Designing sustainable cold chains for long-range food distribution: Energy-effective corridors on the Silk Road Belt

Modern food production-distribution processes represent a critical stressor for the environment and for natural ecosystems. The rising flows of food across growing and consumption areas couple with the higher expectations of consumers for the quality of products and compel the intensive use of refrigerated rooms and transport means throughout the food supply chain. In order to aid the design of sustainable cold chains that incorporate such aspects, this paper proposes a mixed integer linear programming model to minimize the total energy consumption associated with the cold operations experienced by perishable products. This model is intended for food traders, logistics practitioners, retail managers, and importers collaboratively called to design and plan a cost and environmentally effective supply strategy, physical channels, and infrastructures for cold chains. The proposed model is validated with a case study inspired by the distribution of two example food products, namely fresh apples and ice cream, along the New Silk Road connecting Europe and China. The illustrated analysis investigates the effect of alternative routes and transport modes on the sustainability of the cold chain. It is found that the most energy-efficient route for ice cream is via rail over a northern route and, for apples, is via a southern maritime route, and, for these two routes, the ratios of the total energy consumed to the energy content of the food are 760 and 913, respectively. By incorporating the energy lost due to the food quality decay, the model identifies the optimal route to adopt in accordance with the shelf life and the conservation temperature of each product

Integrated Models and Tools for Design and Management of Global Supply Chain

In modern and global supply chain, the increasing trend toward product variety, level of service, short delivery delay and response time to consumers, highlight the importance to set and configure smooth and efficient logistic processes and operations. In order to comply such purposes the supply chain management (SCM) theory entails a wide set of models, algorithms, procedure, tools and best practices for the design, the management and control of articulated supply chain networks and logistics nodes. The purpose of this Ph.D. dissertation is going in detail on the principle aspects and concerns of supply chain network and warehousing systems, by proposing and illustrating useful methods, procedures and support-decision tools for the design and management of real instance applications, such those currently face by enterprises. In particular, after a comprehensive literature review of the principal warehousing issues and entities, the manuscript focuses on design top-down procedure for both less-than-unit-load OPS and unit-load storage systems. For both, decision-support software platforms are illustrated as useful tools to address the optimization of the warehousing performances and efficiency metrics. The development of such interfaces enables to test the effectiveness of the proposed hierarchical top-down procedure with huge real case studies, taken by industry applications. Whether the large part of the manuscript deals with micro concerns of warehousing nodes, also macro issues and aspects related to the planning, design, and management of the whole supply chain are enquired and discussed. The integration of macro criticalities, such as the design of the supply chain infrastructure and the placement of the logistic nodes, with micro concerns, such the design of warehousing nodes and the management of material handling, is addressed through the definition of integrated models and procedures, involving the overall supply chain and the whole product life cycle. A new integrated perspective should be applied in study and planning of global supply chains. Each aspect of the reality influences the others. Each product consumed by a customer tells a story, made by activities, transformations, handling, processes, traveling around the world. Each step of this story accounts costs, time, resources exploitation, labor, waste, pollution. The economical and environmental sustainability of the modern global supply chain is the challenge to face

Machine learning methods to improve the operations of 3PL logistics

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A Supporting Decisions Platform for the Design and Optimization of a Storage Industrial System

Warehouses are one of the most critical resources in production systems, whose performance significantly depend on the availability of materials in the right location, in the right quantity and at the right time. Literature presents many contributions for the design and control of a storage system, but a few of them discuss on the importance of an integrated approach based on the adoption of different supporting decisions models and tools, from mixed integer linear programming (MILP) to visual interactive simulation (VIS), passing through heuristic procedures and cluster analysis (CA). This chapter presents a conceptual and integrated framework for the design, management, control and optimization of both manual, i.e. man-on-board, picker to part and automated, i.e. part to picker, storage systems, both unit-load and less than unit-load order picking systems (OPS), by the development and application of different models and tools. The proposed framework integrates the management decisions in order to find not a system configuration as a result of local optima, but the minimal cost warehousing system as a result of the following integrated decisions: the space allocation to the forward area and the bulk area in a OPS, the system layout, the storage allocation within each area, i.e. the determination of the storage level devoted to a stock keeping unit (sku) both in fast pick area and in reserve area, the storage locations assignment, i.e. the determination of the warehousing system location to be assigned to a sku, the routing policies, the operating procedures, etc. A discussion on supporting decisions models and tools useful for practitioners of industry to face these critical problems is presented and finally a case study illustrated

Economic and environmental optimization of packaging containers choice in Food Catering Supply Chain

