HORIZONTAL COLLABORATION IN THE COMMODITY INDUSTRY

Horizontal collaboration is an active cooperation between two or more firms operating on the same level of the supply chain. A new business model for horizontal supply chain collaboration in the commodity industry is presented. Based on four case studies, we propose a set-up via an independent `black-box’ party called 4C4Com that optimizes transport flows over the entire pool of participants. We also developed a mathematical model able to calculate the strategic business case for such collaboration, optimizing total transport, storage and inventory holding costs.