IT adaptation in sugar supply chain: a study at milling level

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to catalogue issues in the sugar supply chain at the procurement and sugar production levels. By a review of prior art and expert panel discussions, certain issues were identified for the facilitation of e-applications in the sugar production process. The relevance of the issues identified was checked by conducting a field survey. A total of 30 sugar mills in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, India were targeted and 120 were collected from the mill managers to identify issues at procurement and sugar production stages. For checking the scope of IT applications, a total of 180 respondents were collected from 120 mill managers and 60 employees of IT companies who provide supply chain IT solutions. On the basis of the findings, the paper proposes certain IT solutions for solving the identified issues which will help in improving sugar cane processing at the sugar production level.