Title: Milk supply chain and development strategy

Authors: Tzong-Ru Lee, Huei-Ling Huang, Bing-Wen Huang, Shiou-Yu Chen

Addresses: Professor of Marketing Department, Chairman of Institute of Electronic Commerce, National Chung-Hsing University, 250 Kuokuang Road, Taichung, Taiwan, ROC. ' Department of Horticulture, National Chung-Hsing University, 250 Kuokuang Road, Taichung, Taiwan, ROC. ' Department of Applied Economics, National Chung-Hsing University, 250 Kuokuang Road, Taichung, Taiwan, ROC. ' Department of Shipping and Transportation Management, National Taiwan Ocean University, 2 Pei-Ning Road, Keelung, Taiwan 20224, ROC

Abstract: For milk Supply Chain Management (SCM), there exists a tough problem, which is specific to Asian countries, especially Taiwan, that is seasonal fluctuation demand effect. Therefore, when the weather becomes cooler, the sales of milk will decrease substantially and the |over supply problems| will show up. In practice, little is known about how to solve this problem. This study attempts to adopt the SCM prospective to examine the tiers of the milk supply chain where the mismatched situation exists and then find out what reasons cause the gap between the demand and supply from the retailers| and consumers| perception. After collecting the information, this study then provides some workable suggestions. On the basis of the empirical results, two strategies |increase product variety and sales channels| are proposed to solve the tough problem of the milk supply chain.

Keywords: milk supply chains; supply chain management; SCM; seasonal fluctuation demand effect; over-supply problems; retailers; consumers; development strategies; marketing strategies; Taiwan.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2007.012139

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2007 Vol.3 No.2, pp.227 - 244

Published online: 24 Jan 2007 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article