The customer is no longer the king, but a fickle-minded Keizer who makes ad-hoc choices. 'Mass individualism' and 'the impulsive consumer' are examples of terms that point to the last link in the logistics chain.
In order to cater to these trends, supply chain management strategies like the ECR for the retail channel and EFR (Efficient Foodservice Response) for the food service channel have been developed. Both these stragegies determine how partners in the supply chain can best synchronise the flow of products through the distribution chain from production to the moment of final sales. They rest on two important pillars knows as Logistics Optimalisation (eg. cross-docking, continuous replenishment, supply chain prediction, quick response) and Foodservice Category Management. EC-Pack combines practice and research within these two themes into supply chain solutions within logistic agro- and food chains. An example is the EFR project involving dairy products for the food service chain.
