Tracking of temperature sensitive products and identifying the possible causes of product deterioration during shipment for a better digital cold chain management

Project Description

Building upon previous studies done by the team in the past (Prof Bartholdi and Dr Mac- Cawley, Prof Goedhals-Gerber). The aims of the project are to i) digitally map and track the global cold supply chains of selected products from farms to retail so as to identify the areas of the supply chain more prone to issues such as temperature breaks and delays, ii ii) to understand the causes of these issues and, iii) to determine how these issues can be addressed a in a digital collaboration and information sharing framework.

Shipments of selected products will be equipped with temperature/humidity sensors. The data collected will be analysed and the shipment routes reconstructed to illustrate variations of critical control parameters such as temperature and humidity with time and locations in the supply chain. Whenever possible, the reasons for the delays and variations in critical control parameters together with their impact on the products’ shelf lives will be explained. On the user side, Morrison plc will facilitate the study by providing access to its suppliers in the countries targeted. Morrison plc will also provide the shipment documents to be able to explain the routes and will provide additional data on past shipments for further analytics. A side objective of the project is to understand how the relevant data about the shipments could be made available on-line through a digital sharing and integration platform (distributed ledger or others) to Morrisons and their partners in the supply chain to improve efficiency and mitigate risks. The project will also allow a longitudinal study of the wine supply chain using data collected from previously studies and reproduce a wine tasting experiment for the next IoFT conference.