Open Access Conference Proceedings

In today's highly competitive environment, one of the ways for food industry companies to achieve success is by deepening cooperation with their suppliers and, within it, by applying methods such as CPFR (Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment). This method can significantly contribute to streamlining material flow between the food industry company and its suppliers. Its implementation, however, requires the interest of both partners, i.e. the supplier and customer, as well as their subsequent cooperation in setting the form of supplies and their realization. The paper deals with opportunities to implement the CPFR method between companies of the food industry and their suppliers. It presents the results of both quantitative and qualitative research carried out at the purchasing departments of the food industry companies.Quantitative research in 101 food industry companies examined the importance of various elements CPFR methods (i.e. the importance of collaborative forecasting, planning and automatic replenishment) in the purchasing process of the main raw material and consumer chemicals. In accordance with the theoretical approaches, this part of the research demonstrated that the application of the collaborative forecasting, planning and automatic replenishment has a greater importance in procuring the main raw material than indirect material. However, subsequent qualitative research in two deliberately selected food companies showed that there are lower barriers to implementation of the method in the purchase of consumer chemicals as the selected indirect material.

Keywords: supply chain management, CPFR, food company, collaboration, purchase

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