Robotics in Food Supply Chains

ROBOTICS IN FOOD SUPPLY CHAINS

-??Saloni Singh (MBA, Trinity Business School)

1.???INTRODUCTION

?A global increase in population has led to an increased emphasis on resource utilization and food security. Hence, the need to improve Food Supply Chain Management (FSCM) is important in today’s global circumstances (Duong et al., 2020). FSCM depicts the activities or operations taking place at the production, processing, distribution and retail stages of the supply chain. Technology has proved to play a major role in enhancing efficiency and reducing costs in various supply chains. This essay focuses specifically on the impact, opportunities and challenges of robotics in food supply chains. The difference between FSCM and other supply chains such as automobile logistics is the extreme importance of factors such as food quality, safety and freshness. This alone makes the underlying supply chains more complex and difficult to manage (Zhong, Xu and Wang, 2017).

This essay attempts to discuss the growing trend of robotics in Food Supply Chains and how this can help reduce such complexities in every process in the supply chain be it production at the agricultural stage, food processing, distribution, or retail and delivery processes. In section 2, a general overview of the need for robotics is discussed followed by subsections which discuss the impact that robotics currently has at the different stages of supply chains. Further, in section 3, this essay touches upon the opportunities that organizations have with the increased usage of robotics in their ecosystem and the future potential of robotics to transform supply chains in the food sector. Despite the advantages and opportunities robotics has in the food industry, it also has some challenges. These are discussed in section 4, followed by the conclusion.

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2.???IMPACT OF ROBOTICS ON FOOD SUPPLY CHAINS

A recent report on the geopolitical briefing shows that there are substantial shortages of labour in the fruit and vegetable sector (Katsoras, 2020). This shortage can be taken care of by using the emerging technology, robotics through its applications in process automation, with the Agile, and Lean principles. Additionally, in the light of COVID 19, food packages and food handlers are potential carriers of the disease. During the pandemic or any such global emergency, additional measures to reduce the risk of infection, including cleaning and disinfecting food, may fall short. Amid the pandemic, with the rise in death and health risks of grocery workers, there was a growing unwillingness to work, creating a shortage of workers. Shortage of workers raises labour costs apart from generating long wait times in order fulfilment.?This challenge could only be tackled by organizations which were agile enough to incorporate and respond to the changes quickly. This agility can be well managed using robotic systems automating manual work like spraying sanitisers on food packaging. Robotics can therefore be used as a risk mitigation tool in supply chains in case of emergencies like Covid and can be leveraged to respond quickly to changes by following the Agile Principles. Working robots also help in delivering last-mile as a service smoothly and thus enhance customer experience (Sharma, Zanotti and Musunur, 2020).

Over the recent years, robotics has become one of the key elements of supply chains across industries. The development of Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) has been encouraged, being deployable even in dangerous areas, providing high efficiencies, delivering cost-effective solutions, avoiding employee fatigue, and several other reasons that we will address in the subsequent sections (Duong et al., 2020: 1). The high dependence of the food sector on human resources with limited available machinery and increasing global competition as well as demand, call for more and more autonomous systems and robots in the industry to keep pace with the demand. Moreover, technologies such as robotics offer more sustainable ways to lead the production, distribution as well as retail sale of food products through decreased human intervention and high data accuracy (Dadi et al., 2021). Following the principles of Lean, robotics can enhance customer value through waste elimination and continuous improvement in the supply chain system (Ugochukwu, Engstr?m and Langstrand, 2012).

As suggested in the above diagram, the first stage of the food supply chain is the production stage which includes further processes such as agriculture, livestock, aquaculture, etc. Once the raw materials from the production phase are collected, they are sent to the next step in the process, that is, processing. Food processing is a whole subject in itself. After processing, the processed raw material travels to the distributers. Distribution involves packaging and distributing processed items to retail stores or restaurants. At the end of the chain is the retail store or the restaurant which directly sells food products to customers. Let us see each step of the supply chain in detail concerning its transformation using robotics.

