Managing supply uncertainties in supply chain planning—experiences from the food industry

• Purpose: Supply uncertainty is one of the main challenges within the food industry and has a great effect on the food producers delivery performance. Methods such as forecasting, scenario analysis and information sharing are well developed in relation to demand uncertainty. Still the alternative actions to deal with supply uncertainty are little studied. Thus, the purpose here is to explore how supply uncertainty in the food industry is caused and how to manage it through supply chain planning. Methodology: This paper is based on two case studies: one industrial producer of fish products and one industrial producer of beverages. Both companies experience challenges with supply uncertainty in different ways.Findings: It was found that supply uncertainty (quality, quantity, time, and price) was caused by circumstances at the supplier, in the purchasing of raw materials and characteristics of the raw material. Based on the effect of those sources solutions on how to reduce supply uncertainty within supply chain planning were summarized.   Research limitations: The developed framework was based on two case studies of industrial food producers and needs to be further verified.Originality: This study is one of the first that, at a detailed level, explores the connection between supply uncertainty and supply chain planning within the food industry. As such it contributes to the subject areas of food supply chain management and operations planning and control, and provides guidelines for companies in the food industry on how to deal with supply uncertainty

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Samhällsbyggnadsteknik -- Transportteknik och logistik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Civil Engineering -- Transport Systems and Logistics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Food industry

supply uncertainty

supply chain planning

supply sources

mechanism

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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