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The purpose of this paper is to find out possible barriers of information technology (IT) applications in the supply chain system of sugar industry in India. All these barriers have their strategic importance for serving the supply chain partners in better way and also help in improving the Indian agrarian economy. The study is a blend of theoretical and practical frameworks, which would focus on those key factors or IT barriers leading to implementation of IT in the sugar supply chain.

The paper is based on theoretical exploration of potential barriers IT applications in the supply chain system of sugar industry in India and prioritizing these barriers by employing multi-criteria decision-making approach.

The findings of this paper are identification of barriers of IT applications in the supply chain system of sugar industry in India, and ranking of these barriers in terms of its severity.

Potential barriers of IT applications in the supply chain system of sugar industry in India considered in to the study are 11 in total. There can be more barriers of IT applications in the supply chain system.

This study reveals the application of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy AHP to Indian sugar industry for prioritizing the IT barriers which influence the sugar supply chain.

This paper aims to evaluate the collaboration quality performance of sugar company Z and its stakeholders (farmers and distributors) by considering the sustainability aspects. This assessment shall be able to integrate qualitative and quantitative factors in the model, which is critical in sugar supply chains involving multi-stakeholders.

Integration of quality function deployment (QFD), the fuzzy analytical network process (FANP) and the data envelopment analysis (DEA) is administered to assess the efficiency score of each stakeholder involved. The evaluation encompasses collaboration behaviour factors since the input of collaboration activities will result in sustainability aspects such as revenue, green house gas (GHG) emissions and social impact. The analysis has been conducted in two scenarios, those are the basic scenario by utilising original data and the extended scenario by using projection data.

The result clarifies that the most influential behaviour factor in the collaboration activities is commitment (0.116), while the least important behaviour factors are power (0.008) and adaptation (0.008). Furthermore, by using the extended scenario, the overall efficiency for each benchmarking is higher compared to the condition before the improvement (basic scenario).

The result of this study is only relevant to the particular sugar supply chain and involving limited sustainability variables. Therefore, in a further study, more variables such as technical and financial aspects could be explored further in the assessment process.

The result of this study is available for each stakeholder and can be fundamental for the constant improvement in sustainable supply chain (SSC) practices. It shows that an improvement of one stakeholder will positively impact the entire system.

Smallholders and sugarcane farmers will recognise the significance of collaboration behaviour. Thus, they can enhance their mutual benefits by using the existing resources.

This paper arranges for a practical contribution by implementing advanced assessment methods in the sugar supply chain by taking into account the economic, environmental and social aspects. This comprehensive assessment process in the sugar supply chain is the novelty of this paper.

Sugar 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.

Qualitative 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.

Many 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.

There 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.

This 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.

The 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.

Not many researchers have attempted to numerically quantify a supply chain’s degree of leanness or agility. Although focusing predominantly on food, the purpose of this paper is to propose a simple and universal methodology to quantify the degrees of leanness and agility at any point within any supply chain.

Daily processing capacities of stochastic model runs and real supply chain data were projected onto a standardized Euclidean surface. Indexes that calculate, amongst others, the agility, leanness, baseline production and ceiling conditions were derived.

The indexes were often well correlated across the various supply chains. Leanness correlates negatively with agility, as can be expected, however, these attributes do not stand opposed to each other. Most supply chains seem to exhibit both lean and agile attributes simultaneously. Sugar, various types of tomatoes, avocado and onion supply chains are discussed and compared. Although a large amount of data were analysed, there exists an opportunity to widen this study significantly.

This paper presents a unique and simple approach to quantify the degree of supply chain leanness and agility. Although these terms are often used, only a few authors have made attempts to quantify these attributes and in most cases the approaches are relatively cumbersome. The relatively simple indexes create an opportunity for supply chain management to measure, evaluate and communicate their strategies along the supply chain and between different chains.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an instrument to evaluate the collaboration quality of sustainable supply chains by considering collaboration behaviour and sustainability factors.

The proposed model integrates Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Fuzzy Analytical Network Process (FANP) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to assess the efficiency score of each stakeholder involved. A case of a sugar company in Indonesia was analysed as the illustration of the application of the model.

The integrated QFD-FANP-DEA method enables to incorporate collaboration behaviour and sustainability factors in a single assessment model. The results of the case study showed the benchmarking results associated with the performance variance of stakeholders and the number of samples.

Future research could consider other DEA approaches, extend the research by simulating a different number of scenarios and evaluating the improvement/deterioration, and expand the scope of collaboration.

Each stakeholder will be able to obtain the collaboration assessment results, and the improvements suggested by the model.

Smallholders and farmers will be able to increase their benefits by using the existing resources.

This paper provides a methodological contribution by introducing new collaboration quality assessment methods that can accommodate any variance in multi-stakeholders, involve qualitative and quantitative measurements, and benefit all stakeholders.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the viable system model (VSM) as a valuable tool to the food industry. A sugarcane supply chain was used to evaluate VSM's applicability to the food industry by exploring how VSM can help to understand its complexity.

VSM and qualitative research methods were combined in an interactive manner to produce a VSM diagnosis.

The VSM diagnosis highlighted that while continuity of the system is not at risk, many improvement opportunities exist. For example, the local mill management lacks autonomy, essential operational measurement cannot be realised, coordination is deficient and a vision or identity for the mill area and a joint effort to engage in strategic considerations is missing. Miller-grower fragmentation surfaced as one cause of these shortcomings.

