiple case study with four companies where used. The empirical data collected within the study where used to evaluate the CDP-method and to refine the method. The presented improvement is based on the empirical data and conceptual models developed from theory.

Findings: Three improvements were developed. The first of them changed step 8 of the method, the second can´t be tied to a single step and is therefore an overall suggestion, whereas the third provides a new type of analysis within step 6 of the method.

Research limitations: The research was conducted at companies where the CDP-method was already implemented. An implementation at a new company could possibly reveal another type of empirical data, which could be interpreted in a different way. The researchers have also detected areas that couldn’t be investigated within this research, these are identified and left for further research.

Theoretical implications: Results from this thesis connect the classification of supply risk by Kraljic (1983) with supply chain strategy by Fisher (1997) to enable a new type of analysis. Furthermore, theory within the standardization and over-specification (e.g. Burt, Petcavage & Pinkerton, 2010; Geldeman & van Weele, 2002) is introduced and incorporated in the CDP-method. A third implication is a reinforced focus on strategy in combination with the CDP-method, which is based on theory regarding strategic alignment (e.g. Gattorna & Walter, 1996; Hines, 2004).

Managerial implications: The new analysis should, together with the CDP-method as a whole, strengthen adopting companies supply chain and improve internal and external communication.

Originality/value: This thesis provides a new set of analysis in the CDP-method that could benefit practitioners.

Purpose – The purpose of this thesis is to develop a total cost model for container transports and create a tool that calculates a suitable transport quantity from an economic view, which fulfills the demands on delivery service. To achieve this purpose the following questions will be answered:

1. Which costs are affected by the decision between the two transport alternatives LCL and FCL?  
2. How does the decision of sending product LCL or FCL influence the delivery service? 
3. How can a tool be constructed to simplify the decision-making process regarding the choice of sending products LCL or FCL? 

Method – A total cost model was developed. This model is supported from existing literature. This model has then been transformed into a tool through an implementation of the theoretical total cost model on the company observed in the case study. During the literature review the authors sought for theoretical results for the question about the transported quantity´s effect on delivery service, this was later compared to the results from the case study.

Findings – The developed total cost model contains six cost components. During the implementation the cost components were evaluated concerning their impact of the situation. Only costs that had a high influence on the situation were implemented in the total cost tool. These costs were: Transportation- and inventory carrying costs. The literature review and the case study showed that LCL has a negative effect on delivery service, compared to FCL.

Research limitations/implications – The findings in this thesis are based on an implementation of the theoretical results on only one company. The tool can still be generalized to companies with similar distribution setup. Further research could strive to include the other cost components in the tool. 

Practical implications – The tool assists in the decision-making situation regarding LCL or FCL. By balancing transportation cost with inventory carrying costs a suitable transport quantity is presented trough an economic point of view. This quantity takes the requested delivery service in consideration.      

Originality/value – The total cost model that is presented in this thesis is, as far as the authors know, the first in its kind. No other total cost model has an outspoken goal to describe the impact of LCL or FCL in a total cost perspective.