INESC TEC’s Centre for Industrial Management and Engineering (CEGI) has recently concluded project “WholeChain: Quantitative Framework for Perishable Food Supply Chain Management”, where the goal was to develop a quantitative framework that would make it possible to better manage the supply chain of perishable foods.
Supply chain management is becoming more and more important as a result of the population growth and the increasing GDP per capita. This growth is mainly caused by the expanding population and the rising GDP per capita. To deal with this increasing demand, the food chain supplies must ensure that high amounts of quality and varied products are delivered.

Moreover, it is necessary to address the uncertainty in the quality and quantity of raw materials, as well as the uncertainty associated with customer demand, which implies that firms operating in food supply chains must consider not only the costs, but also the risks, and the issues of freshness, sustainability and business ethics. This project proposes a quantitative and innovative approach to the food supply chain management, which includes designing and planning the supply chain taking into account the main indicators of the supply chain. The ultimate goal of this approach is to improve the quality of the decisions made by participants of the food supply chain. The final goal with this approach was to improve the quality of the decisions made by supply chain players in this sector.

According to the final project report, the planned goals have been achieved fully, and the results are proof of the project’s scientific quality, namely in terms of publications in international specialty journals. Furthermore, the project has also guaranteed training for young researchers and the international presence of the team involved.

This project was funded by the Portuguese funding agency Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), with INESC TEC as tenderer. The CEGI team included Bernardo Almada-Lobo (Member of the Board of INESC TEC), Pedro Amorim (Coordinator of CEGI) and Luís Guimarães. The remaining partner institutions are the Associação do Instituto Superior Técnico para a Investigação e o Desenvolvimento (IST-ID), the Technische Universität München (Germany) and Carnegie Mellon University (USA).

The INESC TEC researchers mentioned in this news piece are associated with UP-FEUP.

INESC TEC, February 2016