Table 1 lists red meat examples of each subsystem,
and possible areas where FVCA’s logistics
perspective could strain other subsystems along the
chain.
In addition to the requirement to align these
disparate sub-systems, FVCA must cope with a
volatile environmental suprasystem. Continuity
within chains is regularly affected by merger and
acquisition activity, which have a major impact on
all of the sub-systems. Public policy changes in the form of CAP decoupling of support payments in
2005 is giving rise to uncertainty in the whole chain.
FVCA is therefore aimed at improvements across
company interfaces (alignment of company subsystems),
within an overall strategic change management
context (environmental suprasystem). In
practical terms, FVCA has adopted an approach
that involves a team comprised of senior manager(s)
from each organisation in the chain. An important
requirement of participants is that scarce senior
management resource is used very effectively.
Therefore, a key constraint of the FVCA methodology
is that it is completed within a 10-day framework.
This is also important so as to minimise the
prospect of changes such as merger/acquisition or
changes in key personnel, which can potentially
disrupt the project.