The Wine Supply Chain Council
CO-SPONSORS
The Supply Chain and Logistics institute, Georgia Tech, USA

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research


Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation


Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

We are a research organization composed of supply chain professionals committed to improving international supply chains for wine. We share the results of our research (but protect the data of our partners and collaborators).

There are great opportunities to make wine supply chains lean. This concept is associated with the world of manufacturing, where it was introduced by Toyota. But some of the same issues apply to supply chains, though in new and sometimes unexpected ways.

The issues on which we focus are:

Elimination of waste
This includes double-handling, such as moving wine among tanks, repacking bottles, repalletizing cartons.
Management of variability
Process time variability means downstream customers must protect themselves with safety stock, which is an additional expense, or endure stockouts. Temperature variability damages quality of the wine by creating piston-like movements of the cork, which admits oxygen to the bottle.
Synchronization and alignment
All participants in the supply chain must coordinate to match production with consumption. This is especially challenging in the case of wine because production depends on unforeseeable factors such as weather. Furthermore, many of the markets for alcohol are regulated in complex and arbitrary ways. Such factors create dilemmas all along the supply chain. For example, should the winery make-to-stock or make-to-order? Or should it produce unlabeled bottles for later customization? How can internet sales be facilitated? What will be the role of the distributor if the 3-tier system of distribution, now common in the US, is dismantled?
Continuous improvement
There must be processes in place to constantly review and evaluate supply chain performance as a whole, and not just the independent enterprises along the chain. And the supply chain must look ahead to new challenges, such as carbon-based costs, or a reorganization of the current 3-tier distribution system in the US.