Food supply chain design using MCDM, a case study on Novel Protein Foods

Purpose Designing a food supply chain for a completely new product involves many stakeholders and knowledge from various fields in natural and social sciences. This paper describes a methodology to design food supply chains based on the method of Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM). A case is elaborated on the design of a supply chain for novel protein foods for Dutch consumers. The project aim is to partially replace meat products in the daily diet, thereby reducing the environmental impact of food production and consumption. Value of the paper The requirement of the methodology is to enable the selection of the optimal design on a number of given criteria in a balanced and transparent manner. The outcome was that the general model for MCDM helped to coordinate the whole design process. The stepwise procedure made the method transparent for the stakeholders and aided in the evaluation of alternatives. Methodology Two models, MAVF and AHP, were chosen for the ease with which they can handle a mix of quantitative and qualitative information, quantify the qualitative information and generate an overall value for each alternative. Findings The preference order for the alternatives generated with the two models was very different, mainly due to the manner in which criteria weights are elicited and alternatives scored, as well as the use of scales in MAVF versus the pairwise comparison in AHP. However, the preference order of the top criteria with both methods was the same and the weights were also similar.