Improving integration in supply chain traceability systems for perishable products

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Gallo ◽  
Riccardo Accorsi ◽  
Riccardo Manzini ◽  
Daniele Santi ◽  
Alessandro Tufano
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Continuous Monitoring ◽  
Weather Forecasting ◽  
Decision Support Tool ◽  
Cold Chain ◽  
Monitoring Systems ◽  
Perishable Products ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Integrated Monitoring ◽  
Support Tool

"Traceability represents a major concern in supply chains of perishable products. Progress enables complex and integrated monitoring systems based on Internet of Things (IoT), continuous monitoring and real-time alerting. However, the adoption rate of these innovations is not fast enough due to the need of expensive equipment and a robust digital infrastructure. The use of inappropriate technology and the lack of standardization between different monitoring systems often causes data leakage during storage and transportation. The lack of a standard in the traceability tools also causes difficulties in merging the output preventing the formation of a seamless cold chain. This paper presents a decision support tool that helps practitioners to track and trace the perishable products at each stage of the supply chain. The tool gathers data from multiple sources with different data structures, merge the files and fill missing data with the aid of a routing tool and weather forecasting databases. The output of this tool is a unique file containing all the traceability data about the product during its life-cycle. The tool also visualizes the traceability data through the use of a Geographic Information System (GIS) based on OpenStreetMap."

Transparency Issues Within a Transport Buyer and Provider Relationship

2020 ◽  
pp. 78-95
Author(s):  
Eirill Bø
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Decision Support Tool ◽  
Food Distribution ◽  
Household Waste ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Time Parameters ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Relationship

Transport is an important function in the supply chain. This chapter focuses on how to buy a transport service, how to form a transport contract, and how a transparent relationship will influence the risk and the relationship between transport provider and buyer. By developing a decision support tool (DST-model) and calculating the cost and the time parameters, the right price and the cost drivers will appear. The cases described in this chapter are a large Norwegian wholesaler for food, distribution to the retailer, and two Norwegian municipalities collecting household waste. In these cases, the buyer and the provider are acting blind in setting the transport price. This means that there is a huge risk for either a bankruptcy by the transport provider or an overpriced transport for the buyer.

The storage of perishable products: A decision-support tool to manage temperature-sensitive products warehouses

2019 ◽  
pp. 131-143
Author(s):  
Giulia Baruffaldi ◽  
Riccardo Accorsi ◽  
Daniele Santi ◽  
Riccardo Manzini ◽  
Francesco Pilati
Keyword(s):  
Decision Support ◽  
Decision Support Tool ◽  
Temperature Sensitive ◽  
Perishable Products ◽  
Support Tool

scholarly journals SPI-Hub™: a gateway to scholarly publishing information

2020 ◽  
Vol 108 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Taneya Y. Koonce ◽  
Mallory N. Blasingame ◽  
Jerry Zhao ◽  
Annette M. Williams ◽  
Jing Su ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Publishing Industry ◽  
Decision Support Tool ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Scholarly Publishing ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Data Framework ◽  
Single Location

Background: Advances in the health sciences rely on sharing research and data through publication. As information professionals are often asked to contribute their knowledge to assist clinicians and researchers in selecting journals for publication, the authors recognized an opportunity to build a decision support tool, SPI-Hub: Scholarly Publishing Information Hub™, to capture the team’s collective publishing industry knowledge, while carefully retaining the quality of service.Case Presentation: SPI-Hub’s decision support functionality relies on a data framework that describes journal publication policies and practices through a newly designed metadata structure, the Knowledge Management Journal Record™. Metadata fields are populated through a semi-automated process that uses custom programming to access content from multiple sources. Each record includes 25 metadata fields representing best publishing practices. Currently, the database includes more than 24,000 health sciences journal records. To correctly capture the resources needed for both completion and future maintenance of the project, the team conducted an internal study to assess time requirements for completing records through different stages of automation.Conclusions: The journal decision support tool, SPI-Hub, provides an opportunity to assess publication practices by compiling data from a variety of sources in a single location. Automated and semi-automated approaches have effectively reduced the time needed for data collection. Through a comprehensive knowledge management framework and the incorporation of multiple quality points specific to each journal, SPI-Hub provides prospective users with both recommendations for publication and holistic assessment of the trustworthiness of journals in which to publish research and acquire trusted knowledge.

scholarly journals Toward a User-Centered Design of a Weather Forecasting Decision-Support Tool

2017 ◽  
Vol 98 (2) ◽  
pp. 373-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth M. Argyle ◽  
Jonathan J. Gourley ◽  
Zachary L. Flamig ◽  
Tracy Hansen ◽  
Kevin Manross
Keyword(s):  
Decision Support ◽  
Weather Forecasting ◽  
Decision Support Tool ◽  
The United States ◽  
Usability Evaluation ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Decision Support Tools ◽  
User Centered Design ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Support Tools

ABSTRACT Hazard Services is a software toolkit that integrates information management, hazard alerting, and communication functions into a single user interface. When complete, National Weather Service forecasters across the United States will use Hazard Services for operational issuance of weather and hydrologic alerts, making the system an instrumental part of the threat management process. As a new decision-support tool, incorporating an understanding of user requirements and behavior is an important part of building a system that is usable, allowing users to perform work-related tasks efficiently and effectively. This paper discusses the Hazard Services system and findings from a usability evaluation with a sample of end users. Usability evaluations are frequently used to support software and website development and can provide feedback on a system’s efficiency of use, effectiveness, and learnability. In the present study, a user-testing evaluation assessed task performance in terms of error rates, error types, response time, and subjective feedback from a questionnaire. A series of design recommendations was developed based on the evaluation’s findings. The recommendations not only further the design of Hazard Services, but they may also inform the designs of other decision-support tools used in weather and hydrologic forecasting. Incorporating usability evaluation into the iterative design of decision-support tools, such as Hazard Services, can improve system efficiency, effectiveness, and user experience.

scholarly journals An innovative decision support tool for liquefied natural gas supply chain planning

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-136
Author(s):  
Christos Papaleonidas ◽  
Dimitrios V. Lyridis ◽  
Alexios Papakostas ◽  
Dimitris Antonis Konstantinidis
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Decision Support Tool ◽  
Liquefied Natural Gas ◽  
Maritime Transportation ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Tramp Shipping

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to improve the tactical planning of the stakeholders of the midstream liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply chain, using an optimisation approach. The results can contribute to enhance the proactivity on significant investment decisions. Design/methodology/approach A decision support tool (DST) is proposed to minimise the operational cost of a fleet of vessels. Mixed integer linear programming (MILP) used to perform contract assignment combined with a genetic algorithm solution are the foundations of the DST. The aforementioned methods present a formulation of the maritime transportation problem from the scope of tramp shipping companies. Findings The validation of the DST through a realistic case study illustrates its potential in generating quantitative data about the cost of the midstream LNG supply chain and the annual operations schedule for a fleet of LNG vessels. Research limitations/implications The LNG transportation scenarios included assumptions, which were required for resource reasons, such as omission of stochasticity. Notwithstanding the assumptions made, it is to the authors’ belief that the paper meets its objectives as described above. Practical implications Potential practitioners may exploit the results to make informed decisions on the operation of LNG vessels, charter rate quotes and/or redeployment of existing fleet. Originality/value The research has a novel approach as it combines the creation of practical management tool, with a comprehensive mathematical modelling, for the midstream LNG supply chain. Quantifying future fleet costs is an alternative approach, which may improve the planning procedure of a tramp shipping company.

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