Integrating Sustainability, Resilience, and Foresight in Food Supply Chains: A Case Study of Golden Food Oy
Vijayan Menon, Meera (2025)
2025
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025120733303
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025120733303
Tiivistelmä
This thesis examines the current sustainability practices within Golden Food Oy's food supply chain and explores how these practices, together with resilience and future foresight capabilities, can be improved to support long-term sustainable operations. Golden Food Oy is a Finnish SME food importer managing a wide range of perishable and non-perishable goods, creating both sustainability opportunities and operational risks. The study investigates key inefficiencies affecting supply chain performance and evaluates how these weaknesses influence sustainability outcomes, resilience readiness, and long-term strategic capacity.
A qualitative single case study approach was applied. Empirical data were collected through surveys, semi-structured interviews, and process observations conducted across the company's daily operations. The findings reveal recurring vulnerabilities in cold chain logistics and coordination practices. Specifically, 75 percent of supply chain operations experience delivery delays linked to customs congestion and transportation disruptions. Temperature fluctuations continue to compromise product freshness during peak periods, particularly when cold storage capacity constraints create 30-minute to 2-hour delays in allocating products into controlled-temperature zones. The absence of integrated forecasting and planning systems further contributes to stock imbalances and short shelf-life risks. Although sustainability awareness is high across staff, practices remain informal and lack unified measurement. The company demonstrates basic resilience mechanisms such as supplier diversification, typically maintaining 2 to 5 alternative suppliers per key product category, but lacks structured scenario planning, formal risk mapping, or systematic foresight activities.
The thesis recommends strengthening supplier coordination processes, investing in cold chain monitoring tools, developing integrated sustainability indicators, formalising CSR activities, and adopting SME-appropriate foresight practices such as scenario planning and structured demand forecasting. These improvements can reduce waste, enhance operational reliability, and support long-term sustainable supply chain performance at Golden Food Oy.
A qualitative single case study approach was applied. Empirical data were collected through surveys, semi-structured interviews, and process observations conducted across the company's daily operations. The findings reveal recurring vulnerabilities in cold chain logistics and coordination practices. Specifically, 75 percent of supply chain operations experience delivery delays linked to customs congestion and transportation disruptions. Temperature fluctuations continue to compromise product freshness during peak periods, particularly when cold storage capacity constraints create 30-minute to 2-hour delays in allocating products into controlled-temperature zones. The absence of integrated forecasting and planning systems further contributes to stock imbalances and short shelf-life risks. Although sustainability awareness is high across staff, practices remain informal and lack unified measurement. The company demonstrates basic resilience mechanisms such as supplier diversification, typically maintaining 2 to 5 alternative suppliers per key product category, but lacks structured scenario planning, formal risk mapping, or systematic foresight activities.
The thesis recommends strengthening supplier coordination processes, investing in cold chain monitoring tools, developing integrated sustainability indicators, formalising CSR activities, and adopting SME-appropriate foresight practices such as scenario planning and structured demand forecasting. These improvements can reduce waste, enhance operational reliability, and support long-term sustainable supply chain performance at Golden Food Oy.