Performance Improvements through Implementation of Lean Practices: A Study of the U.K. Red Meat Industry

'Lean' is an established industrial paradigm with proven track record in various sectors of the industry (Womack & Jones, 1996). World-class Companies such as Toyota (second biggest global car manufacturer), Porsche (most profitable global OEM), Boeing (largest global aerospace business) and Tesco (third largest global retailer) have adopted Lean at the corporate level. This paper reports on the introduction of 'Lean Thinking' to a new sector - the 'Red Meat Industry' (Food Chain Centre, 2004). This contribution highlights the benefits of lean production techniques in different stages of the red meat value chain and reports 2- 3% potential cost savings at each stage of the chain.Lean process, red meat industry, Takt-time, work standardization, Livestock Production/Industries,

Evolution of the U.K. agri-food supply chains: A systems analysis.

The agri-food industry has great importance to the UK economy while at the same time proven to give rise to significant socio-environmental problems. The UK agri-food chains have faced several crises and undergone extensive change since the 1990s. However, so far, many improvement attempts in this sector have adopted point analysis of single issues rather than a systems view of the interrelated web of concerns. This thesis recognises a lack, of systemic understanding and systemic improvement approacrtes ' within the UK agri-food supply chains and adopts a systems perspective. Therefore, the theoretical background in this thesis is influenced by systems and cognate theories. A review of systems thinking literature is carried out which is subsequently narrowed down focusing on supply chain management and sustainable chain management literature leading to the identification of two gap areas in the body of knowledge. The first gap relates to the improvement of supply chain consumer focus which is identified as a key emerging area in the field of supply chain management. The second gap is about simultaneous improvement of the environmental and economic performance of the UK agri-food chains. The research begins with contextual investigations providing evidence of the misalignment of the UK agri-food chains with the consumer value. Moreover, the contextual research clearly shows that the UK agri- food chains disproportionately pollute the environment and that the existing body of knowledge around the second research gap is in its infancy. The thesis follows by the proposition of a conceptual framework of the evolution of the UK agri-food chain management body of knowledge encapsulating the theoretical propositions of the thesis as well as serving as a guide for the data collection and directing the analyses throughout the thesis. The four rings model of the evolution of the UK agri-food chain management shows how the state of knowledge has evolved in the past and how it should continue to evolve in the future. The rest of the thesis explores and explains how to move the boundary constraints of knowledge within this framework. A multiple case study research strategy is deployed, in line with the research questions posed, the nature of the study and the philosophical approaches underpinning the thesis (the research is argued from a critical realist viewpoint), (enabling the author to develop rich, detailed and contextual knowledge about the UK agri-food chains. In a purposive sample, five case studies have been selected based on the research objectives and in a way to best enable addressing the research gaps. The first research question is addressed through four case studies whereupon significant knowledge is developed about how to improve the consumer orientation of the UK agri-food chains by leveraging the inter- organisational potentials in each case. To that end, a new approach is developed (i.e. the Supply Chain Kano-QFD approach) which is linked to the value stream mapping method. Moreover, the findings of the four case studies are compared and contrasted, and case specific contingencies are discussed. The second research gap is addressed by means of one case study which discusses the challenges ahead in terms of improving the environmental sustainability of the UK agri- food supply chains. The case study challenges the conventional views about the eco- friendliness of the biofuels, provides valuable insights about analysis of the environmental sustainability of the agri-food chains and puts forward key recommendations for future investigation

Identifying the Implications of most Warming Foods: A Pilot Analysis

The new found popular interest in sustainable development is highly skewed towards areas that are politically visible, such as transport and in particular the evils of air travel. This situation is mirrored in the academic community with an explosion of articles on sustainable transport (an EBSCO web search yielded 552 academic references to Sustainable Transport while for example Sustainable Livestock only found less than 10% of that number1). Nonetheless, only 14% of GHG’s actually result from transport, with as little as 2% coming from aviation, against 32% resulting from agriculture and land use – a major part of which can be directly attributed to the food chain (Stern, 2006). Moreover within the food system, certain areas such as livestock production are particularly problematic with meat and dairy products contributing more than 50% of the total GHG’s emitted (Kramer et al, 1999). Another recent study in the UK shows that GHG emissions attributable to meat and dairy consumption are about 4 times more than the GHG emissions generated from fruit and vegetable consumption (Garnett, 2007).Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Industrial Organization,

