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Prof. Riccardo Accorsi
Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Bologna—Alma Mater Studiorum, Viale Risorgimento, 2, 40136 Bologna, Italy

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0 Food Industry
0 Operations Management
0 Optimisation
0 Simulation
0 Sustainable operations

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Food Industry
Simulation
Operations Management
Optimisation
Sustainable operations
Decision-support systems
Logistics and operations

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Journal article
Published: 09 January 2021 in Food Control
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Whilst policymakers encourage companies to control food distribution and ensure products' safety and compliance with regulations, the fragmentation of food supply chains, made of multiple stages and companies, affects synergies and the supervision of such operations. Nonetheless the level of maturity of traceability technologies, several issues still prevent their adoption, diffusion, and integration. To address such a lack, this article illustrates a traceability-support tool that integrates and aligns data from heterogeneous sources and quantifies the impact of the operations on food products aiding data-driven decision-making. This tool builds upon a GIS infrastructure and manipulates heterogeneous traceability records gathered along the processes of the food supply chain to calculate a dashboard of multidisciplinary indicators related to three pillars of food systems: safety, cost, and environmental sustainability. A real-world distribution process regarding three batches of fresh fruits handled and shipped by a logistic provider located in North Italy is used as a testbed. The tool estimates the time fence where products experienced unsafe conservation temperatures (i.e. 8% of distribution time) together with the impact on the product's shelf life decay and the carbon emissions from transportation. Therefore, this tool contributes to shedding light on the impacts that occur throughout food distribution and aids decision-making by logistic managers and quality managers, as well as improving consumers' awareness products' shelf life and footprint.

ACS Style

A. Gallo; R. Accorsi; A. Goh; H. Hsiao; R. Manzini. A traceability-support system to control safety and sustainability indicators in food distribution. Food Control 2021, 124, 107866 .

AMA Style

A. Gallo, R. Accorsi, A. Goh, H. Hsiao, R. Manzini. A traceability-support system to control safety and sustainability indicators in food distribution. Food Control. 2021; 124 ():107866.

Chicago/Turabian Style

A. Gallo; R. Accorsi; A. Goh; H. Hsiao; R. Manzini. 2021. "A traceability-support system to control safety and sustainability indicators in food distribution." Food Control 124, no. : 107866.

Conference paper
Published: 11 September 2020 in Blockchain Technology and Innovations in Business Processes
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In the recent years, reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS) emerged as a new class of manufacturing systems aiming to adapt the production capacity in a quick, efficient and cost-effective way, through a set of six core features, i.e. modularity, integrability, scalability, convertibility, customisation and diagnosibility. This paper focuses on the scalability attribute, i.e. the ability of the manufacturing system to rapidly adapt to fluctuations of the market demand, providing metrics to evaluate the scalability of machines, in both discrete manufacturing and process manufacturing industries, which produce different types of goods. The proposed metrics are applied to an industrial case study from the discrete and the process manufacturing industries to highlight the different trend of the scalability attribute.

ACS Style

Riccardo Accorsi; Marco Bortolini; Francesco Gabriele Galizia; Francesco Gualano; Marcella Oliani. Scalability Analysis in Industry 4.0 Manufacturing. Blockchain Technology and Innovations in Business Processes 2020, 161 -171.

AMA Style

Riccardo Accorsi, Marco Bortolini, Francesco Gabriele Galizia, Francesco Gualano, Marcella Oliani. Scalability Analysis in Industry 4.0 Manufacturing. Blockchain Technology and Innovations in Business Processes. 2020; ():161-171.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Riccardo Accorsi; Marco Bortolini; Francesco Gabriele Galizia; Francesco Gualano; Marcella Oliani. 2020. "Scalability Analysis in Industry 4.0 Manufacturing." Blockchain Technology and Innovations in Business Processes , no. : 161-171.

