What keeps you from delivering a fresh product to the market?

There are few things more off-putting than opening a packet of chip longingly, and smelling a waft of oil. Clearly, the product has been lying around on shelf too long, even if you just bought it today. It has spent days in the plant, in the distribution center,  on road and then in your local mom and pop store. (It would seem that its velocity was highest only in one supply chain node – your home)

The importance of freshness is not just limited to the food industry. It  extends to a commodity product like cement or paint. An apparel piece lying folded too long is overlooked by the costumer. A technology product which takes 3-4 months to reach the market has already lost half time from its product lifetime. So Freshness is certainly not an attribute that supply chains can ignore, no matter which industry.

What makes is so hard to deliver a fresh product? It is usually a series of small roadblocks at many stages of the chain. Let us look at the FMCG supply chain for some of these roadblocks: