Organisational management: a study of a company of distribution services

Abstract

The current trend of focusing on core activities created opportunities for some companies to act as subcontractors. This is the case for companies that handle the distribution of food products. Beyond the concern for speedy delivery, they must take into account the perishable nature of the products if they are to meet the expectations of their customers. The objective of this research, characterised as exploratory and descriptive, is to build a model to support the management of a company to meet the needs of food distribution, taking into account regional peculiarities, customers, and distribution services. To achieve this objective, we used the methodology of multicriteria decision support – constructivist (MCDA-C). The model allowed us to identify opportunities for improvement to the following aspects: minimum profitable load delivered; control of the localisation of products, maintenance of trucks, and accommodation of the products on the truck, which led to an increase in performance from 49 to 59 points using the proposed model.