E-logistics of agribusiness organisations

Logistics is one of the most important agribusiness functions due to the idiosyncrasy of food products and the structure of food supply chain. Companies in the food sector typically operate with poor production forecasting, inefficient inventory management, lack of coordination with supply partners. Further, markets are characterised by stern competition, increasing consumer demands and stringent regulation for food quality and safety. Large agribusiness corporations have already turned to e-logistics solutions as a means to sustain competitive advantage and meet consumer demands. There are four types of e-logistics applications: (a) Vertical alliances where supply partners forge long-term strategic alliances based on electronic sharing of critical logistics information such as sales forecasts and inventory volume. Vertical alliances often apply supply chain management (SCM) which is concerned with the relationship between a company and its suppliers and customers. The prime characteristic of SCM is interorganizational coordination: agribusiness companies working jointly with their customers and suppliers to integrate activities along the supply chain to effectively supply food products to customers. E-logistics solutions engender the systematic integration among supply partners by allowing more efficient and automatic information flow. (b) e-tailing, in which retailers give consumers the ability to order food such as groceries from home electronically i.e. using the Internet and the subsequent delivery of those ordered goods at home. (c) Efficient Foodservice Response (EFR), which is a strategy designed to enable foodservice industry to achieve profitable growth by looking at ways to save money for each level of the supply chain by eliminating inefficient practices. EFR provides solutions to common logistics problems, such as transactional inefficiency, inefficient plant scheduling, out-of-stocks, and expedited transportation. (d) Contracting, a means of coordinating procurement of food, beverages and their associated supplies. Many markets and supply chains in agriculture are buyer-driven where the buyers in the market tend to set prices and terms of trade. Those terms can include the use of electronic means of communication to support automatic replenishment of goods, management of supply and inventory. The results of the current applications of e-logistics in food sector are encouraging for Greek agribusiness. Companies need to become aware of and evaluate the value-added by those applications which are a sustainable competitive advantage, optimisation of supply chain flows, and meeting consumer demands and food safety regulations. E-business diffusion has shown that typically first-movers gain a significant competitive advantage and the rest companies either eventually adopt the new systems or see a significant decline in their trading partners and perish. E-logistics solutions typically require huge investments in hardware and software and skilled personnel, which is an overt barrier for most Greek companies. Large companies typically are first-movers but small and medium enterprises (SMEs) need institutional support in order to become aware that e-logistics systems can be fruitful for them as well

Designing appliances for mobile commerce and retailtainment

In the emerging world of the new consumer and the `anytime, anywhere' mobile commerce, appliances are located at the collision point of the retailer and consumer agendas. The consequence of this is twofold: on the one hand appliances that were previously considered plain and utilitarian become entertainment devices and on the other, for the effective design of consumer appliances it becomes paramount to employ multidisciplinary expertise. In this paper, we discuss consumer perceptions of a retailtainment commerce system developed in collaboration between interactivity designers, information systems engineers, hardware and application developers, marketing strategists, product development teams, social scientists and retail professionals. We discuss the approached employed for the design of the consumer experience and its implications for appliance design

Industry Concentration Impacts on Business Strategies Used by Small Produce Wholesalers

Opportunities for small produce wholesalers are affected by concentration in the supply chain, and availability and use of information technology for cost and service issues. Case studies evaluated perceptions, technology adoption and use, and strategies. Ongoing relationships, contracts and bids were common, and a differentiation strategy was chosen.Agribusiness,

Think Local-Act Local: Is It Time to Slow Down the Accelerated Move to Global Marketing?

In view of the accelerated move of great corporations towards global marketing, the strategic changes of such companies raise interesting questions. Is marketing globalization reaching its limits after years of implementation? Is it time for companies to rethink their strategies and move back, like Coca-Cola, to a multi-domestic marketing approach?Global Marketing, Multi-Domestic Marketing Approach, Brand Equity, Drawbacks of Marketing Globalization, Coca-Cola

Innovation in Marketing Channels

In more recent years, the context of globalization in which market channel structures and strategies are developing is bringing to a more complex concept of marketing channels, with disintermediation or reintermediation, multichanneling and new roles/specializations that are emerging as new issues.In this context, innovation in marketing channels becomes a complex, multiorganizational, multidisciplinary activity that requires collaboration and interactions across various entities within the supply chain network. In recent years, the innovation processes in marketing channels have occurred with high intensity and speed, especially following the changes spurred by technology that allowed the adoption of more efficient organizational solutions.Retail; Channel Structure; Innovation in Marketing Channels; Retail Technological Innovation; Global Markets

