Presentation on

Mapping Dissertation
the Food Supply Chain of Fruits &
Vegetables for Format Retail Stores: A Case
Study
Dissertation Submitted to the University
of Calcutta In Partial Fulfillment for
the Award of Master of Public Systems Management (With Specialization in
Transportation & Logistics Management)

by
RITABRATA MUKHERJEE
ROLL NO.: 107/MPS/140052
SESSION: 2014-2016

Dissertation Guide: Dr. Anupam Gh

Date: 07-06-2

Introducing the Problem

The unorganized nature of food supply is an age old problem. This not-sofragmented organized sector was an opportunistic market for corporate
giants. But the food supply chain was eating up the profit at that point of
time, so the houses disguised as do-gooders for farmers and revamped the
entire supply chain and designed it in such a way where they will make profit,
the farmers will earn more and the consumer has to pay lesser price from
unorganized market, a win-win situation for every stakeholder, just by
redesigning the supply chain and removing non value-adding nodes of the
supply chain.

Reviewing the Literature

Vegetables, fruits, and grocery play a vital role for the existence of people
and also a very influencing role in the economy. Though fresh fruit,
vegetable, and grocery retail has been considered as a very low-margin
business, the market potential has attracted Indian business houses and
corporate, driving the forays through different models like single-format,
multi format or integrated urban rural models (Sengupta, 2008).
Traditional Indian retailers account for 12 million retail outlets all over India
and more than 40 percent of them sell vegetable and grocery (IBEF, 2008).
Indian food retail consists of staple commodities comprising grains, pulses,
and vegetables. The Indian food retail business, especially vegetable retailing
is witnessing a rapid growth in India's organized retail sectors. The traditional
retailing of vegetables is not very much organized, amounts to 97% of the
total 5 market (Ernst & Young, 2006), is extremely localized and highly
fragmented with large number of intermediaries.

Purpose of the Study

My dissertation addresses to a no of issues related to the highly fragmented
fruits and vegetables retailing in India. The main objective was to face
challenges and provide theoretical and managerial insights regarding the
stocking policy and the revamped supply chain. In case of perishable items
the inventory management and demand forecasting should be with minimum
imperfection due to low shelf life and high spoilage rate. My idea was to cross
check know-how of the transforming perishable retail market from
unorganized to organized and how the information is playing its role in order
to having a sustainable supply chain.

Research Objectives
1. To Map the supply chain of Fruits & Vegetables for Format Retail Stores
2. To criticize the stocking and purchasing policy
3. To provide insights regarding demand and inventory planning

Methodology
The main elements of my data collection, was to gather information
regarding the supply chain model of a format retail stores. And also the sales
and purchasing data to judge the proper utilization of information throughout
the supply chain.
With the data available, I tried to perform comparative analysis by visual
graphs for easier interpretations. I also tried to prepare clusters of datasets to
make the process of data interpretation becomes easier and the data will be
more generalized. I tried to use ABC classification a selective inventory
control technique to judge their pattern. Then I tried to compare the sales
and purchase order data to analyze the efficiency of the indenting.

Data Analysis

As per the graphs above are concerned, we can see that the Sales is taking
place in each and every days. But the most of the sales is taking place on
02/01/16 & 03/01/16 i.e. Saturday and Sunday; hence we can determine the
buying pattern and the stocking policy. And also on 06/01/16 i.e. Wednesday
the weekly domestic replenishment is taking place, this we can also observe.
These observations will lead to the purchase and inventory planning

Data Analysis

We can see that the cluster analysis of fruits are coming different for the
quantity basis and the sales basis hence we can conclude that the basis of
quantity sales and value sales are different so the organization should
determine the stocking and purchasing decision accordingly to ensure
volume sales from the value point of view.

Data Analysis

As we can see here the clustering the third and fourth cluster draws most of
the amount to it. The third cluster has got the most of the sales both value
and quantity wise if we consider it from the article wise view point, but the
cluster 4 is the most important cluster here providing volume here. One also
should cluster 1 in case of quantity sales. The organization should purchase
and stock accordingly.

Data Analysis

The holistic cluster analysis by K-means is portraying that how total sales by
quantity and value vary over clusters. But this should not determine the
stocking policy as the organization should consider fruits and vegetables
differently.

Data Analysis
Cum.
ABC Class

Number of items Items

Items

10%

1450

1450

20%

4350

2900

70%

14499

11600

As we can see here how the

inventory should be
controlled, and how the items
should be classified.

Data Analysis

There are few fast moving items which are being ordered highly, i.e. Purchase
Quantity is more than the Sales Quantity. And the shelf life of these items can
be higher. On the other hand there are items where the sales quantity is
higher than purchase; here shelf life is a very important factor. And if we
notice we will be able to observe that there are few essential vegetables
which are being purchased by volume.

Recommendation
The organization should stock and purchase after considering a number of
factors such as sales, shelf life, and comparison of quant of sales and value of
sales sales volume.
The forecasting technique should also be determined to avoid spoilage.
Moreover they should also simulate the results with FSN, VED & PQR
techniques which I could not do due to data constraints.
They should maintain a customer relationship management and analyze
buying pattern to accomplish a robust supply chain and a sustainable
stocking policy.

Conclusion
The research from start to end was interesting with facts and know-how; this
research with the help of primary and secondary data provides a brief but
holistic overview of the transformation of the perishable retail sector in India.
This research put an effort to using data in order to provide managerial and
theoretical insights in order to bring sustainability to this sector.
Though the data was not ample but some basic analysis took place with
which we can see that the stocking and purchasing policy would depend on
many factors apart from the thumb rule sales data. Its really very important
to ensure the utilization of data and having demand mapping to ensure
robust supply chain.

Your questions are

welcome!