Assessment Case: Supply Chain at The Good Farm Company
Good Farm Company refers is a poultry processing company based in the Netherlands which is presently operating in a dynamic market. Despite the introduction of a large number of easy-to-prepare and original poultry products, the maximum turnover and revenue of businesses have generated through straightforward poultry products.
The firm has also inclined its products in a particular direction where the supply and demands are properly matched. Moreover, the packaging and labelling process is also addressed as important factors for adding value to the business stakeholders.
The report has mainly comprised the advantages of retail companies regarding the exchange of timely and accurate details based on the promotion of the firm. Moreover, the data flow downstream of the supply chain is also demonstrated in the report.
Advantages for the retailers exchanging promotional information with The Good Farm Company
The poultry supply chain of the company in the Netherlandsfaces the growingdemands from customers in addition to the governmental restrictions regarding quality.
A good firm company specially supplies poultry products that require a good supply chain management with its retailer to maintain the proper business aspects on the growing competitive market.
In this supply chain management of the good firm company, the poultry product’s wings and legs combine with a lean and agile approach, where the use of concepts regarding rationality and decoupling points aimed for distinguishing the manifold supply chain in comparison to the other designs.
The timely data of the suppliers and distributors would also assist the company to identify their variation in demand and supply along with the service pattern delivered to the company (Ertimur & Coskuner-Balli, 2015).
The seasonal demands are also addressed especially which has indicated the advantages of Goal Farm Technology. The sales department of the company has also met with Wings and Legs which has provided the company with an opportunity to gain an effective sales deal.
The poultry processor company produces fresh poultry products such as wings and legs for the market. The company has retail supply centres that deliver or distributes poultry products to outlets seeking supply. Fresh poultry product is typically considered as the commodity products having a low-profit margin.
The demand for the product is varied according to various occasions. That demand raising introduces lots of poultry suppliers on the market. The competition level has been increased a lot. The rate of the product can’t vary much (Cox, et al., 2014).
Firms and retailers focus on other aspects such as packaging cost, quality assurance to maintain the overall cost-effectiveness of the product. But peoples also got a lot of variation on the market, they have many more options for product suppliers. That’s why people generally go for the product having relatively best product quality.
The demand for the product can be suddenly changed due to various issues such as special occasions, demand enhancement due to the outbreak of the animal disease in several areas, etc (East, et al., 2016). Poultry farms require time to prepare the product properly.
Proper preparations help to maintain the quality of the poultry product. It invests time in the processing, packaging, and distribution of the product to keep it fresh and good. Farm prepares the poultry products such as chickens according to the demand got from its retailers.
Retailers are the major guy that directly experience the demand for products on the market. According to people’s interest in the product, they order the products in the firms.
At the age of globalization, the world’s best good farms or companies spread their business in the global market. That increases market competition. Customer prefers to pay more for privileged quality of the product.
To evolve that competition market, the farm has to maintain its product quality along with product freshness, packaging, and suitability. The high demands on the quality, place constrain on the flexibility of the supply chain (Parsons, et al., 2017).
The demand for the daily production of a particular farm fluctuates and the trend of the market can be realized by the retailer’s information. Farm need to plan for 12 weeks for preparing the product’s demand. The 12-week plan includes the reproduction and raising stages of the poultry. So it indicates that the buffering in the supply chain may decline the quality of the product.
If the supply chain and demand for the product goes normal, then the farm can efficiently supply the product to its retailers. Retailer’s sudden demand for the product may enforce the farm to prepare immature products.
To maintain the supply of the emergency periods, the firms often fail to maintain the product quality as previously. It may lack the product packaging and product processing stages.
It provisions retail supply centres that deliver or distributes the poultry products to the individual retail-outlets (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2015). Fresh poultry product is typically considered as the commodity products having low-profit precincts.
This kind of immature product preparation can lead to the decrements of product demands. To overcome these situations retailers may involve directly in exchanging accurate product information about product promotions timely to the good farm company.
The intended and prepared volume can be realized or analyzed by the information of people’s demand and future probability of product selling, provided by the retailers to the company (Cox, et al., 2014).
It becomes tough to handle the sudden changes in demands by the firm, that’s why they have to rely on the market information of the retailers. Otherwise to predefined or fixed demand of products approximately, the firm should focus more on the product advertisement and promotions in the market and to the customer through the retailers (Shams, 2016).
How people are reacting to the promotional activities of the product, that information can be supplied to the firm by the market retailers. If the retailers exchange that information to the good farm company accurately and timely, then they can be able to prepare the right amount products in time with proper quality and they can be able to maintain the supply chain of the products.
Downstream information flow in the supply chain for the company to with demand and use the information to improve performance
The Good Farm Company being a large poultry processor has faced issues in keeping up with the demand of the retailers. The supply chain of the company is designed for fulfilling the requirements of the customers by involving all the parties.
To ensure the match of supply with demand, the poultry company is required to send specific information downstream in thesupply chain. Supply chain management is essential in the company for keeping track of the flow of the poultry products being received from the poultry processer and transferring the same to the retailers based on demand(Brindley, 2017).
