A critical analysis of the Optimal Shelf Availability in the grocery supply chain

In the last years, companies are focusing their attention and effort more and more on technologies and B2b Collaboration processes themes. A combination of economical, technolog- ical and market factors has pushed companies to give up the traditional model and redesign their Supply Chain strategy. The competition is not anymore between the single companies but between Supply Chains to achieve a global optimization instead of a local one. The focus is shifted from the efficiency of the internal processes to a synchronized management of all the Supply Chain members processes. Moreover, the advent of new technologies enables to increase the diffusion of Col- laboration practices and to extend integration across the Sup- ply Chain. Starting from these considerations, the concept of eSupply Chain Collaboration is born. The Grocery Industry is considered the pioneer of eSupply Chain Collaboration giving birth to the most famous initiatives, like the Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) and the Collaborative Production, Forecast- ing and Replenishment (CPFR). New processes are emerg- ing, as companies are changing their strategy by adopting a customer-driven perspective. Customers are also modifying their purchasing behavior focusing more on the service level rather than on prices. An example is the Optimal Shelf Avail- ability project that is born with the purpose of increasing the service level by better managing the “last 50 miles” of the Supply Chain. This project is implemented in the relationship between a manufacturer and a retailer- allows to improve the “Last 50 miles” management, enhancing the service level to the final customers thanks to the Stock Outs reduction at the Points of Sales. The objective of this work is to contribute to the knowledge of this type of Collaboration project and de- velop a model through which the potential benefits stemming from its implementation are quantified.