PhD thesis: Food processing industry more profitable thanks to better planning

Tuesday 30 January 2007

As a result of increasing competition in the food processing industry, companies operating in this sector are focussing more and more on efficiency in their processes. Operations Management and Production Planning and Control play key roles in this context, However, so far not much scientific attention has been paid to this in comparison to other industries.

Renzo Akkerman examined methods of planning in the food processing industry’s production processes. Using simulations, he analysed a number of circumstances that apply specifically to this sector: small profit margins, limited product shelf life, short delivery times required by the market, temporary storage in storage tanks and ever-changing packaging material.

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