Costs of Retail Beef-Handling Systems: A Modeling Approach

摘要

To keep beef-handling costs as low as possible, retail grocery chains should have their central warehouses cut and package beef carcasses into retail cuts for delivery to local stores, according to this computer simulation of 10 systems. When the analysis seeks the highest returns, however, two different systems emerged as best: boxed beef, the system now used by most grocers, and tray-ready beef, a new system whereby the packer slices the beef in retail cuts and the retailer has only to repackage it for sale. Large stores and large chains both show economies of size compared with smaller units.