Throughout this trip, we learned a lot about how the supply chain was affected by planning. Regarding the farming aspect, we learned how important it is to know how many crops you will plan beforehand. If you don’t know exactly how many crops you need, you could create a surplus or even a shortage before you plant them. This is the reason that crops are sold before they are even grown through forward contracts. Farmers also have to plan about fertilizers, water, and sunlight. Meaning they need to ensure that if something were to go wrong (drought, extreme heat, etc) they can properly combat that with things like sprinklers and chemicals.
Similar to farming, forward contracts play a large role in the processing and exporting aspects of planning in the supply chain. Crops are sold before they are even grown, meaning the planning starts at the earliest stage. Producers need to know where they are exporting their product before their product even exists. When it comes to processing mills, they need to know what kind of product they are producing. For example, with coffee, you can create many different blends so producers need to plan how much of each blend they are going to make and prepare their product for those processes.
Likewise, the roasting process also requires a lot of planning in order to diversify the product. There need to be many different roasts and a specific amount of each of those roasts. That is something that is planned before the product even ends up in the roasting facility. Additionally, companies like Britt need to plan what kind of products they are going to sell in retail stores. They use data to come up with a diverse selection of products to reach a wide market of consumers and it takes a long time to come up with such selections. That being said, they need to prepare their selection of products and prepare the products themselves in order for them to end up on shelves across their numerous locations.
The aspect of customers also relates directly to retail stores considering companies like Britt have to reach a wide variety of consumers. As I said, they diversify their product selection to include food, apparel, antiques, and other products so that consumers of all different demographics are intrigued to purchase their products.
I am so glad to have been part of this trip. I want to thank my professors, guides, and fellow students for making this experience as awesome as it was. Pura vida!