Managing a sustainable and resilient cheese supply chain for the dynamic market

Purpose: Cheese has a long production time, but is as perishable as other fresh food. If it is not delivered to customers in time, it does not have value any more. Any product shortage causes customers to seek alternative sources. To manage a sustainable and resilient cheese supply chain for the dynamic market, participating stakeholders need to collect, share, and use the right data for decision-making, especially when the supply chain faces a product shortage. Design/methodology/approach: A system dynamics simulation is applied to study a supply chain with three tiers: a producer, a logistics service provider (LSP), and a retailer. Seven balanced feedback loops and two reinforced feedback loops are identified from the simulation model. Two types of disruptions that cause product shortages are simulated: a producer capacity disruption and an LSP capacity disruption. A behavioral approach to feedback loop dominance analysis is applied to identify dominant feedback loops for each disruption recovery. Findings: Through the feedback loop dominance analysis, we have distinguished three kinds of data (i.e. transparency-, risk-, and demand-related data) and their roles on managing a sustainable and resilient cheese supply chain for the dynamic market (i.e. independent variable, mediator, and moderator, respectively). Originality/value: Via system dynamics modeling, information flows can be assessed in an objective way, which enables decision support systems designer to choose a minimal set of information elements for use.