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A.???Production

Agriculture constitutes an important part of the food production process. Robots can be used to automate operations within production. One such application of robotics is the use of drones to monitor crop health, identify any weed growth and control disasters (Dadi et al., 2021). These drones are programmed to spray pesticides at regular intervals automatically without the need for human intervention. The drones also benefit agriculture by creating soil maps, thereby helping in damage control and waste reduction. Continuous monitoring of crop health by drones/robots reduces wastage, ensuring more resource utilization in production as well as further processes which constitute the supply chain (Dadi et al., 2021). Other applications of robotics are in performing farming activities such as pruning, inspection, spraying, automated cattle body condition scoring system, automated refrigerated storage, and scheduling tasks in a complex agriculture environment (Duong et al., 2020: 6).

Robots find many ways to have an impact on the harvesting process as well. Although most of the fruit harvesting is still done manually, researchers have formulated ways to automate this using robot. Robots have been able to pick fruits and help store them. Robotic and Autonomous Systems (RAS) are being used at greenhouses, where it is easier to move robots inside closed environments. With the increased implementation of the RAS, future projections show that robotics will be used in 20% of the harvesting operations (Duong et al., 2020). Analytics can also be performed on the data collected by robots to further improve process efficiencies and robustness.

Livestock and aquaculture are important components of the production processes in the food supply chains. Currently, RAS is being regularly used for milking animals in dairies and forecasts suggest that it will be utilized in half of the dairy industry across the EU by 2025. RAS is hugely benefiting livestock and aquaculture increasing capacity and thus being less dependent on humans. Other activities such as feeding the livestock and removing waste are also being done by robots. This reduces the risk of contamination and health hazards for human operators as robots can perform these tasks regularly and cost-effectively ?(Duong et al., 2020).

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B.???Processing

The food processing industry when compared to the automotive and aerospace industries, is a slower adopter of robotics and automation technologies. Nevertheless, the food industry has seen a digitally transformed supply chain, especially in processes like cleansing, packing and freshness storage which are being automated by the use of robots (Zhong, Xu and Wang, 2017). The application of robotics has enabled organizations to increase their productivity in processing food by reducing waste and enhancing product quality, the two essential components of the Lean philosophy. RAS are particularly useful in accomplishing tasks that may have a risk of hazard. Therefore, RAS also strengthens the risk management aspect of the food processing industry by letting robots do those jobs instead of risking the lives or health of humans (Duong et al., 2020). The data generated by the robots can be further analysed to evaluate trends, predict areas of wastage and further reduce wastage in the food processing stage by following Lean.

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C.???Distribution

The product quality usually deteriorates in distribution, based on environmental conditions of transportation and storage. A major complexity in food supply chains is managing temperature and humidity. Timely and accurate information throughout the chain is therefore essential to reduce spillage. Several cutting-edge technologies such as robotics with image processing, edge detection, etc. have been implemented for automatic assessment and monitoring of food quality in this phase, thereby reducing spillage and keeping the supply chain informed about the condition of goods in transportation or storage. (Duong et al., 2020).

Various traceability systems have been implemented using robotics for tracking products in real-time (Zhong, Xu and Wang, 2017). RFIDs and sensors are being integrated with robotics to improve food safety, real-time tracking and operations management, which enhance profitability due to increased sales volumes. Tracing systems provide robustness and agility to organizations as they are better prepared to tackle changes.

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D.???Restaurant

Robotics finds extensive utilization in restaurants today, especially in the catering industry. Smart and collaborative robots are being used for packaging, picking and placing actions thus reducing manual effort (Chauhan, Brouwer and Westra, 2022). Such automation also enables restaurants to manage inspection and better serve the customers, without being too dependent on human resources. Robots have proved to decrease downtimes, thereby speeding up processes and increasing efficiencies (Smetana, Aganovic and Heinz, 2020).

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E.????Retail

The retail stores are at the end of the supply chain and therefore customer service is of utmost importance, and so is the importance of Lean and Agile methodologies which have customers at their centre. Robotics along with RFID technology has a significant role in retailing. Robots use RFID to read tags and update inventory quantities providing real-time visibility. Robots are also being utilized to use valuable data about customer demand to further create trends and predict future demand using Artificial Intelligence. One of the major inventory problems is the “Bullwhip Effect”, which can be tackled using robots and analytics. The bullwhip effect occurs when the demand variabilities in the supply chain are amplified as they move up the supply chain. Distorted information from one end of a supply chain to the other can lead to tremendous inefficiencies (Lee, Padmanabhan and Whang, 1997: 1). Companies can effectively counteract the bullwhip effect by having RAS in place. Since the communication is no longer manual, but automated, information shared across the supply chain will be uniform and accurate.