CHANGES IN RETAIL FOOD DELIVERY: SIGNALS FOR PRODUCERS, PROCESSORS AND DISTRIBUTORS

This paper contains two chapters related to changes in retail food delivery and sales. The first discusses trends in consumer demographics and lifestyles and how these continue to drive changes in the way food is prepared and delivered to consumers. Retail stores are responding with new formats: providing more ready to eat foods; more convenient store layouts; lower prices and better service in niche markets across the country. Their demands send signals up the food chain to processors and producers that alter their production and inventory decisions. Electronic information technology speeds these changes and leads to more efficient operation with, allegedly, better service for consumers. The second chapter discusses how advances in information technology affect not only the internal business operations in food firms throughout the food supply chain but also how the product flows and how businesses link their processes together. The reengineering of the food supply chain by way of an industry-wide initiative called "efficient consumer response" (ECR) is explained and analyzed for its motivations and implementation, thus far. The many facets of ECR such as product replenishment and promotion are discussed. Lessons learned from ECR include that it is possible to accommodate the coexistence of firms of various sizes and types, and that the role of trade associations in facilitating industry-wide changes is vital and impressive.Agribusiness, Industrial Organization,

Consumer-driven innovation networks and e-business management systems

This paper examines the use of consumer-driven innovation networks within the UK food-retailing industry using qualitative interview-based research analysed within an economic framework. This perspective revealed that, by exploiting information gathered directly from their customers at point-of-sale and data mining, supermarkets are able to identify consumer preferences and co-ordinate new product development via innovation networks. This has been made possible through their information control of the supply-chain established through the use of transparent inventory management systems. As a result, supermarkets’ e-business systems have established new competitive processes in the UK food-processing and retailing industry and are an example of consumer-driven innovation networks. The informant-based qualitative approach also revealed that trust-based transacting relationships operated differently from those previously described in the literature

Critical Management Issues for Implementing RFID in Supply Chain Management

The benefits of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in the supply chain are fairly compelling. It has the potential to revolutionise the efficiency, accuracy and security of the supply chain with significant impact on overall profitability. A number of companies are actively involved in testing and adopting this technology. It is estimated that the market for RFID products and services will increase significantly in the next few years. Despite this trend, there are major impediments to RFID adoption in supply chain. While RFID systems have been around for several decades, the technology for supply chain management is still emerging. We describe many of the challenges, setbacks and barriers facing RFID implementations in supply chains, discuss the critical issues for management and offer some suggestions. In the process, we take an in-depth look at cost, technology, standards, privacy and security and business process reengineering related issues surrounding RFID technology in supply chains

Method of supply chain optimization in E-commerce

Rapid development of technologies and their penetration into all sectors generates a wide range of streamlining of production and trade processes. Electronic commerce is the area in which information and communication technology (ICT) is an essential and indispensable element. It is based on the use of e-commerce systems. An e-commerce system combines several parts consisting of customers, suppliers (sellers, dealers, producers, businessmen, etc.), the web server (web interface), the information system (ERP, CRM, the database system), the payment system, the dispatch system and the legislature itself. All these subsystems must be managed both at the operational level and in terms of the whole e-commerce system. E-commerce systems are tools meant to support the supply chain (SC), the quality of which as well as other parts of the e-commerce system largely depend on management processes representing supply chain management (SCM). The optimal way to ensure the success of SCM is to use the methods of modelling and simulation based on appropriate models and mathematical representation of a real SC. Such models are constructed with the use of process and value-chain oriented approaches or based on the concept of multi-agent systems. Different types of models in conjunction with a suitable mathematical representation allow us to perform the simulation process which outputs can help managers make suitable decisions. The paper aims at presenting contemporary approaches to the supply chain modelling within e-commerce systems. Moreover, the case study emphasized hereby is oriented to present the sample simulation approach in order to find the optimal allocation of resources which are meant to minimize shipping costs.e-commerce system, supply chain, supply chain management, warehouse, allocation of resources