Bridging process engineering and supply chain design for agro-food processing chains

Abstract

the inefficiencies in the food production system (van der Goot et al., 2016). To guarantee a controlled quality of final consumer products, the food assembly industry mainly uses dry and purified intermediates, purchased from the agro-food industry. The production of these intermediates is disconnected from the production of the final consumer products, and requires water and energy-intensive processing steps (van der Goot et al., 2016). Additionally, the yield of processing generally reduces when higher purity has to be obtained (Tamayo Tenorio et al., 2018). Hence, reconsidering the disconnection between intermediate production in agro-food industry and the production of final consumer products in the food assembly industry supports a more resource efficient production of food. Figure 1.2: The sequential development of process pathways in the food industry over time Due to its origin in chemical engineering, the field of PSE has a strong focus on products, production technologies, and process pathways. Over time, the scope extended to include more and more aspects of an enterprise and the related SC, and started to link to the fields of Operational Research and SCM (Grossmann, 2005; Barbosa-Póvoa, 2014). The field of SCM focuses on value creation in the SC through optimising the flows of products, money, and information (Chopra & Meindl, 2015). Compared to PSE it has a stronger emphasis on logistics and distribution while product and production characteristics are typically not considered explicitly. However, products and production characteristics have recently become more important due to the developments in Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) and Closed Loop Supply Chains (CLSCs). The extension of SCM towards SSCM has shifted the focus from creating economic value to include environmental and social objectives (Soysal et al., 2012). Commonly, Life Cycle also the time of availability varies. In Chapter 4, an approach is studied to identify SC configurations that perform well under these uncertainties and take into account the specific characteristics of agro-food processing chains. At the network level, an agro-food industrial company is collaborating with other actors. The industry depends on primary producers, the farmers, to produce and supply agromaterials. The objectives of these farmers have to be aligned with those of the agro-food industry for the industry to be able to purchase the desired quantity of agro-materials. Chapter 5 explores benefit sharing between the agro-food industry and farmers as a means to align the individual objectives of farmers and processors in SC design. Building on the insights from the previous chapters, Chapter 6 discusses the applicability to the food industry and directions for future research to further benefit from the symbiosis between PSE and SCM in the context of food processing chains. Chapter 2 Product level Selection of fractionation pathways and intermediates for mixed consumer products • Non-conventional intermediates can improve the resource efficiency i...

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