Improving the supply chain and increasing the competitiveness of Young coconuts: A case study of the AAA garden, Damnoen Saduak District Ratchaburi

Abstract

AAA garden is the garden located in Damnoen Saduak District Ratchaburi that plant and sell young coconut. The objective of this study is to identify the improvement opportunity of the young coconut supply chain of AAA garden in order to reduce cost and increase revenue. By studying the current supply chain operation of the AAA garden, two improvement opportunities are revealed, First, AAA garden has lost some money because the coconuts that the size are not complied with the standard are sent back from the customer or sold underpriced. The reason for this is that the garden has no system to sort the size of the coconuts before delivering them to the consumers. Second, AAA garden relies on only one distribution channel, industrial customers and their product is limited to only the fresh coconut without any value-added products. These make AAA garden unable to expand the market and increase their revenue. In this study, the standard operational procedure for checking the coconut size is developed and the tool used for sorting the coconut is suggest to assist in this process. In addition, the method for managing un-standardized coconuts is proposed by separating meat and water to sell in various stores. This leads to the addition revenue for AAA garden. Moreover, we also study the feasibility of selling and distributing the fresh coconuts to small stores directly. By focusing the analysis on small stores in two major areas, the results show that AAA garden can gain more profit by selling to this market.