Benchmarking the poultry meat supply chain

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyse how a pre-requisite programme and key performance indicators can be developed within an information management system in order to manage food safety, animal welfare and business performance criteria effectively in the poultry meat supply chain and seek to deliver continuous improvement. Design/methodology/approach - Desk research was carried out in order to develop the research model. Competitive benchmarking with a group of broiler growers was used to determine the most appropriate performance indicators that could differentiate both operational and financial performance. Findings - Supply chain benchmarking is more than a comparative analysis of cost structure, indeed it can be argued that if not effectively implemented, benchmarking techniques can focus too much on historic data rather than identifying and implementing current best practice, knowledge transfer and being able to initiate change within the business cycle. Effective livestock benchmarking requires a detailed understanding of the processes undertaken in order to determine the ideas and information that needs to be shared both vertically and horizontally in the chain which in turn will deliver compliance with stakeholder requirements and drive continuous improvement. Research limitations/implications - The limitations of the research have been discussed in the paper. Originality/value - This research is of value to those working in the poultry meat supply chain.