DAIRY SUPPLY CHAIN

Dairy Supply Chain Assignment



Dairy Supply Chain Assignment

Introduction

This assignment is based on studying the competitive and supply chain contexts of a dairy business in the United Kingdom. For the purpose of this assignment, we have chosen Britain's leading dairy company “Robert Wiseman Dairies”. It is one of the most defined and prominent diary units in Britain, which is a supplier to thousands of liters of milk on a regular basis, to the residents of the city. Robert Wiseman Dairies Robert Wiseman Dairies PLC is a United Kingdom-based company. The Company, along with its filial companies, is principally engaged in processing and distribution of milk and associated products. Robert Wiseman, headquartered in Scotland, has seven plants in the United Kingdom and provides one third of the fluid milk market in the country.

The Company Operates from seven processing diaries in Aberdeen, East Kilbride, Glasgow, Manchester, Dritwich Spa, Okehampton and Bridgwater. Its filiales include Robert Wiseman & Sons Limited, Robert Wiseman Property Limited, Robert Wiseman Property Holdings Limited, Robert Wiseman Property Investments Limited, The Devon Dairy Company Limited and Robert Wiseman Leasing Limited. Its brand names include One, Pure, Shock, Puriti, and FRESH'N'LO. In this assignment, we will cover Robert Wiseman Dairies' competitive context in detail; evaluating upon chain map of the unit, its relationship with different players of the market along with assessing the risk management schemes currently being employed by the firm.

Discussion and Analysis

Supply Chain is a complex system of interrelated business units, covering the entire process of converting raw materials into finished products and deliver these products to the consumer. A supply chain consists of links that may belong to a single organization, as well as various contractors (suppliers, distributors). Thus, it can be argued that today's large enterprises of the dairy industry represent the entire supply chain, or include a few links of the supply chain (e.g. production and distribution). Such a complex organization requires a new approach to management - synchronized control of all units and elements of the supply chain (materials, suppliers, production facilities and resources, products, stores, warehouses, distribution centers, transportation, customers) taking into account the linkages between them and the constraints (Bovet & Sheffi, 1998, 14-22). Therefore, the leading role in the functions of supply chain management is planning. Planning throughout the supply chain gives us huge advantages over competitors:

High level of customer service (forecasting market demand and responsiveness to, the execution of orders accurately and on time prediction of the actual timing of orders, and reducing the time of order execution)

Efficient use of existing capital assets, reducing stock levels of inventory and work in progress, accelerate turnover

Reducing costs throughout the supply chain and reduce production costs

Transparency in all supply chains, the ability to anticipate deviations and promptly make good management decisions in a changing environment, ie shift from passive to active management (Bowman, 1997, 88-90).

Dairy industries play a prominent role in the agro-based economies, while encompassing various vulnerabilities in its entire supply ...