Journal article
Published: 30 June 2020 in Sustainable Production and Consumption
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The current public and private policies pursuing environmental sustainability targets mandate incisive management of packaging waste, starting with those sectors that use virgin materials most. Food industries and food supply chains adopt huge volumes of plastic crates, cardboard boxes, and wooden boxes as transport packaging, thereby representing a hotspot and an urgent call for scholars and practitioners to address. Whilst wooden and cardboard boxes are disposable solutions, plastic containers can be employed as infinitely reusable and recyclable packages but require complex logistic systems to manage their life cycle. Optimization techniques can be exploited to aid the design and profitability of such complex packaging networks. This paper falls within the scarce literature on the design of pooling networks for reusable containers in the food industry. It proposes a strategic mixed-integer linear programming model to design a closed-loop system from the perspective of the packaging maker responsible for serving a food supply chain. The container's lifespan, i.e. the number of cycles a package can be reused before recycling, represents a crucial aspect to consider when modeling such networks. Incorporating lifespan constraints within the proposed closed-loop network design model is the main novel contribution we provide to the literature. This model is applied to a real-world instance of an Italian package pooler operating with a consortium of large-scale retailers for the distribution of fruits, vegetables, bakery, and meat products. A multi-scenario what-if analysis showcases how the optimal network evolves according to potential variations in the packaging demand, as well as in the container lifespan, demonstrating how to lead packaging makers to the profitability and the long-term sustainability of the closed-loop network.

ACS Style

Riccardo Accorsi; Giulia Baruffaldi; Riccardo Manzini. A closed-loop packaging network design model to foster infinitely reusable and recyclable containers in food industry. Sustainable Production and Consumption 2020, 24, 48 -61.

AMA Style

Riccardo Accorsi, Giulia Baruffaldi, Riccardo Manzini. A closed-loop packaging network design model to foster infinitely reusable and recyclable containers in food industry. Sustainable Production and Consumption. 2020; 24 ():48-61.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Riccardo Accorsi; Giulia Baruffaldi; Riccardo Manzini. 2020. "A closed-loop packaging network design model to foster infinitely reusable and recyclable containers in food industry." Sustainable Production and Consumption 24, no. : 48-61.

Earlycite article
Published: 28 April 2020 in British Food Journal
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Purpose This paper addresses the trade-off between asset investment and food safety in the design of a food catering production plant. It analyses the relationship between the quality decay of cook-warm products, the logistics of the processes and the economic investment in production machines. Design/methodology/approach A weekly cook-warm production plan has been monitored on-field using temperature sensors to estimate the quality decay profile of each product. A multi-objective optimisation model is proposed to (1) minimise the number of resources necessary to perform cooking and packing operations or (2) to maximise the food quality of the products. A metaheuristic simulated annealing algorithm is introduced to solve the model and to identify the Pareto frontier of the problem. Findings The packaging buffers are identified as the bottleneck of the processes. The outcome of the algorithms highlights that a small investment to design bigger buffers results in a significant increase in the quality with a smaller food loss. Practical implications This study models the production tasks of a food catering facility to evaluate their criticality from a food safety perspective. It investigates the tradeoff between the investment cost of resources processing critical tasks and food safety of finished products. Social implications The methodology applies to the design of cook-warm production. Catering companies use cook-warm production to serve school, hospitals and companies. For this reason, the application of this methodology leads to the improvement of the quality of daily meals for a large number of people. Originality/value The paper introduces a new multi-objective function (asset investment vs food quality) proposing an original metaheuristic to address this tradeoff in the food catering industry. Also, the methodology is applied and validated in the design of a new food production facility.

ACS Style

Alessandro Tufano; Riccardo Accorsi; Riccardo Manzini. A simulated annealing algorithm for the allocation of production resources in the food catering industry. British Food Journal 2020, 122, 2139 -2158.

AMA Style

Alessandro Tufano, Riccardo Accorsi, Riccardo Manzini. A simulated annealing algorithm for the allocation of production resources in the food catering industry. British Food Journal. 2020; 122 (7):2139-2158.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Alessandro Tufano; Riccardo Accorsi; Riccardo Manzini. 2020. "A simulated annealing algorithm for the allocation of production resources in the food catering industry." British Food Journal 122, no. 7: 2139-2158.

