Operations and Supply Chain Management in the Food Industry

Consumer food preferences are changing. These changes have both temporal and spatial dimensions. An agile agriculture supply chain management (AASCM) is required to cope up with this shifting trend in food consumption. The AASCM would ensure an uninterrupted supply of agricultural produce from farm to fork. This would also contribute to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of achieving food security, leading to zero hunger. This study adopts an inductive grounded theory approach to develop an AASCM framework to match the changing consumer food preferences seamlessly. This is the first attempt to develop the AASCM framework in the supply chain literature. The results showed that consumer insights, market sensing, decisiveness, state-of-the-art IT infrastructure, top management support, and strong vendor relationship are essential for achieving AASCM. The implementation of the framework will aid agility in supply chain management produce leading to higher agriculture productivity, profitability, and customer satisfaction. The study is useful for supply chain management professionals, agriculture entrepreneurs, and policymakers in the agri-food domain.

Transportation is most well defined as a catalyst of progress. This holds true especially in the case of transportation of perishable food items. Hence, it is tough to viably protect transient products and confirm extreme freshness during blistering and moist climate. In India, the most basic requirement in development of the nourishment preparing industry is the absence of included cold chain facilities. The objective of this research is to present the readily available facts about transport and storage of perishable foods and outline the risk factors involved in this activity. Through research, various risk factors in transportation have been analyzed using ISM technique.

Supply chain management has grown into one of the most vital elements of the food industry. The main reason for this is, the nature of food which has a short shelf life forecasting the elements of the food supply chain has turned out to be inevitable. The study focuses on the several quantitative and qualitative approaches that are comprehensively adopted for forecasting in the food processing industry; the study also takes account of the scenarios under which each of these approaches can be effectively adopted. In this study, the primary focus is on the methods of forecasting viz. moving averages, exponential smoothening, and the methods allied to the calculation of the error rate in forecasting, like the mean squared error, mean absolute deviation, and mean absolute percentage error are also being illustrated through the use of a case study of Ideal Food Products, Belgaum. According to the calculations, it is found that the error rate for exponential smoothening is comparatively less than that of the moving averages, and it is being observed that the use of multiple methods in forecasting will provide a more accurate judgement to the people involved in the process of food supply chain management.

Black pepper has long been an important commercial spice in many parts of the world. In recent times, the surplus of supply and rising proportion of spice imports have harmed prices in major markets. India is a good example of this, where farmers have been offering their produce at exceptionally low prices. This study covers Sulthan Bathery, Kalpetta, Mattancherry, Ernakulam, and Kochi of Kerala and Gudaloor of Tamil Nadu to identify the procurement and value chain models of these markets. Identification and mapping of stages involved, intermediaries’ functions, and value chain mapping thus lay the foundation for this chapter. The supply chain models shown in the chapter help to understand how the supply chain looks like and what are the nodes the commodity touches while in the value addition process. Also, the cost sheet was studied to understand the financing of the value chain of black pepper. The cost sheets will help an entrepreneur in coming to a fair deal with the traders during the procurements. When it comes to choosing a procurement market, the proprietor should understand its capability and standards to satisfy the goals of the enterprise.

Food products go through a chain of various markets and companies to be approachable for human consumption; this phenomenon is termed as food supply chain. With the demands of information about the food from farm till it gets to consumers, food supply chains worldwide have opted newer ways to function, allowing consumers to control what they eat. Most of the Southeast Asian countries are making their way toward getting into the race of developed economies, where food supply chains contribute to the countries’ economies by the export business. With the food chains, food safety is one of the major concerns that can bring damage to whole export systems; therefore, various technologies and better practices are introduced. In this chapter, a study was conducted at a coffee and bakery shop in Bangkok, Thailand, to understand the supply chain and various food safety measures being taken at its scale. Moreover, every resource has limits, and if exploited, it can result in scarcity of the same resource. Careless production and processing practices of food products can pose threats to the sustainability of various other natural resources; food waste is one of such major threats; therefore, various possible ways of food waste management from various literature are enlisted in this chapter.

The food supply chain (FSC) is complex, immense and crucial to human beings. Disruptions, fragmentation, poor product traceability, improper product flows, food contamination, food recall, etc., are some of the prevailing issues in the food supply chain. Many cases of E. Coli, hog contamination and halal meat contamination are also evident. This creates a strong need to identify, understand and resolve the issues, leading to an efficient and responsive food supply chain. This study identifies the various issues in the food supply chain and thereafter focuses on traceability and transportation-related issues. The authors have tried to conduct a review of the issues in the food supply chain, especially traceability, transportation and solutions under the purview of supply chain drivers. The study can help future researchers identify and understand an issue and develop a feasible solution for it.

