Abstract
Mismanagement and errors in communication lead to supply chain inefficiencies manifesting in the form of non-value-added activities. Thai dairy cooperatives, as a result of an increased supply and significant drop in the demand within the domestic market, are facing the challenges of realizing excess inventory of unprocessed milk and reducing the amount of waste due to spoilage. Conversely, Indian dairy cooperatives exhibit greater resilience, given the similar market conditions, due to their appropriate usage and integration of information systems like ERP to optimize the information flow and processes, while Thai dairy cooperatives rely mostly on spreadsheets. The paper discusses current practices used by Thai dairy cooperatives to manage their information flow and later compares the difference in performance metrics such as value-added time (in percentage) before and after integrating ERP systems into their operation. Value stream mapping (VSM) was chosen as a tool to identify all value adding and non-value adding activities within the value chain. Information was gathered in a form of unstructured interviews conducted at a local Thai cooperative before and after the implementation of the ERP system. The results show that there was a 7% increase in value-added activities, 36.1% before ERP implementation and 43.2% after the implementation. Moreover, the study found that not many Thai cooperatives are able to implement and integrate ERP to their production system due to lack of knowledge and education, thus fully relying on Microsoft Excel and other spreadsheets.
Keywords
Milk cooperative; VSM; ERP
