Linda Whicker
BSc in Production Engineering & Management. PGC(H)ERoom: A75 NB (unused)
Tel: +44 (0) 115 66690
Email: linda.whicker@nottingham.ac.uk
Current Status: Registered
Year of Registration: 2004
Expected Completion Date: /09/2010
Primary Funding Source:
Funded by Business School
Research Topic:
To assess the value of a better understanding of supply chain time and cost information in the food industry
Research Details:
Assuming the SCTCM (previous work) provides information about supply chain time and cost, the following questions are propose: 1.What types of decisions do logistics managers make in the food industry?
2.What information in the form of criteria or knowledge are these decisions based on? 3. What information about supply chain time and cost did the SCTCM provide? 4. How are they measuring the better decisions? 5. How have the better decisions resulted from this additional information? Based on the outputs of the original project work and the literature, the following propositions can be derived: 1. A better understanding of supply chain time and cost in the food industry can enable logistics managers to make better decisions (SUCCESS project is one way to achieve this). 2. Traditional functional boundaries will be overcome during the pursuit of the SUCCESS Project and this will enable a greater visibility of supply chain time and cost information. Outcomes: This addresses the question about what is being achieved. This research should provide an insight into the contribution of supply chain time and cost information to logistics decision-making in the following ways: 1. To improve decision-making processes as a result of a superior knowledge of the supply chain metrics that are involved in the business. 2.To provide greater visibility of where the costs are incurred along the supply chain. The research design follows a longitudinal study. The original SUCCESS research was performed during 2001-2004; this research is carried out in 2006 with the same participating companies and case study participants (the same as is possible given that some of the original participants have left the companies). Generally, a sufficient number of members of individual case study projects have remained in the companies for the follow-up research to provide reliable evidence. It is indicated in the cases if any members of the original team have left and how many. Semi-structured interviews are used to collect the majority of the data as well-informed respondents can provide important insights into the situation. The interviewer is looking for corroboration of certain facts that have been previously determined. An interview guide has been compiled and is shown on page 6.
Case selection; The companies that participated in this research had previously been part of the SUCCESS project. The interviewees all had a willingness to share samples of costing data and process data. The cases were selected based on the following criteria: The availability and accessibility to information. High frequency of production of product(visibility). High volume demand (visibility). Product maturity (stability). Convenience in terms of location. Case selection for this research will include all of the following: A key contributor to original research, Norman Wilson, Director of a /supply Chain Management Consultancy, previously Logistics manager at Masterfoods, who works in the industry. Masterfoods employees who participated in Success research and who are still at the company. Bernard Matthews employees who participated in Success research and who are still at the company.Ex-MSc student who applied the SCTCM to IGLO Austria frozen food company during summer 2006. CurrentTeaching: Module convenor for N1A814, N1C810 and N1DC22 modules
Research Supervisor/s: James Tannock
Division: Operations Management and Information Systems