Improving supplier collaboration and order cycle efficiency: the Aspiag Service S.r.l. case

In today’s increasingly complex and competitive environment, strengthening supplier relationships and improving order cycle management have become critical levers for supply chain efficiency. This thesis, developed in collaboration with Aspiag Service S.r.l., concessionaire of the Despar brand in several Northern Italian regions, explores how aligning internal logistics practices with supplier requirements can generate measurable operational improvements. The AS-IS analysis highlights several challenges: pallet misalignments between Aspiag and suppliers, leading to repalletization and additional handling; persistent warehouse saturation and supplier-imposed constraints such as minimum order quantities, discount thresholds, or pallet modules. These inefficiencies point to the need for a structured framework capable of integrating supplier collaboration with warehouse optimization. Based on this assessment, a TO-BE model is proposed through a step-by-step action plan including assortment streamlining, pallet height alignment, layout interventions, and a review of reordering methods. The results demonstrate that even targeted interventions (although applied to a limited number of SKUs) can deliver significant benefits in pallet efficiency, warehouse saturation, and operational costs.