transportation times. Major developments in quality preservation via the use of modified
atmosphere packaging and sophisticated chilling techniques, however, challenge Dutch
importers and retailers to reconsider their means for transportation. Could transport by
sea now be an option – to reduce overall chain costs? The project group including all
supply chain members identified several alternative FSC designs of which we will discuss
two for illustrative purposes. These scenarios are (see Figure 5):
(1) Producing pineapples in Ghana, cutting in Ghana, and air transport of cut
pineapple to the Netherlands and distributing the cut pineapples to retail outlets
(‘the air chain’).
(2) Producing pineapples in Ghana, sea transport of intact pineapples, cutting
in the Netherlands and distributing the cut pineapples to retail outlets (‘the
sea chain’).
To measure the effectiveness and efficiency of alternative designs, the project team
formulated three key performance indicators for this FSC: the distribution costs along the
supply chain (we only focus on transport and warehousing and leave out the costs of the
cutting process), the energy and emissions during distribution (regarding emissions only
CO2 emissions are considered, where 73 g CO2 is calculated per MJ direct energy use), and
the product quality when arriving at the retail store. This last factor is measured by three
sub-indicators:
. The remaining number of days until the predetermined BBD. In other words, the
remaining selling time at the retail outlet.
. The remaining keepability of the product at a storage temperature of 4C
according to the expert model out of Figure 4. In other words, for how long will
the yeast concentration still be acceptable?
. The percentage of products for which the BBD is not reached yet, but has a yeast
concentration which is not acceptable anymore.
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
0 4 8 12 16 20
Temperatuur
Houdbaarheid (dagen)
Minimum houdbaarh
Gemiddelde houdb
Maximum houd
Minimal shelf life
Average shelf life
Maximum shelf life
Temperature
Shelf life (days)
Figure 4. Average and variability in shelf life of cut pineapple depending on the temperature.
6624 J.G.A.J. van der Vorst et al.
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