Pork chain management

Objective

The objective of this researcher team is to identify and develop tools for efficient integration and sustainable management within a diversified European production and distribution system.

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Background

The performance of a chain depends on its weakest link. Therefore, chain-wide co-ordination and (quality) management is needed to set up safe and high quality production chains. The challenging part of this researcher team is to apply a multi-disciplinary approach to solve the many complex and diverse problems that confront the European pork industry. The researcher team is focussing on:

Integrated quality management systems
Integrated logistic systems
Sustainable network optimization (including inter-enterprise information systems and governance structures)
Connection of process and product innovations with market demands.

Improvements in chain management issues of the pork production chain are desired because of the following inefficiencies of the European pork industry:

Large differences in quality management systems exist between countries
(i.e. different systems have been developed on national levels, e.g. IKB in The Netherlands and QS in Germany)
Differences in quality management systems related to different stages of the supply chain (i.e. each level of the food chain focusing on specific quality aspects in their link, not taking into account what happens further in the chain).
The quality management approach is uni-disciplinary rather than multi-disciplinary
(i.e. microbiological research into carcass contamination in the processing plant takes no account of consumer behaviour with respect to food storage, preparation, cooking and final consumption) when what is needed is a more holistic and integrated approach.
Distribution (including storage) of pork and pork products throughout Europe is characterised by inefficiencies, such as long transportation distances, leading to losses in product value, high environmental load and low animal welfare.
Many European pork chains are characterised by lack of trust and obscure contracts, leading to sub-optimisation in the chain and loss of customer value.
Existing information infrastructures are fragmented and insufficiently support (cross-) chain logistics optimisation, integrated chain quality management and fork-to-farm traceability.
Innovation in products and processes at the production and processing end of the chain do not match well with differentiated market demands.

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