Robots also help in the replenishment of products and in advising suitable shelves to place particular items based on previous customer demand and sales (Haji et al., 2020). Covid 19 has brought about a major increase in demand for grocery delivery services. Some of the companies including Amazon Fresh, Fresh Direct, Net Grocer and Safeway have been trying to get a foothold in the online grocery market. Robotics is being pursued by many of these companies to fulfil last-mile services (Sharma, Zanotti and Musunur, 2020). Last-mile delivery, also known as final mile delivery or final mile logistics, refers to the transportation of goods from a warehouse or distribution centre to their final destination — typically, the customer’s doorstep (Krug, 2022: 1). This is a great opportunity area for organizations which will be discussed in detail in the next section.

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3.???OPPORTUNITIES FOR ORGANIZATIONS

The last mile fulfilment model for in-store operations is a great opportunity for organizations in the grocery or food retail business. In-store shopping is the traditional way of shopping which can be transformed by way of executing robots at every step of the checkout process. In future, organizations have a huge potential to increase sales and customer experience through extensive utilization of RAS. Another opportunity for robotics in implementing the last mile model is the curbside pickup which is becoming increasingly popular among customers. In curbside pickup, a customer places an order for groceries online and an in-store employee picks up the items for the customer. For pickup, the customer drives his/her vehicle to the curbside near the store and one of the store personnel gets all the ordered items to the driveway and hands it over to the customer. This model of purchasing gained popularity through the Covid 19 pandemic because it limits the exposure of customers to the germs inside the store. However, this model is expensive for the stores. Employing human order-pickers for stores adds to its operational costs. Research has estimated that for an order of 100 Euros, it takes around 1 hour of additional labour, costing the store an additional 20 Euros per order of 100 Euros (Sharma, Zanotti and Musunur, 2020). Organizations that want to increase agility and deliver the last mile service at low operating costs have a great opportunity. Robots can be developed to do the job of the order-picker, thus reducing costs. These are huge transformations when it comes to operationalizing the above-mentioned changes. A huge initial investment, as well as a transformed business model, is required.

Soft robotics, a field of robotics, enables robots to have fully functional body parts similar to humans and mimic the exact function of those parts by using highly flexible materials such as thermoplastic polyurethane (WhatNext, 2021). This is another opportunity area within robotics, that companies can use to transform their post-harvest supply chains. Soft robotics provides gripping solutions for handling fragile and fresh products. Another interesting area for exploration in the food sector is the use of Automated Mobile Robots (AMRs) for post-harvest warehouse operations. AMRs provide opportunities such as monitoring and mapping qualitative and climatic changes for food-based organizations. This technology can prove to be a game-changer for the food industry as monitoring of climate will help reduce spillage costs and wastage of crops, and there will be no need to solely rely on the climate for healthy growth of crops. This development can be a milestone in ensuring food security with the current global population growth. Further research must focus on leveraging these technologies for quality management and waste reduction (Chauhan, Brouwer and Westra, 2022).?

4.???CHALLENGES FOR ORGANIZATIONS

Research suggests that organizations emphasise more the functional implementation and the development costs involved in robotics rather than cybersecurity which is a huge risk. The cyber threat comes along with greater dependence on RAS. There are potential threats to the robotic systems at the hardware, firmware/operating systems, and application levels (Clark, Doran and Andel, 2017). To tackle this challenge, organizations need to invest more in developing a robust and secure infrastructure with an emphasis on firewalls and secure firmware.

As presented in previous sections, robotics opens opportunity areas for food-based organizations to improve their supply chains. Organizations have started researching ways to implement it and some are already using RAS in their supply chains. However, regarding soft robots, current research merely suggests their prototypes and their design continues to be an area requiring further research. Some further technical challenges and complexities are involved in researching and implementing robotics due to it being an emerging technology. It also has high setup costs which can be challenging for smaller businesses in the food industry (Chen et al., 2017).

