An empirical supply chain measurement model for a national egg producer based on the supply chain operations reference model

Abstract

The management of a supply chain is both an offensive and defensive weapon that organisations can use to increase their competitive edge and capture a larger share of the market. In management science and supply chain management, multi-criteria decision making techniques have been used to solve a range of real-world problems. The problem is that many, if not most, companies in South Africa either do not have the required skills to use these decision-making techniques to improve or re-configure their supply chain, or they do not have a complete data set with which to model it effectively. In order to manage supply chains effectively, organisations at the very least need feedback on the performance of their entire supply chain. In this article, generic supply chain performance measures were used and a theoretical or empirical model was developed for the performance measurement of a national egg producer’s supply chain. It focused on a managerial program for the identification and management of their supply chain with recommendations for applying a measurement model. The overall performance of the supply chain as well as the five different performance attributes was presented to management in a dashboard format. This article could be used as a basis for future studies of supply chain performance measurement and the model could be used as a foundation for developing an improved version, not only for the egg industry, but for other industries as well.