Insourcing of recycling activity in a lead-acid car battery company

The research described in this thesis can be defined as the proposition of insourcing plan to the Colombian lead-acid car battery manufacturer, “Baterias Willard”. The purpose of the project was to determine how the lead-recycling in-house would change the current status of the enterprise. From the theoretical point of view, the mentioned analysis includes introduction of the terms such as closed-loop supply chain, recovery processes, as well as basic information about the issues one company might be facing when adopting insourcing scenario. The previously stated theoretical concept is followed by the section where crucial facts about company environment were pointed out. Industry and market characterization, as well as information regarding the company’s current manufacturing process and supply chain configuration were presented, giving the reader a clear insight into the current state of “Baterias Willard”. The central part of the project describes how insourcing of lead recycling would affect the enterprise regarding the supply chain configuration, but also introduces statistical models which enabled the forecasts for future demands of lead-recycling. Finally, the research was concluded with an economic assessment of the insourcing plan and a sensitivity analysis which shows how beneficial the proposal is in the long run. The very end of the thesis is consisted of set of recommendations which could potentially help the company improve their overall performance.