Automating several manual tasks will plummet the demand for manual labour. At the same time, it will increase the demand for a different skill. With the increased usage of robotics and Artificially Intelligent systems, organizations will need more technical labour. This can severely impact the unskilled labour force whose livelihoods are hugely dependent on these manual processes. Moreover, with the growing demand for tech-skilled labour, there can be a shortage of labour for these organizations and thus pose a threat to their operations.

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5.???CONCLUSION

Food security is a major global challenge today and it puts serious emphasis on the need for improved food supply chain management to reduce waste, improve quality, increase the capacity of production and achieve operational effectiveness. Robotics as evident from the above sections, has an immense impact on increasing operational efficiencies, reducing costs, minimizing waste and setting up robust ecosystems in place. RAS has made a difference in all segments of the supply chain, from production to retail stores, and is a great prospect for organizations going forward. It is also a tool to tackle labour shortages, for example, the shortages triggered by Brexit and Covid. Research suggests that robotic technologies are expected to play a significant role in addressing these global challenges, which is evident by the growing number of organizations in the food sector taking this step (Chauhan, Brouwer and Westra, 2022). While robotics can transform the food business, it can also pose some challenges such as cyber threats. As this area grows, organizations need to make their ecosystems more robust with increased emphasis on cybersecurity.

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6.???BIBLIOGRAPHY

Chauhan, A., Brouwer, B. and Westra, E., 2022. Robotics for a Quality-Driven Post-harvest Supply Chain.?Current Robotics Reports, pp.1-10.

Chen, A., Yin, R., Cao, L., Yuan, C., Ding, H.K. and Zhang, W.J., 2017, November. Soft robotics: Definition and research issues. In?2017 24th international conference on mechatronics and machine vision in practice (M2VIP)?(pp. 366-370). IEEE.

Clark, G.W., Doran, M.V. and Andel, T.R., 2017, March. Cybersecurity issues in robotics. In?2017 IEEE conference on cognitive and computational aspects of situation management (CogSIMA)?(pp. 1-5). IEEE.

Dadi, V., Nikhil, S.R., Mor, R.S., Agarwal, T. and Arora, S., 2021. Agri-food 4.0 and innovations: Revamping the supply chain operations.?Production Engineering Archives,?27(2), pp.75-89.

Duong, L.N., Al-Fadhli, M., Jagtap, S., Bader, F., Martindale, W., Swainson, M. and Paoli, A., 2020. A review of robotics and autonomous systems in the food industry: From the supply chains perspective.?Trends in Food Science & Technology,?106, pp.355-364.

Haji, M., Kerbache, L., Muhammad, M. and Al-Ansari, T., 2020. Roles of technology in improving perishable food supply chains.?Logistics,?4(4), p.33.

Katsoras, A., 2020. Cracks are emerging in the global food supply chain.?National Bank of Canada.(also available at https://www. nbc. ca/content/dam/bnc/en/rates-andanalysis/economic-analysis/GeopoliticalBriefing_200629. pdf).

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Lee, H.L., Padmanabhan, V. and Whang, S., 1997. The bullwhip effect in supply chains.?Sloan management review,?38, pp.93-102.

Sharma, A., Zanotti, P. and Musunur, L.P., 2020. Drive through robotics: Robotic automation for last mile distribution of food and essentials during pandemics.?IEEE Access,?8, pp.127190-127219.

Smetana, S., Aganovic, K. and Heinz, V., 2021. Food supply chains as cyber-physical systems: a path for more sustainable personalized nutrition.?Food Engineering Reviews,?13(1), pp.92-103.

Ugochukwu, P., Engstr?m, J. and Langstrand, J., 2012. Lean in the supply chain: a literature review.?Management and production engineering review,?3, pp.87-96.

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Zhong, R., Xu, X. and Wang, L., 2017. Food supply chain management: systems, implementations, and future research.?Industrial Management &amp; Data Systems, 117(9), pp.2085-2114.)