Disposable containers are widely employed throughout food supply chains (FSCs) to transport, sell, or store perishable products. These containers are made of several materials, like plastic and cardboard. Albeit the widespread use of such containers, not all the materials are suitable for food contact, and a barrier layer between perishable products and the container is needed. Moreover, a high percentage of waste along the FSC consists of primary and secondary packages. Food Catering Supply Chain (FCSC), made of multi-stage logistic networks, represents a challenging scenario for minimizing packaging disposal. Chosen for reducing waste, reusable plastic containers (RPCs) are gaining ground within the food supply chain network. We propose a multi-objective optimization model to improve the business as usual (BAU) of FCSC, quantifying saving in terms of cost and environmental impact due to the employment of RPCs. The model virtualizes the logistic and operational costs as well as the transportation and disposal impact of reusable and recyclable plastic containers. This paper evaluates the use of RPCs by comparing the performances of as-is and to-be scenarios derived from an industrial case study. The analyzed network comprises perishable product suppliers, RPC poolers, cross-docking facilities, customers, and collectors. The results show the reduction of environmental impacts and logistic, handling, and operational costs in the proposed FCSC topology. A new network configuration and insights for future research investigations are presented

Scheduling cross-docking operations under uncertainty: A stochastic genetic algorithm based on scenarios tree

A cross-docking terminal enables consolidating and sorting fast-moving products along supply chain networks and reduces warehousing costs and transportation efforts. The target efficiency of such logistic systems results from synchronizing the physical and information flows while scheduling receiving, shipping and handling operations. Within the tight time-windows imposed by fast-moving products (e.g., perishables), a deterministic schedule hardly adheres to real-world environments because of the uncertainty in trucks arrivals. In this paper, a stochastic MILP model formulates the minimization of penalty costs from exceeding the time-windows under uncertain truck arrivals. Penalty costs are affected by products' perishability or the expected customer’ service level. A validating numerical example shows how to solve (1) dock-assignment, (2) while prioritizing the unloading tasks, and (3) loaded trucks departures with a small instance. A tailored stochastic genetic algorithm able to explore the uncertain scenarios tree and optimize cross-docking operations is then introduced to solve scaled up instaces. The proposed genetic algorithm is tested on a real-world problem provided by a national delivery service network managing the truck-to-door assignment, the loading, unloading, and door-to-door handling operations of a fleet of 271 trucks within two working shifts. The obtained solution improves the deterministic schedule reducing the penalty costs of 60%. Such results underline the impact of unpredicted trucks’ delay and enable assessing the savings from increasing the number of doors at the cross-dock

Post pandemic strategic planning of food catering production and distribution networks: A regional case study

Due to the Covid19 outbreak, the food catering industry faces disruption of demand traits and great uncertainty about the future development of market segmentation. The need for a re-design of production and logistic networks faces the lack of knowledge about cost drivers, rendering the application of mathematical optimization models challenging. In this paper, a cost components analysis is carried out to quantify each cost item's impact on the full meal cost. Cost analysis aims to formalize the relationship between meal cost and parameters such as productivity, meal conservation regime, customer typology, portioning method, and customer-plant distance. The cost parameters are adjusted through empirically driven correction factors to include operational and management complexities that would otherwise be neglected. The obtained parameters feed a total cost minimization model for a productive and distributive catering network. The location-allocation model chooses the production capacity to activate in each production plant for every meal-type and achieves the customer-production plant pairing. The framework is applied in an Italian regional case study to compare the BAU scenario to two different To-Be scenarios. The As-Is scenario considers four different production facilities serving the pre-pandemic demand of 2019, while the To-Be scenarios are based upon a demand forecast enforcing a more resilient network. The analysis shows how re-designing production and distribution networks enables meeting uncertain demand while keeping FMCs under control within a regional environment

Sustainability assessment of transport operations in local Food Supply Chain networks

As food supply chains represent a hotspot of climate change, a rapid transition toward more sustainable processes and operations is expected. Whilst research provides decision-support models to optimize food ecosystems, the application of these techniques in practice is often discouraged by a lack of knowledge and visibility on the hidden food networks’ performance and impacts. This paper overviews a case study on a regional fruit and vegetable supply chain characterized by broad fragmentation of supplies, a wide number of actors involved, multiple stages, and limited visibility on the routes traveled by a generic food order. This work analyzes the perishable flows from the growers to the retailer under the lens of environmental externalities in order to promote sustainable supply chain management strategies. Logistic flows throughout the stages are tracked and mapped to aid integrated decision-making, resulting in food miles and transport externalities assessment. A multi-scenario what-if analysis is illustrated to compare and assess transportation costs, food miles, and carbon footprint resulting from more integrated supply chain decisions and configurations. The To-Be scenario results in significant savings in terms of carbon emissions, traveling, and transportation costs. Moreover, the reduction of transported volumes reflects how multiple supply chain stages compel double/triple-handling of food and avoidable travelin

toward a real time reconfiguration of self adaptive smart assembly systems

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Integrated Models and Tools for Design and Management of Global Supply Chain

