Increasing the effectiveness of food supply chain logistics through digital transformation

Abstract

During the COVID-19 crisis, there were many restrictions placed on transportation. Due to this, a significant disruption in the food supply chain emerged. The transportation of fresh food and maintaining its quality from farm to the table, or distributing and then collecting from warehouses and delivering to the consumer, has become crucial. Technologies, and especially the IoT, have become the primary tools to fight this. The research objective is to analyze and create new knowledge about digital technologies used to improve and make more effective food supply chain processes. An exploratory case study methodology helps to investigate a large consortium based on IoT technologies, implemented in pilot cases at the farm level and measuring their performance over a period of four years. This is an interpretative study, and the method of semi-structured interviews and document review for collecting the data was used. The results show IoT-connected sensors and systems in food and beverage supply chain logistics offer real-time visibility and data-driven analytics, allowing stakeholders to improve performance, cut operating costs, conduct predictive maintenance to avoid downtime, and even decrease energy usage or reduce negative environmental impacts.