SP 1.4

Titel:

IT-supported supplier evaluation in the meat industry

Scientific Co-ordinator:

Prof. Dr. Achim Spiller Prof. Dr. Ludwig Theuvsen

Institutions involved:

Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Georg-August Universität Göttingen Professorship Marketing of Food and Agricultural Products Professorship of Management in Agribusiness

Staff:

M. Sc. agr. Jan Bahlmann Dipl.-Ing. agr. Cord-Herwig Plumeyer

Aim of the Sub-project:

The research project aims to develop an IT-supported supplier evaluation system for the meat industry, as well as to determine the impact of supplier evaluation on the improvement of the supply chain transparency in animal production systems. In many sectors, software applications for supplier evaluation are integral parts of the quality assurance process. In contrast with other branches, slaughterhouses and processors must deal with many more suppliers. Germany’s slaughterhouses, for example, have a supply base of up to 20.000 hog producers. Furthermore, the supplier structure is multi-levelled and accordingly complex in many cases. With this in mind, a further development of supplier evaluation tools, as well as their integration into sector specific quality assurance processes is needed.

Research:

The research project is divided into six interrelated parts:
Beyond comprehensive literature reviews, the first research step includes a survey of the status quo of the use of supplier evaluation in slaughterhouses and an inquiry into the relevant supplier evaluation criteria. The results of this study will be summarized in a report that will be presented and discussed in a workshop with scientists and representatives of the meat industry.
In the second step, a selection of different existing software applications for supplier evaluation will be scrutinized for their potential usage in the meat industry. The aim of this is a strength-weakness-analysis as a basis for the further development of existing solutions.
The third sub-project is concerned with the question of which synergies exist between widely divergent quality assurance-systems (QS, BRC, IFS, etc.), quality management concepts and systematic supplier evaluation. The results will be summarized in a report.
In the fourth part, an optimized comprehensive concept and adapted software application for supplier evaluation in the meat industry will be developed. Followed by building a specification, in which the antecedent results are summarized, the systematic concept of a supplier evaluation tool which takes sector specific needs into account will be developed[i don't understand]. In close cooperation with participating software-companies, whose existing products, know-how and experience will be incorporated into the work, the architecture of a transparency-increasing software application will be built.
Step five, in response to earlier studies at the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, an instrument to measure transparency in supply chains will be reengineered for the meat industry. The basis for this part will be the identification and operationalisation of transparency determinants in supply chains of the meat industry. Another point of view is the analysis of the meaning of software-based supplier evaluation systems for the transparency in supply chains.
In the last part of sub-project, the developed measurement concept will be applied to selected supply chains of the meat industry in order to investigate the quality of the model and to verify the influence of IT-supported supplier evaluation on the chain-transparency. Besides the final work of the whole project (e.g. workshop) will be performed.

Publications:

Bahlmann, J. und Spiller, A. (2007): DV-gestützte Lieferantenbewertung auf Spotmärkten. In: Böttinger, S., Theuvsen, L. Rank, S. und Morgenstern, M. (Hrsg.): Agrarinformatik im Spannungsfeld zwischen Regionalisierung und globalen Wertschöpfungsketten. Referate der 27. GIL-Jahrestagung, 05.-07. März, Stuttgart.

Bahlmann, J., Spiller, A. (2008): Innovative Lieferantenbewertungsinstrumente zur Steigerung der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der deutschen Schweinefleischproduktion. In: Spiller, A., Schulze, B. (Hrsg.): Zukunftsperspektiven der Fleischwirtschaft – Verbraucher, Märkte, Geschäftsbeziehungen. Universitätsverlag Göttingen, S. 97-130.

Bahlmann, J., Spiller, A. (2008): The Relationship between Supply Chain Coordination and Quality Assurance Systems: A Case Study Approach on the German Meat Sector. In: Fritz, M., Rickert, U., Schiefer, G. (Hrsg.): Innovation and System Dynamics in Food Networks 2008, Proceedings of the 2nd International European Forum on Innovation and System Dynamics in Food Networks, 18.-22. Februar 2008, Innsbruck-Igls, Österreich, im Druck.

Bahlmann, J. Spiller, A. (2008): Wer koordiniert die Wertschöpfungskette? Neue Herausforderungen für die Fleischwirtschaft, in: Fleischwirtschaft, Ausgabe 08/2008, im Druck.

Bahlmann, J., Spiller, A. (2008): Inter-Organizational Information Systems in Meat Supply Chains, to be presented on the Joint Conference of IAALD, AFITA and WCCA, Tokyo, Japan, 24 - 27 August, 2008.

Associated Partners:

QS-GmbH