SUPPLY CHAIN NETWORK DESIGN: A CASE ON TEA SUPPLY CHAIN OPTIMIZAITON

Abstract

The global supply chains are changing at a very fast pace with changing conditions and environment. In the wake of Covid-19 crises, which left prominent impact on supply chains the element of supply chain cost and response to the market needs have become quite important. The supply chain performance has gained massive attention due to increasing global costs and greater need for customer satisfaction. There is an extreme pressure from the supply chain partners to not only increase the visibility but also optimize the operations among them. This presents a challenge to increase the overall supply chain productivity. The tea is one of the biggest imports of Pakistan and second most consumed beverage in the world as well. However, there have been very limited research to analyze the productivity of tea supply chain. In fact, next to none research has been carried out on developing supply chain network for Pakistan tea industry. The extent of research on future of tea production in Pakistan is also very limited. This study focuses on developing a global tea supply chain network for Pakistani market to investigate the overall cost, transit time, and network density. The conceptual framework developed for tea supply chain is solved using neutrosophic approach and results are analyzed via optimization tool. The cost, transit time are reduced while the resilience of the network is increased through increase in network density.