IoT implementation in the food supply chain
An IoT use case by Aditi Shrivastava( Director, Marketing- Berry Fruits Technologies) and Shobhit Uniyal(Senior Software QA - Berry Fruits Technologies)
History
Food industry plays an important role in order to satisfy community needs with respect to availability, distribution and quality of food. There has been a lot of resistance to technology, except perhaps to automate certain production processes (e.g. mixing, canning, bottling and packaging). In many midsize and larger companies, the use of information technology (IT) has been limited to off-the-shelf or custom-tailored systems implemented to assist employees with such discrete business processes as accounting, corporate finance, HR and purchasing.With humans becoming a vanishing breed in factories, machine-to-machine communications will grow in importance when food manufacturers seek to leverage the Internet of Things. Photo: Automation Direct Each functional area of the food industry has been significantly getting better with the integration of IoT. For an instance, IoT facilitates food companies to ensure superior levels of traceability, food safety and, therefore accountability all through the farm-to-plate supplies chain operations. Moreover, the IoT network in the food supply chain greatly aids to trim down waste, costs, and risks as well, in all stages of the procedure.
Apart from this, the list of benefits offered by IoT technology in the food industry is quite long; consequently, the impact is also extremely impressive. As a result, organizations lack the timely financial information integrated with order and production flow that would enable them to know where they stand from day to day, both from a financial and operations point of view.
Application of IOT in processing of food and beverages:
Most of the daily tasks and requirements that mostly rely on smartphones and associated gadgets can be solved by IoT. Like the food and beverage industry, other industries depend on the same thing as well.- Customer honesty
- Quality control of food
- Renovating food security
- Control of the supply chain and Honesty
- Recall of products
- Energy Savings
- Identification of Items Forged
- Enhance the protection of food and beverages
The implementation of appropriate food safety measures is not only an integral part of supplying the end-user with quality food and beverage products but also plays a critical role in ensuring compliance. To ensure effective food safety, numerous food regulation organizations and government agencies around the world are beginning to demand more thorough monitoring and record-keeping.
The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) of 2011, introduced by the United States Food and Drug Administration, has served as a catalyst for global change in the food industry. This also includes :
Different types of monitoring sensors are used to track the required production condition, shipping time, and temperature monitoring in containers to ensure that food products are stored in a suitable setting, including temperature and humidity sensors.
The use of real-time temperature monitoring sensors enables companies to control data points on food safety closely, ensuring successful cold chain management. This allows employees to conduct and check required food safety checks when possible concerns or violations are identified through data obtained from sensors.
At present, food packaging has been tagged with sensors in the packaging industry and connected to a supply-chainwide network. It helps investigators with the method of trace-and-track and significantly reduces the time and effort involved in it.
Simplify processes and improve productivity For food and beverage firms, IoT-enabled solutions have a range of logistical benefits.
Connected devices can help food and beverage manufacturing organizations increase productivity and strengthen business processes while also working to reduce system downtime and other expensive problems:
Use sensors to retrieve information in real-time that allows you to monitor inventory, indicate when replenishment is needed, and automatically activate shipments.
Control and track shipments to ensure that goods are shipped on schedule, preparing alternate routes.
The conditions of containers and other vessels are tracked remotely to ensure the quality and protection of the finished product.
To preserve operating performance and avoid costly malfunctions, get updates on system maintenance and repair issues.
Smart Shelf Technology
Implementing Smart shelves, the electronically connected shelves which can automatically keep a track of the inventory in a retail establishment is one of the most feasible solutions to address this retail in-store challenge. The Smart shelves technology benefits both for the customers’ shopping experience and the retailers’ selling experience. The smart shelf concept will enable the inventory and store executives to:
- Refill stocks from the stock room as they get depleted from the store shelf
- Intimate the buying group about the demand and Out of stock situation
- Inform warehouse / Direct shipment vendor for immediate replenishment
Smart Shelves technology enables the business owners to make more informed decisions, by keeping a real-time tracking on what products are being taken from the store shelves and what is remaining. The real-time analysis of data enables retailers to stock on more fast-moving products and reduce the number of slow-moving items.
Mitigation of Wastage
As per the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report, approximately one-third of human food production is wasted annually worldwide. This not only results in the loss of revenue but also threatens to harm our climate through the growth of carbon gas in the atmosphere.
IoT technology makes it possible to track the condition of all food items easily and send real-time information to the assigned individual, eliminating food waste. A group of sensors records temperature and humidity fluctuations, which are very much likely to pose serious threats to the stored crops. The accuracy of prediction increases with measurements of oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations. In addition, a phosphine sensor facilitates the safe use of insect pesticides in the silo and makes sure that the insect elimination is in a good way. Exactly the same sensors systems are able to monitor the crops during transportation, covering all the links starting with harvesting till delivering the product to the manufacturer or the retailer’s premises. After sensors have finished their job, machine learning algorithms, customized by Berry Fruits, take over-analysis on data being sent to Berry Fruits cloud. Training on emulation and simulation models as well as drawing on previous experience from data processing in existing business cases help algorithms predict dangers and consult the auditor to prevent product deterioration or to accelerate the process of sending it to the market shelves in perfect condition.