Bridging the Distributor into a Collaborative Demand and Supply Planning Process

Abstract

Based on their study of the food distribution supply chain, Can Eksoz and Dilek Önkal argue that the distributor has largely been overlooked in the principles we’ve created for collaborative demand and supply planning. Their article re-inserts the distributor into the supply chain and examines the challenges of collaboration from the distributor’s vantage point. This is a good lesson in how collaborative agreements must address the particular structures of the supply chain as well as the markets in which the supply-chain partners operate.