Supply chain planning
The world is getting increasingly smaller and, as an effect, the supply chain is getting larger and more complex. The meat industry works with some of the most complex pipeline timings, as the raw material can be anywhere from 35 days to 42 months, depending on species and target products. The downstream pipeline can have an even wider range of time, from same day delivery to more than a year's worth of frozen stock building wating for favourable markets or adequate volume to fill an order.
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Planning comes down to, capacity, timing, yield and labour management. The more you know about your production the better you will be able to plan.
One of the challenges faced in planning for slaughter houses is the push element. The animals contracted keeps coming regardless of who the markets favour. To some extent, short term contracts can be cancelled, but should the tides turn, then the volume relinquished could be difficult to regain.
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Export makes up a large proportion of most abattoir businesses' sales volume and the markets change with macro impacts like global harvest yields, utility prices, exchange rates or domestic heard health.
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At a more local level, delivery of raw material fails, orders from wholesale and retail customers fluctuates, loads are held up in traffic, which results in wave slots being missed, equipment fails, staff don't turn up for work, to mention a few of the aspects that needs to be considered when planning in the meat industry.
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At AFSI we can help you with identifying the points pertinent to successful planning in your business.