Sustainable Development and Food Chain Dynamics: A Question of the Ultimate Measure of Sustainability

This paper looks at the socio-environmental sustainability of agri-food systems and addresses the key issue of measuring ‘sustainability’. The paper begins by providing an overview of the environmental impacts of the global agri-food systems especially focusing on the UK. The author generated a comprehensive analysis of the key hotspots within food systems in a previous paper presented at the 2nd International European Forum on Systems Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks in 2008. This article takes the discussion further by looking at the key tools for supply chain environmental measurement and contributes establishing a new measure of sustainable production/consumption

Achieving consumer focus in supply chains

Purpose – Supply chain performance is two-dimensional: efficiency and effectiveness. The purpose of this paper is to further define and explore the demarcation between supply chain effectiveness and supply chain efficiency. Design/methodology/approach – A case-study research method is adopted in this paper. This contribution discusses an approach for the improvement of supply chain effectiveness, i.e. Supply Chain Kano-QFD. Findings – A case-study of the fast moving consumer goods sector is provided which shows how the proposed “Supply Chain Kano-QFD” technique can be deployed to engage the capabilities and enthusiasm of the firms along the chain to enhance the value of the final consumable. Practical implications – “Supply Chain Kano-QFD” is an integrative method which helps drive effectiveness by focusing on how the various supply chain members might jointly develop innovative solutions to create unique, individualized sources of consumer value. Originality/value – A review of the existing supply chain literature shows that there is generally a strong focus on efficiency improvements while little attention is given to enhancing the effectiveness of the supply chain offer. The supply chain management literature, however, should evolve to address relevant methods for achieving consumer focus in the context of the supply chain, i.e. supply chain effectiveness

Performance Improvements through Implementation of Lean Practices: A Study of the U.K. Red Meat Industry

'Lean' is an established industrial paradigm with proven track record in various sectors of the industry (Womack & Jones, 1996). World-class Companies such as Toyota (second biggest global car manufacturer), Porsche (most profitable global OEM), Boeing (largest global aerospace business) and Tesco (third largest global retailer) have adopted Lean at the corporate level. This paper reports on the introduction of 'Lean Thinking' to a new sector - the 'Red Meat Industry' (Food Chain Centre, 2004). This contribution highlights the benefits of lean production techniques in different stages of the red meat value chain and reports 2- 3% potential cost savings at each stage of the chain

Performance Improvements through Implementation of Lean Practices: A Study of the U.K. Red Meat Industry

‘Lean’ is an established industrial paradigm with proven track record in various sectors of the industry (Womack & Jones, 1996). World-class Companies such as Toyota (second biggest global car manufacturer), Porsche’ (most profitable global OEM), Boeing (largest global aerospace business) and Tesco (third largest global retailer) have adopted Lean at the corporate level. This paper reports on the introduction of ‘Lean Thinking’ to a new sector – the ‘Red Meat Industry’ (Food Chain Centre, 2004). This contribution highlights the benefits of lean production techniques in different stages of the red meat value chain and reports 2- 3% potential cost savings at each stage of the chain

Value chain analysis in consumer focus improvement

Purpose – A key vision of tomorrow's industry is creating supply chains which collaboratively strive on enhancing the value to the end-consumer. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the food value chain analysis (FVCA) methodology for improving consumer focus in the agri-food sector based on the lean paradigm, value stream mapping and value chain analysis (Porter, 1985). Design/methodology/approach – This contribution presents a case-study of a UK red meat supply chain explaining how the FVCA method enabled a team of researchers and practitioners to identify the misalignments of both product attributes and supply chain activities with the consumer needs. Findings – This paper explains how the FVCA methodology potentially realigned the processes along the supply chain with the true consumer requirements and why the supply chain effectiveness was improved; this follows with a description of the subsequent efficiency gains from application of the FVCA methodology. Originality/value – This paper further defines the demarcation between supply chain “effectiveness” and “efficiency”. This paper contributes to the debate on the importance of supply chain effectiveness by linking to consumer value at every stage of the supply chain