Journal article
Published: 06 April 2020 in Procedia Manufacturing
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Nowadays, the variety in the product mix, unpredictable customer demand and the need for a high level of service are crucial challenges in the management of a supply chain. Flexible processes are needed to gain competitive advantage and economic edges. This paper presents a data-driven application of unsupervised machine learning clustering algorithms to a real-world case study in the automotive industry. The clustering input dataset collects the data available to a third-party logistics (3PL) provider. Clustering algorithms are used to define product families for the assignment of the workload to the processing resources. Several clustering algorithms (k-means, Gaussian mixture models and hierarchical clustering) define different product families scenarios using different tuning parameters. The impact of each clustering scenario on the operations is assessed via a dashboard of logistics KPIs to identify the best performing clustering algorithm. The performance of each clustering is, then, compared to a logistic benchmark given by a capacitated clustering to identify the best compromise between a logistic-constrained algorithm with a long runtime and fast data-driven uncapacitated algorithm.

ACS Style

Alessandro Tufano; Riccardo Accorsi; Riccardo Manzini. Machine learning methods to improve the operations of 3PL logistics. Procedia Manufacturing 2020, 42, 62 -69.

AMA Style

Alessandro Tufano, Riccardo Accorsi, Riccardo Manzini. Machine learning methods to improve the operations of 3PL logistics. Procedia Manufacturing. 2020; 42 ():62-69.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Alessandro Tufano; Riccardo Accorsi; Riccardo Manzini. 2020. "Machine learning methods to improve the operations of 3PL logistics." Procedia Manufacturing 42, no. : 62-69.

Earlycite article
Published: 09 February 2020 in Business Process Management Journal
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PurposeThird-party logistic providers (3PLs) continuously strive for controlling and improving their performances to gain a competitive advantage. The challenging environment where they operate is affected by high variety in type and number of clients, the inventory mix and the demand profiles they have to meet. Consequently, better understanding the dynamics of warehousing operations and the characteristics of the inventory mix is critical to handle such a complexity.Design/Methodology/approachThis paper proposes a decision-support framework, suited for 3PL warehouse practitioners, that aids to design and implement effective and affordable activities for measuring and improving the warehousing performances. Such goal is pursued by the framework by leading the managers through an initial mapping and diagnosis of the system, then by developing a tailored measurement system to track the performance, paving the way to the identification of the criticalities and the potential improvement scenarios.FindingsThis paper presents a case study on the implementation of the proposed framework at a warehouse of an Italian 3PL provider to introduce a new storage assignment policy and reduce the travelling time for order picking. Furthermore, the paper exemplifies how the framework contributes to enhance the awareness of managers on warehousing operations and the involvement of the personnel throughout the improvement process.Practical implicationThe proposed framework can be implemented by operations managers of 3PL warehouses who want to pursue general performance improvement projects. With respect to the case study, this framework contributes to identify the storage assignment policy that reduces the travelling for order picking in the observed warehouse of 8 percent in a month but is intended to address to even other areas of improvement in 3PL warehousing environments.Originality/valueInstead of focusing on the proper methods and models that optimize a specific task or performance indicator, it provides a general framework that leads the managers through the decisional process, from the preliminary diagnosis of the system, to its benchmarking, towards the implementation of corrective and improving solutions.

ACS Style

Giulia Baruffaldi; Riccardo Accorsi; Riccardo Manzini; Emilio Ferrari. Warehousing process performance improvement: a tailored framework for 3PL. Business Process Management Journal 2020, 26, 1619 -1641.

AMA Style

Giulia Baruffaldi, Riccardo Accorsi, Riccardo Manzini, Emilio Ferrari. Warehousing process performance improvement: a tailored framework for 3PL. Business Process Management Journal. 2020; 26 (6):1619-1641.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Giulia Baruffaldi; Riccardo Accorsi; Riccardo Manzini; Emilio Ferrari. 2020. "Warehousing process performance improvement: a tailored framework for 3PL." Business Process Management Journal 26, no. 6: 1619-1641.

