SMART LOGISTICS
Self-sufficient suppliers
The growth partners The capability of the supply chain or suppliers is a crucial factor when it comes to making or breaking a company’s growth prospects. Hence, to improve the supply chain health of a company, it is important to ensure a self-sufficient supplier base.
Abhijit Upadhye
T
he food service retailer, Foodie’s, is a leader in the informal eating-out category. In order to offer exciting food items to its consumers on a continuous basis and give a boost to sales & profitability, Foodie’s launches a couple of new products every year. Given the close involvement of suppliers in the company’s value chain, suppliers have been an integral part of the new product development process. Rewarding performing suppliers with more business is one of the
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Modern Food Processing | March 2011
core supply chain management philosophies followed by Foodie’s. In 2010, the company had two such successful product launches. The credit for this success was attributed to the company’s strong supply chain. However, Ashok Kumar, Head of the Supply Chain, had experienced several problems due to some incidents that took place during these product launches. Two incidents need to be mentioned here that highlight the significance of healthy supply chain, which are as follows: Incident 1: For one of the launches, one particular existing supplier was entrusted with the task of developing the new product. The