An investigation of the use of swop containers in a perishable goods' distribution network

Sammanfattning: The global demand for fresh food has increased during the past five years and the demand is anticipated to continue growing in the future. The consumers' expectations are also getting higher and higher, which is why it is of great importance that the actors within the food industry meet these requirements to remain competitive. Fresh food is perishable goods which have a short shelf life. The quality of perishable goods is highly affected by the temperature, which is pointed out as being one of the most influential factors on the quality. To maintain the quality of perishable goods in the shipping, refrigerated vehicles and load carriers (which in this case refers to the container/body in which the goods are loaded) are normally used. Some refrigerated load carriers and vehicles that can be used are swop containers and conventional trucks. A gap has been identified in the literature when searching for information regarding refrigerated vehicles and load carriers in a food supply chain (FSC). Whether there is an optimal way of distributing perishable goods is therefore not defined in literature, and was further investigated in this thesis. The purpose of this master thesis was to investigate what challenges there are with using swop container as a load carrier when distributing perishable goods by direct shipment from factory to customer and to investigate other load carriers in this context. The thesis was initiated by doing a thorough literature review and conducting interviews at company Alpha to receive as much information and knowledge as possible regarding distribution of perishable goods with direct shipment from factory to customer. This was done in order to have a solid foundation for the analysis. Three potential distribution scenarios were designed to investigate what load carrier and distribution setup that is optimal for distributing perishable goods. These scenarios were based on the literature review and empirical findings, and rated in what the researchers identified as being the most important customer requirements. These customer requirements were: keeping the cold chain intact, on-time delivery, delivery time slot and price. The thesis resulted in several challenges being pointed out with using swop containers as a load carrier. One of the biggest challenges is keeping the cold chain intact which is a prerequisite to be able to keep the right temperature of the perishable goods so that they can keep high quality and long durability. Considering both the qualitative and quantitative aspects, the researchers believe that conventional trucks are preferred to use as a load carrier for both company Alpha and other FSC actors. However, the most preferred load carrier size to use cannot be generalised for the entire food industry. Customer requirements, product specific requirements, company requirements, volumes shipped, transportation distances etc. are all factors that affect what size of the load carrier that is preferred to use.