Production routing in perishable and quality degradable supply chains

An Integrated Model for the Harvest, Storage, and Distribution of Perishable Crops

Coordination of the production and distribution activities represents a significant opportunity to cut costs and limit waste in the food supply chains. In this paper, we propose two mathematical models. The first one aims to integrate the harvesting, storage, and distribution activities of an agricultural company dealing with perishable products. The second one promotes horizontal collaboration between heterogeneous agri-companies for the distribution phase, in order to achieve cost savings. Computational experiments, conducted on a set of real-life instances, confirm the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed models, which provide multi-level support. At the tactical level, managerial insights suggest the most profitable parameter setting, in terms of harvesting frequency and quality of service. At the operational level, the use of a heuristic framework can support the decision-making of the companies, suggesting when collaboration is profitable.

Impact of Bullwhip Effect in Quality and Waste in Perishable Supply Chain

The bullwhip effect results from inefficiencies in the supply chain; in perishable products, the inefficiencies are quality in the supply chain and product waste. We carried out a literature review to determine the causes of the bullwhip effect and the supply chain’s quality factors of this phenomenon’s perishable products. Update the demand, the level of deterioration of the product, and the number of intermediaries is the causes of the bullwhip effect most investigated. On the other hand, the product’s safety and the quality of the information are the quality factors of the chain of supplies of perishable products more researched. Future research should address the causes of human behavior that affect the bullwhip effect in the perishable goods supply chain.