A Strategy Oriented Framework for Food and Beverage E-Supply Chain Management

Several authors have emphasized the importance of analysing the impact of e-business, e-commerce and online-shopping on supply chain and operations management; however, it seems that to date no one has suggested a comprehensive framework that could help identify and support supply chain design decisions for companies about to enter the online-business in the consumer goods retail trade, encompassing the business drivers at a strategic level. This paper aims to bridge the gap between theoretical taxonomies or abstract models and the concrete supply chain design problems encountered by logistics managers who need to take their Food & Beverage retail company into the internet business while also preserving a consistent alignment with their current company strategy. Some insights on this area are presented along with a field study approach and a proposal of a 6-phase framework to jointly manage all the relevant strategic and functional aspects of supply networks.