In modern and global supply chain, the increasing trend toward product variety, level of service, short delivery delay and response time to consumers, highlight the importance to set and configure smooth and efficient logistic processes and operations. In order to comply such purposes the supply chain management (SCM) theory entails a wide set of models, algorithms, procedure, tools and best practices for the design, the management and control of articulated supply chain networks and logistics nodes. The purpose of this Ph.D. dissertation is going in detail on the principle aspects and concerns of supply chain network and warehousing systems, by proposing and illustrating useful methods, procedures and support-decision tools for the design and management of real instance applications, such those currently face by enterprises. In particular, after a comprehensive literature review of the principal warehousing issues and entities, the manuscript focuses on design top-down procedure for both less-than-unit-load OPS and unit-load storage systems. For both, decision-support software platforms are illustrated as useful tools to address the optimization of the warehousing performances and efficiency metrics. The development of such interfaces enables to test the effectiveness of the proposed hierarchical top-down procedure with huge real case studies, taken by industry applications. Whether the large part of the manuscript deals with micro concerns of warehousing nodes, also macro issues and aspects related to the planning, design, and management of the whole supply chain are enquired and discussed. The integration of macro criticalities, such as the design of the supply chain infrastructure and the placement of the logistic nodes, with micro concerns, such the design of warehousing nodes and the management of material handling, is addressed through the definition of integrated models and procedures, involving the overall supply chain and the whole product life cycle. A new integrated perspective should be applied in study and planning of global supply chains. Each aspect of the reality influences the others. Each product consumed by a customer tells a story, made by activities, transformations, handling, processes, traveling around the world. Each step of this story accounts costs, time, resources exploitation, labor, waste, pollution. The economical and environmental sustainability of the modern global supply chain is the challenge to face.Nelle moderne filiere logistiche-distributive globali, la crescente varietà dei prodotti, il livello di servizio, e la rapidità nel rispondere alla domanda del cliente, impongono una seria e ponderata progettazione ed organizzazione dei processi intra-inter aziendali. Con l'obiettivo di rispondere a tali criticità, le teorie di supply chain managment (SCM) propongono una vasta gamma di modelli, algoritmi, procedure, e strumenti per la progettazione, la gestione e il controllo delle articolate supply chain e dei principali nodi logistici. Uno dei principali obiettivi di questa tesi di dottorato è approfondire nel dettaglio i processi e gli aspetti principali della filiera logistica e dei suoi principali buffer (i.e. sistemi di stoccaggio), illustrando metodi, modelli, procedure e sistemi di supporto decisionale per la progettazione e gestione di istanze reali, quotidianamente affrontate dalle aziende di tutto il mondo. In particolare, dopo una completa rassegna della letteratura sui sistemi di stoccaggio, la tesi si concentra sulla descrizione di procedure decisionali top-down per la progettazione ed il controllo di sistemi di stoccaggio a prelievo frazionato (i.e. Order picking systems) e sistemi di stoccaggio ad unità di carico intere. Per entrambe le tipologie di sistemi, sono illustrati strumenti informatici di supporto alle decisioni per la valutazione e l'ottimizzazione delle prestazioni logistiche - operative. Lo sviluppo di tali interfacce permette di testare l'efficacia dei modelli e delle procedure decisionali proposte su significativi casi di studio di origine industriale. Se la prima parte del manoscritto si concentra sugli aspetti micro intra-nodo della filiera distributiva, l'ultimo capitolo affronta le tematiche macro di filiera relative alla pianificazione, progettazione e gestione della infrastruttura della supply chain. L'integrazione di macro criticità, come la locazione dei nodi logistici di produzione e distribuzione e l'instradamento dei flussi fisici lungo ed attraverso il network della supply chain, con micro criticità, inerenti la progettazione di nodi distributivi e di stoccaggio e la gestione del material handling, si realizza attraverso la definizione di modelli integrati di pianificazione strategica per l'ottimizzazione dell'intera filiera, lungo tutto il ciclo di vita del prodotto. Una nuova prospettiva integrata deve essere applicata allo studio e la progettazione di articolate supply chain globali. Ogni aspetto della realtà dipende ed influenza gli altri lungo la filiera. Ogni prodotto acquistato e consumato dal cliente finale racconta una storia, fatta di attività, processi, trasformazioni subite, movimentazioni e trasporto in giro per il mondo. Ogni step di questo percorso richiede tempo, risorse, manodopera, generando costi, scarti, inquinamento. In tale contesto, la sostenibilità economica ed ambientale delle moderne supply chain globali rappresenta la principale sfida da affrontare