Research Group on Food Supply Chain Management

Motivated by environmental, social, and health challenges – such as the pressure of climate change and concern for animal welfare – the food industry has seen significant changes over the past decades, with an increasing demand for transparency, focus on food safety, and sustainably-produced products. This was further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which revealed the fragility of food supply chains. Local foods, organic and/or fair trade, and less resource-intensive food is becoming more popular among consumers within the mainstream market, evidenced by a significant growth in sales. In terms of total sales, the plant-based food sector increased 49% in Europe between 2019-2021, while the organic food sector increased by a historic 22% in Germany in 2020. The industrialized food system is expected to continue to dynamically develop in production, processing, and distribution in the coming years to meet the food security challenges of a growing global population.
KLU’s research group on Food Supply Chain Management seeks to combine rigorous academic research with practical insights along the entire food supply chain – i.e. from farm to fork – to investigate initiatives and improve efficiency and sustainability along the supply chain. We strive to create a knowledge platform for state-of-the-art research and innovative concepts for managing food logistics and food supply chains of the future.

Research Projects

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Selected Publications

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2019.1657248 

Abstract: Food is an important resource in disaster management, and food stock levels hold significance for disaster mitigation research and practice. The presence or absence of food stocks is a vulnerability indicator of a region. A large part of overall food stock, before a disaster strikes, is held by private companies (retailers, wholesalers and food producers). However, there is little-to-no information on the food stock levels of commercial companies, and no approach exists to derive such information. We develop an approximation model based on essential inventory management principles and available data sources to estimate aggregated food stock levels in supply networks. The model is applied in a case example that features dairy product stock levels in the German state of Saxonia. The resulting overall stock levels are normalised, and their usability is showcased in a simple vulnerability analysis. Disaster managers are provided with a model that can be used estimate otherwise unavailable data and facilitates investigations into the regional resilience of an area. The limitations of our study are based on the aggregated nature of the supply network structure and data usage (i.e. in the model, we do not consider any seasonality or trend effects).

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The Food Research Group Team

Prof. Dr. Sandra Transchel, Professor for Supply Chain and Operations Management
Prof. Dr. Sandra Transchel

Professor of Supply Chain and Operations Management

Kühne Logistics University - KLU

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Prof. Dr. Hanno Friedrich
Prof. Dr. Hanno Friedrich

Associate Professor of Freight Transportation - Modelling and Policy

Kühne Logistics University - KLU

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Bensolomon Karanja Baraka

PhD Candidate

Kühne Logistics University - KLU

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Florian Cramer, Research Associate
Florian Cramer

Research Associate

Kühne Logistics University - KLU

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Sarah Joseph, PhD Candidate at KLU
Sarah Joseph, PhD

Post-doctoral Researcher

Kühne Logistics University GmbH

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Prof. Dr. Mirjam Meijer, Assistant Professor of Operations Management
Prof. Dr. Mirjam Meijer

Assistant Professor of Operations Management

Kühne Logistics University - KLU

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Navid Mohamadi, PhD Candidate
Navid Mohamadi, PhD

Post-doctoral Researcher

Eindhoven University of Technology

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Sandra Rudeloff, PhD Candidate
Sandra Rudeloff

PhD Candidate

Kühne Logistics University - KLU

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Tim Schlaich, PhD Candidate
Tim Schlaich

PhD Candidate

Kühne Logistics University - KLU

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Ute Menski, Research Associate
Ute Menski

Research Associate

Kühne Logistics University - KLU

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Sissi Bazan Santos

Research Scientist

Siemens

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Svenja Zadow, External PhD Candidate Helmut-Schmidt-University
Svenja Zadow

External PhD Candidate

Helmut-Schmidt-Universität

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