An analysis of collaboration in a sugarcane production and processing supply chain

Abstract

PurposeSugar from cane remains an important economic contributor in many countries. A lack of collaboration has been identified as a key problem in many of these regions. To date, few sugar researchers have exploited the valuable supply chain collaboration knowledge available in the literature, such as the Supply Chain Collaboration Index (SCCI). This paper seeks to address these issues.Design/methodology/approachQualitative and quantitative data were collected from three sugarcane milling areas. The SCCI was contextualised from a psychological perspective and used in the quantitative data analyses. A special objective was to raise a number of pertinent questions, which would fast track stakeholders to a new level of collaboration.FindingsMany relationships in the supply chain remain relatively positive. The main attributes of concern are stability, reliability, trust, personal relationships and communication. A lack of these attributes causes fragmentation, opportunism and a desire to over‐control. Mutuality and communication are key leverages in the system.Research limitations/implicationsThere is a need to understand how collaboration could be enhanced when stakeholders hold different balances of power. This study is still limited to sugarcane milling in South Africa.Practical implicationsThis paper demonstrates a partially quantitative research methodology to understand collaboration in a food supply chain. The authors also propose a tool to help industry stakeholders to resolve current problems.Originality/valueThe psychological profiling of SCCI attributes and subsequent correspondence analyses is original. A framework of collaboration questions combined with Kepner‐Tregoe Problem Analyses is unique. These tools are generic to any agricultural supply chain.

Collaboration and Sustainable Agri-Food Suply Chain: A Literature Review

“…In addition, related to collaboration behaviour communication becomes the main problem in collaboration, despite the fact that there are other slightly different aspects that need to be concerned. Communication will lead to positive relationship (Bezuidenhout, et al, 2012). In brief, in the future studies, integrated collaboration model that can accommodate all sustainable aspects is potential to be investigates comprehensively.…”

“…The more stakeholders take part in the collaboration system, the more complex the system becomes. The lack of support from stakeholders, insufficient assessment systems, limited information systems, organizational culture, and reluctance to change create obstacles for the application of the collaborative systems in sugar supply chain (Bezuidenhout, et al, 2012). On the other hand, sufficient technology and information are required to support the collaboration.…”

“…Trust, Commitment, and willingness to share risks become the main keys in achieving a long term goal to create strong collaboration (Bezuidenhout, et al, 2012). Unfortunately, encouraging stakeholders to address these characteristics is not an easy task, particularly for food industry that has a complex system (Rota, et al, 2013).…”

Modelling sugarcane supply consistency at a sugar mill

“…These strategies have to be flexible, to allow for everchanging uncertainties (Gaucher et al, 2003;Chen and Paulraj, 2004;Tachizawa and Thomsen, 2007). The strategies that have been used include, amongst others, (a) increasing communication and collaboration between the parties in the supply chain (Gaucher et al, 2004;Lejars et al, 2008;Bezuidenhout et al, 2012b;Sanjika et al, 2012), (b) optimising the length of the milling season (Moor and Wynne, 2001;Wynne and Groom, 2003;Stutterheim et al, 2009), (c) introducing the correct sugar payment system (Wynne, 2001;Todd and Forber, 2005;Lejars et al, 2010), (d) stockpiling Bezuidenhout, 2010;Boote et al, 2013), rearranging harvest scheduling (Muchow et al, 2000;Higgins and Muchow, 2003;Higgins, 2006;Stray et al, 2010Stray et al, , 2012, and (e) new co-ordinated delivery allocation rules (Higgins et al, 2004;Giles et al, 2005;Higgins and Laredo, 2006;Milan et al, 2006;Le Gal et al, 2009) and Bezuidenhout (2013) devised a conservative, yet simple and well-structured analytical process to analyse sugarcane seasons. However, the approach can only be used when analysing historical data.…”

The impact of private label foods on supply chain governance

“…As consumers are becoming increasingly knowledgeable about products and more demanding about price and food quality, organizations have turned to supply chain management in order to ways to create and deliver value to customers as well as reduce cost (Van der Vorst et al, 2009). Successful implementation of supply chain management implies that supply chain participants from fork to farm should cooperate in order to coordinate activities and gain mutual benefits (Bezuidenhout et al 2012;Singh, 2011).…”