SCM is given utmost importance in the company for maximising the value of the customers through the supply side activities and maintain quality to gain competitive advantage.
It is essential to ensure the flow of capacity information downstream the supply chain so that the suppliers canconvey the anticipated demand of the poultry in advance for enabling the poultry processor to make adequate arrangements as the chickens take time to grow and fatten.
The information decoupling point in the supply chain of the company indicates the position of the products in the pipeline in correspondence to the demand penetration point(Chaabane, et al., 2012).
The company is presently unable to match the supply with demand due to the inability of the supply chain of the company to work as per the agreements made by the sales team due to the lack of knowledge of information about the promotional activity.
Therefore, the downstream flow of information in the supply chain of the poultry company involving the poultry processer would be to convey the promotional information and the forecast of future sales for estimating demand.
Capabilities information of the poultry processor should also be informed to the broiler houses so that they can accommodate the chickens sent for being processed for distribution. The yield information of the hatchery and the broilers is also required to be sent to the poultry processor for preparing them in advance about the supply of chickens.
Also, the suppliers would be aware of the capacity and yield and would promote accordingly for being able to keep up with the demand and preserve product quality.
The demand of the poultry products for the company is variable due to the heavy use of promotions by the retail companies, which creates a sudden surge in demand for the poultry company.
For enabling The Good Farm Company to match the supply of the poultry products in response to the demand in a more efficient way, the retailers would be required to pass on the information of promotional activities downstream to the supply chain of the company to the poultry processor.
This would improve the predictability of the demand for poultry products and the poultry processor would be able to take adequate measures for enhancing the production efficiency.
Information sharing is of utmost importance in a supply chain as it facilitates the coordination among the parties were involved in the supply chain to maintain the efficiency of the entire process and benefiting the production by reducing the inventory(Christopher, 2016).
To enhance the coordination between the organisational departments and keeping the supply following the demand it is essential for the accurate flow of information among the members who are involved in the supply chain.
The production of poultry products in the company along with the scheduling and control of inventory is directly affected by the flow of information, which affects the plan of delivery of the products(Dekker, et al., 2013).
The case of demand distortion is evident from the case study of The Good Farm Company as they face a larger variance in demand of the poultry products than the retailers do. This causes a variance application because of the bullwhip effect as the suppliers being the poultry company, in this case, is affected with a larger variance in terms of demand.
The lead-time is important as it indicates the turnaround of inventory. The poultry process when let known about the advertising and upcoming demand ids required to share the same information with the broilers and hatcheries for ensuring that they reduce the lead lime of poultry.
The lead-time of 18 hours to 2 days for the distributions and some hours for the retailers to sell the products is to be conveyed to the broilers for increasing their capacity.
The change in demand at the upstream level initiates the action of sourcing chicken from other suppliers by the poultry processor for sending to the distributors.
The flexibility of production in the supply chain of the poultry company is low due to utilisation of the capacity of the facility fully(Dubey, et al., 2017). The increase in demand for the poultry products is required to be informed 12 weeks before the poultry processor as they would require to create a source for the supply of chicken from the suppliers being integrated vertically.
This is because 12 weeks is the minimum reading time for growth and fattening of the chickens, which would otherwise compromise with the quality of the chicken due to the inadequate time of buffing up.
The information about promotions and search in demand has to be provided that much earlier to the downstream supply chain of the company for enabling them to undertake the strategy of lean operations in the supply chain for enhancing the efficiency of delivery.
Any disruption in the supply chain is to be conveyed to the manufacturers for shaping the promotions to regulate demand. The information about the input cost is to be conveyed by the suppliers to the manufacturers for setting the final price for the distributors and retailers.
However, the quality parameters and weight characteristics are to be conveyed by retailers and distributions to the poultry processor and further downstream to the broilers.
The integration of information in the supply chain of the companies results in enhanced forecasting abilities in the downstream channels which increases the efficiency of aggregate planning in addition to scheduling and inventory management(Fernie & Sparks, 2014).
Integrated information facilities the supply chain benefits to plan their workforce in addition to recruitment and layoff decisions based on the aggregate planning for determining the capacity of production and maximize profit. Integration of information would enhance the customer responsiveness of The Good Farm Company for enabling them to enhance their performance.
Integrated information exchange in the supply chain of the company would result in the coordination of downstream activities to comply with the total demand generated through the promotions(Chaabane, et al., 2012).
The decisions regarding the product assortment of the retailers also require to be communicated with the poultry processor in an earlier stage for providing adequate time to prepare.
A middle term tactical information management scheme is to be initiated in the company for managing the packaging and labelling of the products to preserve the quality and meet the demands efficiently through initial postponement.
From the report, it is analysed that the exchange of more accurate information about the promotions with the Good farm Company promptly would be advantageous for the retail companies.
This is because the supply chain of the company would be prepared to handle the surge in demand for the products based on the type of promotions that have been applied.
Information regarding the promotional activities of the retailers in addition to the discounts in pricing should flow downstream the supply chain of the poultry company for better preparing the poultry processor to meet the demand efficiently by complying with the quality standards.
The company would be able to enhance their performance, as the supply chain would be prepared in advance to handle the increase in demand and increase the stock.
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