Working with Wuliangye: Order Farming in the Liquor Supply Chain

In a national undergraduate innovation project developed with Wuliangye, I led data analysis and survey design to study how order farming works in the Yibin sorghum liquor supply chain. The core question was how contract understanding and fulfillment behaviors shape coordination efficiency, and how governance improvements can be made more actionable.

Method

We used a mixed-method design combining surveys and in-depth interviews to balance comparability with contextual nuance.

• The survey focused on contract awareness, fulfillment behavior, and risk-sharing, yielding 30 valid responses and a reusable item bank.
• Interviews covered procurement managers, brokers, and large-scale growers to capture motivations and friction points that surveys cannot fully explain.
• Data cleaning and visualization helped surface key variables and process bottlenecks, supporting both report writing and presentations.

Findings & Insights

The study suggests that better understanding of contract terms is closely linked to willingness to fulfill contracts, and that transparency and risk-sharing mechanisms strongly influence collaboration stability. With SWOT scoring and a SPACE matrix, we concluded the project sits in a phase with clear advantages and opportunities, and should further invest in technical support and digital oversight.

Based on these results, we proposed a governance roadmap centered on risk-sharing, technical enablement, and collaborative oversight. The emphasis is on process feasibility and supervision mechanisms, making the recommendations practical for broader adoption.

A key takeaway from the mixed-method approach is the mutual validation between quantitative and qualitative evidence. Surveys provide structured comparison; interviews reveal real-world coordination costs and frictions. My main lessons include:

• Contract terms should be explained with simpler language and concrete examples to lower information barriers.
• Incentives and risk-sharing need clear boundaries and negotiation pathways.
• Governance improvements should advance alongside technical support and digital monitoring.