De, Arijit

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Food hubs can provide a viable solution to the many logistical challenges faced by small-scale food producers to get their (often perishable) goods to consumers, writes Dr Arijit De, Assistant Professor, University of Manchester.By gathering products from various local and regional producers in one place and fulfilling customer orders placed on the internet, they can contribute to local economic development while benefiting from economies of scale in transportation. This, in turn, can reduce logistics costs and environmental footprint for suppliers while increasing convenience for customers and reducing their travel. But it isn’t all win-win. Several factors determine the extent to which a food hub can function well in fulfilling last-mile delivery and decreasing operational and environmental costs, such as coordinating product and delivery aggregation and logistics efforts, and the nature of vehicles used

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The University of Manchester ResearchHow can we improve the operational efficiency of foodhubs?Link to publication record in Manchester Research ExplorerCitation for published version (APA):De, A. (2023, Aug 30). How can we improve the operational efficiency of food hubs? NICRE Blog.https://nicre.co.uk/blog/2023/august/how-can-we-improve-the-operational-efficiency-of-food-hubs/Citing this paperPlease note that where the full-text provided on Manchester Research Explorer is the Author Accepted Manuscriptor Proof version this may differ from the final Published version. If citing, it is advised that you check and use thepublisher's definitive version.General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the Research Explorer are retained by theauthors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise andabide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.Takedown policyIf you believe that this document breaches copyright please refer to the University of Manchester’s TakedownProcedures [http://man.ac.uk/04Y6Bo] or contact uml.scholarlycommunications@manchester.ac.uk providingrelevant details, so we can investigate your claim.Download date:27. Sep. 202330 August 2023How can weimprove theoperationalefficiency of foodhubs?Home  Blog  2023  August  How can we improve the operational efficiency of food hubs?Coordinating logisticsFood hubs can provide a viable solution to the many logistical challenges faced by small-scale food producers to get their (often perishable) goods to consumers, writes Dr Arijit De, Assistant Professor,University of Manchester.By gathering products from various local and regional producers in one place and fulfilling customer orders placed on the internet, they can contribute to local economic development while benefiting fromeconomies of scale in transportation. This, in turn, can reduce logistics costs and environmental footprint for suppliers while increasing convenience for customers and reducing their travel. But it isn’t allwin-win. Several factors determine the extent to which a food hub can function well in fulfilling last-mile delivery and decreasing operational and environmental costs, such as coordinating product anddelivery aggregation and logistics efforts, and the nature of vehicles used. Focus on FADNE’s Local HeroesI collaborated with Dr. Barbara Tocco and Prof. Matthew Gorton from the National InnovationCentre for Rural Enterprise (NICRE) to successfully address the food hub distribution issuefaced by community interest company, and NICRE’s innovation partner, Food and Drink NorthEast (FADNE). During the Covid-19 pandemic, FADNE introduced Local Heroes, which aimedto provide an e-commerce platform for more than 150 local and regional producers to selltheir food and drink products to customers. Our research focused on improving the operational and environmental efficiency of food hubsby minimising transport costs and carbon emissions. It involved using Microsoft Power BI toanalyse a large data set obtained from FADNE to obtain useful insights regarding thequantities sold and number of customers served. Furthermore, the research work alsoinvolved development of an AI model using the underlying theory of MathematicalOptimisation to address the complex logistics and inventory operations involving different,stakeholders such as producers, hub and customers. The AI model was solved throughadopting optimisation software IBM CPLEX which is widely used in industry.Our empirical results show that horizontal collaboration in logistics between producerscontributes to improving vehicle utilisation which, in turn, can significantly reduce carbonemissions by up to 16%. Additionally, by switching to electric vehicles, transport costs can bereduced by 31.5%, helping to optimise operational costs and reduce environmental impacts.Our findings provide useful evidence for improving logistics strategies which could benefitthose managing food hubs. It also demonstrates that data visualisation software and tools canplay an important role in better understanding performance metrics and optimising logisticssolutions.Future researchThis project has reaffirmed the need to conduct further study into rural logistics, as this area iscurrently under-researched. Specifically understanding how public transportation and cargologistics can be integrated to provide economic, environmental, and social benefits is key. Iworked with NICRE and FADNE, as a Turing Exchange Fellow, in addressing rural businessneeds and innovation/market opportunities via the enhancement of resilient supply chainlogistics by developing advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models and working with big datasets.Furthermore, we’ll be starting an exciting new project with NICRE, FADNE andNorthumberland County Council, to assess the role cargo buses could play in improving smallbusinesses’ logistics and enhancing the viability of rural bus services. A four-year fully-fundedPhD student will be starting later this year. Watch this space to keep up to date with developments as our research progresses.Related itemsImprovingtheoperationalefficiencyandreducingtransport-relatedcarbonemissionsof fooddistributionhubsLocalHeroesNorthEastOpportunityto researchthepotentialfor ruralcargo busesWill e-cargobikes be thebreakthroughfor deliveryservices?E-cargobikes:Potentialfor ruralinnovationAbout usProjectsResearch and evidenceBlogNewsEventsContactRural businessesCommunity and voluntary organisationsGovernment policy makersResearchers & academicsGet involved Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Youtubenicre@newcastle.ac.ukPrivacy policy © NICRE 2023. All rights reserved.Arijit DeAssistant Professor, University of ManchesterAbout us  Latest  Research and evidence  Projects  Innovation portal  Get involved  CONTACT

How can we improve the operational efficiency of food hubs?

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How can we improve the operational efficiency of food hubs?

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