With its several unique and useful applications, blockchain has proven to be a positively disruptive technology in various sectors. Blockchain applications for the food sector had been successfully developed and practised numerous times. The stakeholders of the food supply chain (FSC) are actively exploring the diffusion strategy for the blockchain. The present chapter identifies and analyses the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) that can facilitate the successful adoption of Block Chain Technology (BCT) in FSC. The results of the study highlight that the “Technological maturity (CSF3)” and “Resiliency (CSF5)” are the potential driving CSFs while “Information security and reliability (CSF1)” and “Trust and collaboration (CSF9)” are the most dependent CSFs for BCT adoption in FSC. The analysis from the study draw the contextual and hierarchical relationships among the identified CSFs of BCT adoption in FSC. The outcomes can assist the policymakers in the successful dissemination of BCT and enhancing the performance of FSC.

Nowadays, information and communication technology (ICT) plays a vital role in enhancing the sustainability performance in an organization. Technological disruptions such as the Industry 4.0 technologies have had significant positive impacts across various sectors, and agricultural sector is no exception. The current study highlights the impact of blockchain technology (BCT) as a sustainability enabler in the agricultural supply chains (ASCs). The study begins by identifying the BCT enablers from the literature that will lead to potential sustainability outcomes in the ASCs. These sustainability outcomes are then mapped with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). We therefore contend that BCT may hold the key in driving the ASCs toward sustainability. Finally, the possible implications from the study are suggested.

Cloud computing is an emerging area of computer sciences, and much research is in progress in different aspects since the beginning. Cloud computing creates security, cost, and governance concerns in other prospects in use and a network system of food industries. Food industries are the fastest growing industries in India and abroad. Simultaneously, cloud computing plays an essential role in data and application migration to the cloud for better and effective services. Enterprises get multiple benefits in terms of hardware and software through cloud computing technologies. This book chapter describes various aspects of cloud computing implementation challenges and issues among distributed systems that are well connected geographically. This chapter also provides multiple levels of challenges during the implementation of cloud services in the food industries at the server-side and client-side. This chapter describes a systematic literature review of benefits, technologies, challenges, and issues encountered during cloud computing services offered to food industries.

In a food supply chain, food quality and safety are of paramount importance as there is a drastic change in consumers’ food habits, behaviour and markets. Consumer expectations for food quality and safety during the current pandemic situation are the main driving forces behind this change. Food safety has become essential, and in order to have a safe food and to get a sustainable system of food in a food supply chain, emerging green technologies are of immense importance. In a food supply chain, having good-quality food is necessary, which is safe for consumption and free of contamination. Considering these objectives, acquiring the food safety and quality is of immense prominence and responsibility of all the stakeholders in food supply chain. Alongside this journey of food products from the field to fork, there are several risks linked to food contamination which may occur in the whole supply chain. With an aim of achieving the safety and quality in the food supply chain, stakeholders, besides following the legislations and standards have also to include the effective green technological approaches in the supply chain. Evidently, several green technological approaches have emerged which can be adapted with an intention of confirming the food quality and safety in the overall food supply chain. The aim of this chapter is to provide a concise description of the green technologies and to discuss them from the view point of food quality and safety.

The packaging system protects the food content from moisture, oxidation, biological deterioration, and physical damage and facilitates product distribution throughout the supply chain. It is of the utmost importance to select the suitable packaging material, right packaging technique, and distribution system to meet the consumer demand. The traditional packaging system facilitates the distribution system by performing the basic function of containment, protection, preservation, and communication. Nowadays, food industry and consumers are more concerned about the product's freshness and safety apart from containment and protection. This chapter entails that a communication-based packaging system is an important technique that improves or indicates product safety in the supply chain using smart devices in the packaging system. It monitors the changes in the environments and communicates the condition of food products throughout the supply chain. Smart devices may include various indicators, sensors, radio frequency identification tags, bar codes, and other techniques that improve food safety and quality. These devices establish a chain of responsibility throughout the food supply chain and build a more transparent distribution system and transmit information, rectifying the existing challenges and improving food safety.

Agri-food supply chains are a dynamic system of networks and intermediaries that coordinate at required locations to make food available. The twenty-first century agri-food supply chains are advancing and becoming more efficient with the technological developments and acceleration of globalization. The increasing complexity and uncertainty associated with agri-food markets and agri-food supply chains offer entrepreneurial opportunities to potential entrepreneurs to exploit it. The various entrepreneurship models are evolving in agri-supply chains, owing to an entrepreneur’s imaginative and inventive explorations to tap new opportunities. This chapter discusses the entrepreneurial opportunities in the agri-food supply chain, highlighting the entrepreneurial challenges and innovative business models. It also provides an entrepreneurial policy framework and guidelines for developing agri-food entrepreneurship. Some relevant case studies of successful entrepreneurs associated with agri-food supply chains were also included.