Paper Title
Industry 4.0 and the Future for Dairy Supply Chains
Abstract
The Dairy Sector, one of the most significant segments in the Food Supply Chain, has benefited from sensor controlling equipment due to the fact that the high volumes of milk flow require precise temperature control, right levels of pressure, and transmitters sending signals to a central control in order to guarantee a reliable process. However, there is still a lack of communication between operational plant activities and the daily decision-making processes. In the context of Industry 4.0 where Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) manage interconnected systems between equipment and software applications, the expansion of accurate data acquisition manufacturing activities would improve not only the inbound activities but also the entire Supply Chain reliability process since real-time information shared among companies reduces the uncertainty and unforeseen events therefore enhancing the quality of information for decision makers. Self-organising activities between chains is a promising area and could enhance the supply of raw material among manufacturers. This state-of-the-art technology is currently visible in high-level automated manufacturing products such as the automotive sector. Following a specific case study in the Dairy Sector, this paper presents a prototype for simulation model highlighting the benefits and important features in Industry 4.0 from the Dairy Supply Chain perspective.
Keywords - Modelling and Simulation, Dairy Supply Chain, Industry 4.0