Poster prepared for a post-graduate course titled ' ESM 600 - Research Methodology', summarizing the final research plan. Program: Masters in Engineering Systems Management Affiliation: American University of Sharjah, College of Engineering, Department of Industrial Engineering

1. Purposive
Stratified
Method
Sampling
Strategy
Research
Subjects
Analysis
Output
Semi-Structured
Interviews
Questionnaires
IoT
• Autonomous tractors, precision farming, &
drones for crop management
• Temperature monitoring & control
• Estimation of remaining shelf-life
• Track assets and shipments
AI
• Predictive Maintenance
• Effective quality control
• Simulation of different factory/warehouse
layouts
• Testing contingency plans
• Optimize planning & resource allocation
Blockchain
• Tracking food origins end-to-end, inspection
reports and current shipment status
• Eliminating administrative paperwork
• Automate payments through Smart
Contracts
• Spoilage alerts
Digital Twin Technology for Food Supply Chain
Optimization: A Theoretical Framework
Group D: Waffa Maryam, Arwa Abougharib, Raed Al Zuabi, Mahmoud Al Qawasmi
SITUATION
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 30-
40% of all food produced, or 1.3 billion tons, worth $1
Billion is lost or wasted in the pre-marketing and post-
marketing stages, while 821 million people go to bed
hungry every night. However, if food loss is reduced by
just 25%, it would be enough to feed all malnourished
people.
The impact of Food Supply Chain (FSC) inefficiencies will
only get worse due to the increasing population and
continuing reduction of the world’s arable lands
PROPOSED SOLUTION
• Bullwhip Effect (Recurrent)
• Ripple Effect (Exceptional)
• Paper-based Controls and Monitoring
• Outdated Facilities and poorly maintained equipment
• Lack of Communication & Awareness in FSC Network
• Non-supportive Government Policies
• Underutilization of modern supply chain best practices,
which include:
• Implementation of IT solutions for internal
monitoring and control, as well as coordination with
other enterprises
• Application of appropriate operations research
techniques to optimize short- and long-term
planning
• Countering the ripple and bullwhip effects with
proper strategy, such as vendor-managed inventory,
or collaborative forecasting, planning and
replenishment
Develop a framework for applying Digital
Twin (DT) technology to the Food Supply
Chain in order to improve its efficiency and
resilience without compromising product
quality.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
FSC CURRENT CHALLENGES
RESEARCH AIM
RESEARCH GAP
Despite the availability of technologies that can increase
the efficiency of FSC organizations, many of them are not
ready to adopt and keep up with these technological and
methodological breakthroughs
From the literature, indicators of e-Readiness have been
deduced, which gage the e-readiness or maturity of
organizations. These indicators can be grouped under
three general themes: financial capability, current level of
technology utilization, and openness to changes in the
organization’s internal infrastructure and practice. See
Fig. 1.
A Digital Twin (DT) is a virtual replica of a physical object,
a system, or a process, that emulates its real-life
counterpart and is continuously updated with real-time
data about the latter’s current state.
DTs are well-known in the aerospace, automobile
industries and in factory and warehouse management.
For the case of SC, a DT would be underpinned by IoT,
Artificial Intelligence, and Blockchain
A DT that replicates an entire supply chain can bring a
host of benefits to all SC stakeholders
TARGETED POPULATION
• The targeted population: FSC organizations
engaged in global food trade, whether import or
export
• The study population: Foods Importers,
exporters and distributors in the UAE
• Sampling method: Stratified random sampling*,
where each stratum is mapped onto a part of
the food industry (production, processing,
packaging, distribution, and retail)
• The sampling frame: Food business listings and
B2B online directories in the UAE (1,276
companies)
• Sample size: 255 (20% of the size of the
sampling frame)
Assess of e-
Readiness
Collect
Requirements
Specifications
Formulate
Implementation
Plans
Validate the
Proposed
Framework
Focus Groups
Snowballing
till Saturation
Middle & Senior Managers of companies involved with
different stages of the Food SC (Producers, Distributors,
Retailers)
Experts in IoT, Blockchain, AI, computer networks, logistics
Parameters to be measured &
decisions to optimize or automate,
at each stage of the FSC
Assess maturity of each
FSC organization
Technical feasibility + Strategic
viability using SWOT & FMEA
Accuracy
Check
Select best courses of action by
majority or consensus
Validated framework
Fig. 1 Indicators of e-Readiness
Fig. 2 Distribution of Strata