Applications of the internet of things for optimizing warehousing and logistics operations: A systematic literature review and future research directions

The growing consumer awareness of climate change and the resulting food sustainability issues have led to an increasing adoption of several emerging food trends. Some of these trends have been strengthened by the emergence of the fourth industrial revolution (or Industry 4.0), and its innovations and technologies that have fundamentally reshaped and transformed current strategies and prospects for food production and consumption patterns. In this review a general overview of the industrial revolutions through a food perspective will be provided. Then, the current knowledge base regarding consumer acceptance of eight traditional animal-proteins alternatives (e.g., plant-based foods and insects) and more recent trends (e.g., cell-cultured meat and 3D-printed foods) will be updated. A special focus will be given to the impact of digital technologies and other food Industry 4.0 innovations on the shift toward greener, healthier, and more sustainable diets. Emerging food trends have promising potential to promote nutritious and sustainable alternatives to animal-based products. This literature narrative review showed that plant-based foods are the largest portion of alternative proteins but intensive research is being done with other sources (notably the insects and cell-cultured animal products). Recent technological advances are likely to have significant roles in enhancing sensory and nutritional properties, improving consumer perception of these emerging foods. Thus, consumer acceptance and consumption of new foods are predicted to continue growing, although more effort should be made to make these food products more convenient, nutritious, and affordable, and to market them to consumers positively emphasizing their safety and benefits.

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Consumer acceptance of new food trends resulting from the fourth industrial revolution technologies: A narrative review of literature and future perspectives

IoT research in supply chain management and logistics: A bibliometric analysis using vosviewer software

Warehouse management will be the focus of this article, which aims to examine the benefits and issues & challenges of using Industry 4.0 technologies to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations (UN). We conducted a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) evaluation of the published literature from credible peer-reviewed journals in the major databases Scopus and Web of Science. The analysis of literature will be a frequency analysis of the literature by considering the year of publications, the contribution of leading journals and publishers, and the methodology adopted and the content analysis of literature to get the benefits, issues & challenges of the implementation of industry 4.0 on warehouses in accordance to SDGs that were identified from the literature. Industry 4.0 research on logistics and supply chain management, as well as warehouse management, showed a significant increase in research papers in the past two years. But, the study on industry 4.0 in warehousing toward SDGs is still in its early stages, with just a few articles contributing to sustainable practices. Our findings from the literature reveal that the major benefits of implementing industry 4.0 in warehouse management as per SDGs are “SDG – 2 (Zero Hunger)”, “SDG – 4 (Quality Education)”, “SDG – 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy)”, “SDG − 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure)”, “SDG – 12 (Ensure Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns)”, and “SDG – 13 (Climate Action)”. Lack of government support, legal issues, lack of skilled manpower, political issues, and old/traditional warehouses are the major issues & challenges of industry 4.0 in warehouses to avert the deed of achieving SDGs in developing countries. This study is one of those that apply industry 4.0 in the context of warehouse management, thus it will reveal insights and implications for future research. 

A systematic literature review of integration of industry 4.0 and warehouse management to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Organizational tensions in industry 4.0 implementation: A paradox theory approach

Purpose: The food supply chain (FSC) challenges coupled with global disruptions, such as the recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak, exacerbate its vulnerability The Internet of things (IoT) is one of the disruptive technologies being adopted in food supply chain management (FSCM) This study aims to address the challenges of IoT adoption in the FSC by systematically analyzing the prior pertinent literature Design/methodology/approach: A structured literature review was used to collate a list of peer-reviewed and relevant publications A total of 72 out of 210 articles were selected for the final evaluation Findings: The literature review findings suggest five themes: technical, financial, social, operational, educational and governmental related challenges A total of 15 challenges were devised from the review related literature of IoT adoption The study concludes with future research recommendations for scholars and practical implications for practitioners Research limitations/implications: While this study focuses on the overall FSC, further research should address other domains in the FSC such as cold supply chain, agriculture and perishable food to gain a better contextual understanding of the specific case Originality/value: The topic of IoT adoption in the FSCM is still considered emerging Therefore, the present work contributes to the limited studies and documentation on the level of IoT implementation in the FSCM This study should help organizations to assimilate how to adopt and manage the IoT application by addressing the factors and challenges presented in this research © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

The internet of things in the food supply chain: adoption challenges


Purpose
While several warehouses are now technologically equipped and smart, the implementation of real-time analytics in warehouse operations is scarcely reported in the literature. This study aims to develop a practical system for real-time analytics of process monitoring in an internet-of-things (IoT)-enabled smart warehouse environment.


Design/methodology/approach
A modified system development research process was used to carry out this research. A prototype system was developed that mimicked a case company’s actual warehouse operations in Indonesia’s manufacturing companies. The proposed system relied heavily on the utilization of IoT technologies, wireless internet connection and web services to keep track of the product movement to provide real-time access to critical warehousing activities, helping make better, faster and more informed decisions.


Findings
The proposed system in the presented case company increased real-time warehousing processes visibility for stakeholders at different management levels in their most convenient ways by developing visual representation to display crucial information. The numerical or textual data were converted into graphics for ease of understanding for stakeholders, including field operators. The key elements for the feasible implementation of the proposed model in an industrial area were discussed. They are strategic-level components, IoT-enabled warehouse environments, customized middleware settings, real-time processing software and visual dashboard configuration.


Research limitations/implications
While this study shows a prototype-based implementation of actual warehouse operations in one of Indonesia’s manufacturing companies, the architectural requirements are applicable and extensible by other companies. In this sense, the research offers significant economic advantages by using customized middleware to avoid unnecessary waste brought by the off-the-shelves generic middleware, which is not entirely suitable for system development.


Originality/value
This research’s finding contributes to filling the gap in the limited body of knowledge of real-time analytics implementation in warehousing operations. This should encourage other researchers to enhance and develop the devised elements to enrich smart warehousing’s theoretical knowledge. Besides, the successful proof-of-concept implementation reported in this research would allow other companies to gain valuable insights and experiences.


Silvia Sagita Arumsari

Papers

The internet of things in the food supply chain: adoption challenges

Design and application of data analytics in an internet-of-things enabled warehouse

A system design of big data analytics for an IoT-enabled warehouse