Differentiated production planning and control in food supply chains

The PhD thesis reports on an empirical and exploratory investigation of the strategic determination of the principles used to guide production planning and control (PPC) in the food sector. Food producers have traditionally focused on offering customers high quality products at low prices, and products are generally made to stock (MTS) to meet customers' delivery lead time expectations. Efficiency in food production is critical and producers have relied on producing in large volumes to keep unit costs down. On the other hand, customers also require producers to respond quickly to changes in the market place. In an attempt to better meet customer requirements, the food sector has adopted more market-oriented principles in the way production is planned and controlled - shifting from the dominant MTS approach to applying more make-to-order (MTO) and combined MTO-MTS approaches. However, which PPC approach to choose in which situation is still unclear. This study therefore investigated how food producers can differentiate their PPC approaches to better meet the requirements for both responsiveness and efficiency. Four research questions (RQs) guided the research: RQ1: What are the characteristics of food supply chains?RQ2: How can PPC be differentiated according to food supply chain characteristics?RQ3: What are the potential benefits of differentiated PPC?RQ4: What are the tactical and operational challenges of differentiated PPC? The RQs were addressed using a design science approach combining literature studies and a case study. The case study was conducted in TINE, Norway's largest producer, distributor and exporter of dairy products. The study was mainly conducted in the period 2010-2013, and analyses were performed and solutions developed in close collaboration with company representatives in order to strengthen the trustworthiness of findings and results. RQ1 found that the market and product characteristics typically require responsiveness from food producers, while producers' production systems are mainly focused on efficiency through exploitation of scale benefits. Thus, there is a lack of strategic fit between the external requirements stemming from product and market characteristics and the capabilities of the production system to enable the required level of responsiveness and efficiency. In order to answer RQ2, a concept for differentiated PPC was developed, consisting of the following principles: Favourable product and market characteristics lik