A responsive demand management framework for the minimization of waste in convenience food manufacture

Convenience food manufacture generates considerable waste through poor planning of production. This problem is particularly acute for products that have a very short shelf-life and will be disposed of as waste should their shelf life expire. Chilled ready-meals are convenience foods with relatively short shelf-lives and volatile consumer demands; their manufacture is based on forecasted volumes and when demand has been over-predicted, considerable wastes are created. This is referred to as overproduction waste (OPW), which typically sees finished products disposed of through commercial waste channels as a result of lack of demand. The research reported in this paper has investigated the generation of a responsive demand management framework for the reduction of OPWs.