The paper identifies the improvement initiatives for enhancing the fresh food retail supply chain performance w.r.t. time, cost, quality, customer service and profitability. To identify the critical initiatives, a thorough analysis of the literature followed by validation in two fresh food retail supply chains were carried using a case-based approach. Data were collected by conducting the semi-structured interviews among the senior executive selected using snowball sampling technique and responses were analysed using manual coding followed by validating through a text mining software. The VantagePoint software identified the probable relationships amongst the initiatives and with the performance measures. It also clustered the initiatives and identified their strength of relationships. Cross-case syntheses of two ‘farm to fork’ models were facilitated in developing the research propositions. The study presents a comprehensive framework of initiatives comprising of supplier and customer related initiatives along with a unique and prominent initiative in food, i.e., product and process initiatives.

https://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/IJSOM.2021.119804

Author(s): Rose Antony, Vivekanand B. Khanapuri, Karuna Jain
Organization(s): National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies
Source: International Journal of Services and Operations Management
Year: 2021