Abstract
Globally, one-third of the food produced is discarded, most of it along the food supply chain. Monitoring the food supply chain could significantly reduce rejects and waste along it. Especially in the production of perishable foods, monitoring compliance with food hygiene is demanding as multiple parameters must be maintained: e.g. temperature and pressure. Such perishable products are usually stored and transported in metal intermediate bulk containers (IBCs). IBCs are, in most cases, a black box during use, providing no additional benefit to manufacturers. Therefore, as part of the smart.CONSERVE research project, smart containers were developed to monitor the critical properties of the stored food products, such as temperature and pressure. By equipping the containers with modular sensor technology that collects relevant data from the transported food, new data can be generated along the entire supply chain and production processes. This can prevent resource waste and increase production quality and sustainability. This data includes filling levels and container locations, offering, for example, new use cases for inventory management. In this paper, we present the business model, the technical solution developed, possible scenarios for retrofitting existing containers, and the validation of the developed solutions. We discuss what is needed for actual industrial implementation and whether the concept is transferable to other industries. Lastly, we put the results and approach of our project in a broader context and reflect on perspectives for the developed solution, both in research and industrial applications.
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Acknowledgements
The project smart.CONSERVE has been supported by funds from the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) based on a decision of the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany via the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE) under the innovation support program (FKZ 281 A511A19).
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Burggräf, P., Adlon, T., Steinberg, F., Salzwedel, J., Nettesheim, P., Tschauder, H. (2023). Transforming Food Production: Smart Containers for Sustainable and Transparent Food Supply Chains. In: Alfnes, E., Romsdal, A., Strandhagen, J.O., von Cieminski, G., Romero, D. (eds) Advances in Production Management Systems. Production Management Systems for Responsible Manufacturing, Service, and Logistics Futures. APMS 2023. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 692. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43688-8_34
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43688-8_34
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