Review, typology and evaluation of traceability technologies: case of the French forest supply chain

ABSTRACT

The use of supply chain management and traceability systems are increasingly important in the forest industry. The adoption of traceability technologies and labelling procedures has become key element to promote the principles of sustainable development in the French forest. This later suffers from a misuse of resources, which negatively impacts the forest ecosystem including the economic competitiveness and biodiversity. However, opting for a suitable technology that resists to the forest environment and does not require a major organisational change is a major challenge for the entire forest supply chain’s partners. For this reason, throughout this paper, we suggest a multi-criterion assessment grid to better choose an effective and efficient traceability system, which might include one or more technologies. Thus, our main objective is to review, typologise and evaluate six technologies that could be used in the forest supply chain.

KEYWORDS:

• Evaluation criteria
• traceability technologies
• forest supply chain
• France

Notes

1. Inventaire Forestier National http://inventaire-forestier.ign.fr/spip/.

2. Bois des Alpes” (http://boisdesalpes.net/).

3. The cited authors represent different theoretical trends that are part of the typology of Brindley (2004).

4. A supply chain is the network of all entities involved in producing and delivering a finished product to the final customer. This includes sourcing raw materials and parts, manufacturing, producing and assembling the products, storing goods in warehouses, order entry and tracking, distribution and delivery to the final customer.

5. ‘Supply chains can be considered as dynamic and complex systems composed of autonomous firms that interact with one another contributing to fulfilling a common goal ’.

6. «… value system, that is, the set of value chains in an entire industry, encompassing those of tiers of suppliers, channels and customers».

7. ‘A supply chain can be defined as a set of relationships among suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers that facilitates the transformation of raw materials into final products’.

8. ‘The management of upstream and downstream relationships with suppliers and customers in order to deliver superior customer value at less cost to the supply chain as a whole.’.

9. Intelligent distributed process utilisation and blazing environmental key ‘Indisputable Key’, a European research project launched in October 2006 by a consortium of 28 partners from five countries with a budget of €12.8 million.

10. See Saikouk, Zouaghi, and Spalanzani 2011.

11. Indisputable Key, Final report, Deliverable D1.24, 2010.

12. For Karâa and Morana, traceability is not an operational tool .

13. Canadian Standards Association, 2008.

14. Implementation of the label ‘Bois des Alpes’.

15. Pan European Forest Certification.

16. Forest Stewardship Council.

17. A cluster which aims to provide useful information to the company and the necessary support to projects related to the management of traceability technologies.

18. Laval University.

19. Specifications note is a confidential report.

20. ISO 5492:2008 defines terms relating to sensory analysis. It applies to all industries concerned with the evaluation of products by the sense organs.

21. Also known as spider chart.