Understanding Transferable Supply Chain Lessons and Practices to a “High-Tech” Industry Using Guidelines from a Primary Sector Industry: A Case Study in the Food Industry Supply Chain

A flexible and innovative approach to creating shapes, adapting processes and modifying materials characterize composites materials, a “high tech” industry. In the composite materials industry, which might be considered as a comparatively young developing industry, there is no standard manufacturing process, nor are there standardized materials with defined or proscribed properties for companies to select. Hence, the configuration of the composites materials industry represents a major challenge. An interesting alternative for a “high-tech” industry such as composite materials would be to review supply chain lessons and practices in “low-tech” industries. One “low-tech” industry that has introduced innovations in its supply chain and logistics operations is food. The main motivation of this study is to identify lessons and practices that comprise innovations in the supply chain of a firm in a perceived “low-tech” industry that can be used to provide guidelines in the design of the supply chain of a “high-tech” industry, in this case composite materials. This work uses the case study/site visit with analogy methodology to collect data from a Spanish leading producer of fresh fruit juice which is sold in major European markets and makes use of a cold chain. The study highlights supply base management and visibility/traceability as two elements of the supply chain in a “low-tech” industry that can provide guidelines that can be used in the configuration of the supply chain of the composite materials industry.