Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
perishable products suffer from risk of quality degradation. Storage, handling, trans-
port, and distribution conditions have a strong impact on freshness and shelf-life of
the produce. The common strategy for dealing with the variability in quality is tailor-
ing the supply chain towards 'average' quality. This might not be the most effective
approach, since variability can also be strategically exploited through flexible man-
agement of quality differences for specific market outlets. Instead of homogenizing
product quality in the chain, we advocate differentiation of product flows based
upon the batch quality at different stages in the AFSCN. This might improve chain
revenues via improved product quality on retailer shelves and/or improved matching
of supplied products at a certain price to specific market segments. Batches of high
quality could be sent to different market segments with higher added value.
Quality Controlled Logistics (QCL) makes use of variation in product quality,
developments in technology, and heterogeneous needs of customers, and the pos-
sibilities to manage product quality development in the distribution chain. QCL
can be defined as that part of supply chain management that dynamically plans,
implements, and controls the efficient, effective flow and storage of food products,
services, and related information between point of origin and point of consumption.
The goal is to meet customers' requirements with specific attention to the availabil-
ity of specific product qualities in time by using real-time product quality informa-
tion in the logistics decision process. QCL starts with obtaining detailed knowledge
on customer requirements in the different market segments (Table
14.1
). At the
harvest stage, products are collected and characterised based on variation in quality
attributes. For example, due to sun light exposure apples or mangos on the outside
of the tree have different quality attributes compared to products inside the tree, or
between the sun-side and the shade-side of the tree. QCL makes use of the qual-
ity distribution profile of each batch by matching them with customer demands
for specific products and the price that is paid for each batch. Instruments for this
approach are to either redirect the goods flows to other markets/consumer groups
or to influence the quality level of the products by changing, for instance, storage
time, temperature or gas atmosphere (for instance during long term apple storage or
modified air packaging of fresh cut fruits or vegetables).
In order to put the QCL concept in practise we identified the following six ele-
ments based (Van der Vorst et al.
2011
):
a. Consumer Preferences and Acceptance Period of Product
Quality Attributes
This element refers to (1) the quality attributes that consumers prefer as well as the
target values of each attribute, and (2) the acceptance period (AP; Schouten et al.
2007b
). The AP refers to the time period consumers find all attributes of a prod-
uct acceptable. By consumer research it becomes possible for a specific consumer
group to determine the limits of acceptability for the specific quality attributes like
color and firmness or taste. If this is known it becomes possible to aim for these
specific characteristics for the products in retail shelves.
