Improving food preparedness in Swedish municipalities from a supply chain perspective - a multiple case study

Abstract

Title
Improving food preparedness in Swedish municipalities from a supply chain perspective - a multiple case study


Authors
Ellen Persson & Vera Hansen


Contribution
This thesis has been a complete collaboration between the two authors. Each author has been involved in every part of the process and contributed equally.


Supervisor
Andreas Norrman – Division of Engineering Logistics, Faculty of Engineering, Lund University



Background
Recently, due to the increasingly uncertain state of the world through pandemics, wars and other supply chain disruptions, preparedness and food preparedness are appearing on the agenda to a higher extent. However, not much material with guidelines regarding how municipalities should be working with food preparedness exists currently. This is needed to increase the food preparedness and improve municipal food preparedness work in Sweden.

Problem Definition and Purpose
Due to the gaps in theory presented in the background, it is clear that common material with guidelines and recommendations for how Swedish municipalities should work, in the area of food preparedness, is needed. This master thesis will attempt to fill this gap. The purpose of this master thesis is therefore to study different Swedish municipalities’ food preparedness work and deduce how they can increase their food preparedness within the public meal supply chains. More specifically, we studied how municipalities work with food preparedness, what challenges and success factors exist related to food preparedness work, as well as how different municipal conditions affect food preparedness work.

Theory
Previous studies on the area of municipal food preparedness have mainly not used a supply chain perspective. They found that collaboration is important and challenging, and that a lack of resources is a big issue in Swedish municipalities. They also found that laws can be a large issue – mainly because many laws are unclear and do not clearly define what municipalities should be doing, and because the Swedish Public Procurement Act complicates purchasing and makes local procurement complicated.

Method
This thesis uses an abductive, qualitative and cross-sectional approach through a multiple case study with 10 Swedish municipalities. Information has mainly been gathered through interviews with 1-3 employees per municipality and some other documents. The interviews have been coded before within-case analyses as well as a cross-case analysis have been conducted. Before the multiple case study, a preliminary study was conducted through a survey and an expert interview to get a better overview of the current state. The survey was sent to all 290 municipalities in Sweden and received responses from 101 of these.

Conclusions
In some aspects of the food preparedness work – e.g. having one main supplier, using both freeze dried foods and foods with longer shelf lives in the preparedness stock, using the risk matrix for risk assessment, using avoidance, reduction and transfer as risk mitigation methods, and using simulation exercises – all case municipalities were very similar, while other aspects – e.g. having a centralized or decentralized warehousing strategy, finances, and the collaboration strategy within the municipality – differed a lot. Main challenges related to food preparedness work were found to be the Swedish Public Procurement Act, a lack of money, and unclear laws. The greatest success factors related to food preparedness work were having passionate employees, and adapting the food preparedness strategy to the municipality’s specific context. It was found that some working processes depend highly on the municipality’s specific conditions, mostly their geographic location and their size.

Popular Abstract

Pandemics, wars and other supply chain disruptions threaten the food supply in the world. Food preparedness is therefore an important and current topic. In case of a crisis, public meals must still be served, placing a large responsibility on the municipalities. However, they lack guidelines on how to navigate this. Our master thesis explores municipalities’ food preparedness work, related success factors and challenges, and differences based on municipalities’ contexts.

When exploring how municipalities work with food preparedness, most seem to have one main supplier, store both freeze dried foods and foods with longer shelf lives, and use simulation exercises. However, other aspects differ between municipalities, such as having a centralized or decentralized warehousing strategy, how the food preparedness work is financed, and the collaboration strategy within the municipality. Generally, some solutions for food preparedness vary between different municipalities depending on their specific conditions. For example, being located on an island, Mörbylånga’s food preparedness work differs from that of municipalities located on the mainland, while Lycksele, located in the north, has less local cultivation opportunities than municipalities in the south.

To improve Swedish food preparedness, we recommend adapting the food preparedness strategy to each municipality’s specific conditions, while also attempting to increase employees’ motivation to work with food preparedness. Despite the differing foundations in the different municipalities, many found the same things challenging – mainly the Swedish Public Procurement Act, a lack of money, and unclear laws – but it was clear that some municipalities had tougher conditions to work with than others.

Many of the findings from this master thesis align well with previous theory, though previous studies generally did not use a supply chain perspective when studying food preparedness. They found that collaboration is important and challenging, and that a lack of resources is a big issue in Swedish municipalities. They also found that laws can be a large issue. However, we developed the theory on several aspects – for example some new warehousing aspects were studied through discussions regarding what preparedness stocks to have and whether or not to centralize warehouses, and some new questions related to purchasing and contracting were studied. A completely new topic studied is that of special dietary requirements and how these are handled in a crisis, which is highly relevant as these are becoming more common.

These results were found by performing a multiple case study consisting of interviews with representatives from 10 Swedish municipalities, supplemented by other documents and data sources. Cases were chosen based on several factors deemed interesting to test, for example size, location, and how successful the municipality was perceived to be in regards to food preparedness.

• author: Persson, Ellen and Hansen, Vera
• supervisor: Andreas Norrman
• organization: Production Management; Engineering Logistics
• course: MTTM05 20261
• year: 2026
• type: H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
• subject: Technology and Engineering
• keywords: Supply chain risk management, Proactive supply chain risk management, Reactive supply chain risk management, Supply chain management, Purchasing, Distribution, Inventory management, Supply chain risk governance, Food preparedness, Municipal work
• other publication id: 6065
• language: English
• id: 9241612
• date added to LUP: 2026-06-23 16:57:54
• date last changed: 2026-06-23 16:57:54