Although VSM revealed shortcomings, it was unable to facilitate interventions for improvement. VSM's capacity in dealing with shortcomings should be strengthened and the merit of VSM in other food-related supply systems should be investigated.

Millers and growers need to become genuine partners and work jointly on the issues that challenge the system to realise the full potential that is embedded in the system.

VSM has not been applied in the sugar industry context and the amount of researches that explore sugarcane supply chains holistically is limited.

The purpose of this paper is to revisit the growth mechanism of Indian sugar industry by deploying quantitative and qualitative metaphors.

The research paper has been composed through comprehensive primary research survey using a structured questionnaire, and qualitative discussion following semi- structured interviews with industry professionals on emerging issues across the whole value chain of sugar industry. Respondents regarding primary survey were selected using the purposive sampling, and this collected quantitative information has been verified on the lenses of multiple stream modelling (MSM).

To support the data analysis, MSM – a policy-making framework has been developed which found that government being a central construct exerts a profound presence across whole value chain; in suppliers’ mechanism, marketing of sugar and sugar mills’ infrastructural expansions. Nationwide uniformity in sugar policy instead of states’ monopolistic policies, rational and mutual benefits-based decisions collectively by the government, mills management and sugarcane growers, and diversification in production processes are enumerated as the proposed solutions against the chronical industry problems.

This study enriches extant Asian sugar industry literature. For policymakers, the proposed results should be of help in identifying specific policies to support the competitiveness of local systems and individual manufacturing companies in the Indian sugar industry suggesting that the development of growth mechanisms can contribute simultaneously to improve the financial, market and operational performance of both individual firms and supply chains.

Cyclicality in production, rising sugarcane farmers’ problems and resulting severe financial distress of mills are some of the topical issues of Indian sugar industry, and the study has explored these issues factually, quantitatively and qualitatively in proximity of industry professionals and described in this depository with the help of document analysis.

The United States (US) sugar program protects domestic sugar farmers from unrestricted imports of heavily-subsidized global sugar. Sugar-using firms (SUFs) criticize that program for causing US sugar prices to be higher than world sugar prices. This study examines the financial performance of publicly traded SUFs to determine if they are performing at an economic disadvantage in terms of accounting profitability, risk and economic profitability compared to other industries.

Firm-level financial accounting and market data from 2010 to 2019 were utilized to construct financial metrics for publicly traded SUFs, agribusinesses and general US firms. These financial metrics were analyzed to determine how SUFs compare to their agribusiness peer group and general US companies. The comprehensive financial analysis in this study covers: (1) accounting profit rates, (2) drivers of profitability, (3) economic profit rates, (4) trend analysis and (5) peer comparisons. Quantile regression analysis and Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney statistics are employed for statistical comparisons.

Regarding various profitability and risk measures, SUFs outperform their agribusiness peers and the general benchmark of all US firms in terms of accounting profit rates, risk levels and economic profit rates. Furthermore, compared to other US industries using the 17 French and Fama classifications, SUFs have the highest return on investment and economic profit rate―measured by the Economic Value Added® margin―and the second-lowest opportunity cost of capital, measured by the weighted average cost of capital.

This study finds nothing to suggest that the US sugar program hinders the financial success of SUFs, contrary to recent claims by sugar-using firms. Notably in this analysis is the evaluation of economic profit rates and a series of robustness techniques.

The subject area of the case is operations management and capacity planning. The case adopts different operation strategies to use the idle capacity.

The case study is suitable for discussion in masters level classes. The case explains the situation of a company which is fighting for its survival. The case reveals the alternative operations strategies it applies to maximize its capacity utilization and reduce its costs.

The case describes a paper producing company which is earning low margins. The company’s capacity remains unused during the off-seasons. The company then plans to share its capacity with another dying industry. Both the companies plan to cooperate and share resources. However, there are other attractive alternatives too and the dilemma situations leave the gap for continuous discussions.

The case aims at providing potential alternatives to the students and initiating healthy discussions. The students will be able to understand the capacity utilization dilemmas and applicability of the operations strategy concept in practice.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 9: Operations and Logistics.

Consumer confidence in the European food industry has been shaken by a number of recent scandals due to food fraud and accidental contamination, reminding the authors that deliberate incidents can occur. Food defence methods aim to prevent or mitigate deliberate attacks on the food supply chain but are not a legal requirement. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how proactive and reactive food defence practices can help prevent or mitigate malicious attacks on the food chain and also food fraud, food crime and food safety. The authors look at how food defence differs from food safety and how it contributes to food supply chain integrity.

Food defence has been the focus of two different EU FP7 security projects, EDEN and SNIFFER. Food industry stakeholders participated in workshops and demonstrations on food defence and relevant technology was tested in different food production scenarios.

Food industry end-users reported a lack of knowledge regarding food defence practices. They wished for further guidelines and training on risk assessment as well as access to validated test methods. Novel detection tools and methods showed promise with authentication, identification, measurement, assessment and control at multiple levels of the food supply chain prior to distribution and retail.

The prevention of a contamination incident, prior to retail, costs less than dealing with a large foodborne disease outbreak. Food defence should therefore be integral to food supply chain integrity and not just an afterthought in the wake of an incident.

It is argued that food defence practices have a vital role to play across the board in unintentional and intentional food contamination incidents. The application of these methods can help ensure food supply chain integrity.