The Future of Food Chains

CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD

SUPPLY AND STORAGE: RESHAPING FOOD CHAINS

SUPPLY AND STORAGE

At present, supply chains largely operate under a single supply chain model following the traditional flow for all food related items.

These supply chains are usually demand led, meaning retail inventories are ordered to match demand profiles, normally as part of very short lead times. Operating under this lean just in time (JIT) supply chain model has allowed food chains to use relatively low levels of storage space, in turn saving on real estate costs and keeping the overall cost of food relatively low within the UK. However, JIT supply chains are often fragile and can be described as linear & inflexible due to operating at levels close to capacity, leaving the ability to pivot the use of space limited, resulting in limited agility.

TRADITIONAL SUPPLY CHAIN ONE SIZE FITS ALL

PRODUCTION

POST PRODUCTION STORAGE

NATIONAL DISTRIBUTION CENTRE

REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION CENTRE

STORE

RETAIL FOOTPRINT STORAGE

Break primary bulk - align to store demand Consolidate multiple SKU’s Cross dock - “pick to zero”

Enable production scale & e ciency Transport large volume of limited SKU’s Aggregate national volume centrally

LINEAR FLOW - LEGACY ROUTINES

DAILY

DAILY

DAILY

DAILY