Journal article
Published: 30 June 2019 in Journal of Cleaner Production
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As urbanization gradually modifies natural ecosystems and affects environmental sustainability, urban spatial planning can be used as a tool to address to Urban Metabolism and meet sustainable development targets. The concentration of people in urban areas makes these increasingly requiring for primary products and services as food and energy, and the fulfilment of such needs result in significant carbon emissions. The inclusion of spatial functions as agriculture and renewables in the urban planning can address to this environmental impact, but would require support-planning tools able to explore new land-use allocation strategies within an integrated urban-rural ecosystem. In this paper, we propose an optimization framework for the planning of low carbon urban-rural ecosystems that integrates transport and land-use planning and cope with urban metabolism, involving urban mobility, food transportation, energy supplies. This framework contributes to the literature as it formulates a network between urban, agricultural, energy, and carbon mitigation land-covers and optimizes the horizontal carbon fluxes within an integrated urban-rural environment. In order to minimize carbon emissions by mobility and resources (i.e. food) transportation, the framework aids identifying trade-offs between accessibility and density over the spatial distribution of resource-generating and resource-consuming land-covers. Proof of concept is provided with a realistic numerical example, propelled by real-world data from an Italian region. The land-use allocation solution makes the exemplifying urban-rural ecosystem behaving as carbon sink due to the established green areas and the configuration of the spatial uses. A sensitivity analysis is finally carried out to assess the impacts of mobility and resources transportation on the spatial urban-rural structure and associated carbon emissions. It comes out that the optimal urban configuration to mitigate carbon emissions from transportation integrates urban and rural uses and guarantees accessibility to several functions as cultivated areas, renewables and green covers, responsible to provide food, energy and air cleaning respectively to dwellers.

ACS Style

Stefano Penazzi; Riccardo Accorsi; Riccardo Manzini. Planning low carbon urban-rural ecosystems: An integrated transport land-use model. Journal of Cleaner Production 2019, 235, 96 -111.

AMA Style

Stefano Penazzi, Riccardo Accorsi, Riccardo Manzini. Planning low carbon urban-rural ecosystems: An integrated transport land-use model. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2019; 235 ():96-111.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Stefano Penazzi; Riccardo Accorsi; Riccardo Manzini. 2019. "Planning low carbon urban-rural ecosystems: An integrated transport land-use model." Journal of Cleaner Production 235, no. : 96-111.

Book chapter
Published: 21 June 2019 in Sustainable Food Supply Chains
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This chapter explores the processes of a typical logistics network for the management of reusable packaging for food products. While the impacts associated with packaging waste in the food sector are well known, the adoption of reusable crates or handling systems for food items entails many logistics processes such as storage, transportation, and cleaning, whose impact needs to be quantified and assessed with cost-benefit analysis. This chapter thus presents a methodology and a decision-support tool used to quantify the logistic and environmental impacts associated with packaging distribution in the closed-loop network between growers, retailers, and the pooler. This methodology allows quantifying of the performance of the as-is scenario and predicting the savings of choosing intermodal transport solutions (i.e., railways, seaways) for the delivery and collection of reusable plastic crates (RPCs) for fruits and vegetables. The methodology is applied to a multiscenario what-if analysis of a case study provided by an Italian pooler operating in the retail food supply chain. The results are generated through a decision-support tool, which embeds a geographic information system (GIS) and realizes data-driven assessment of storage and distribution operations experienced by RPCs. We quantified some categories of impacts among the set of greenhouse gases emissions (GHGs) resulting from transportation and associated costs. The results showcase a total transportation cost reduction of 11.7% in the to-be scenario, while the number of kilograms of CO2eq decreases by 9.2%. The contribution of this chapter lies in the investigation of the environmental sustainability of a packaging closed-loop network (CLN) for food products. Moreover, we decided to limit the boundaries of the analysis to the transport process, which is often neglected and underrated in typical life cycle assessment (LCA). Findings from this chapter represent practical suggestions and strategic guidelines for managers and practitioners of reusable package systems toward more sustainable operations.

ACS Style

Giulia Baruffaldi; Riccardo Accorsi; Luca Volpe; Riccardo Manzini; Fredrik Nilsson. Sustainable operations in reusable food packaging networks. Sustainable Food Supply Chains 2019, 293 -304.

AMA Style

Giulia Baruffaldi, Riccardo Accorsi, Luca Volpe, Riccardo Manzini, Fredrik Nilsson. Sustainable operations in reusable food packaging networks. Sustainable Food Supply Chains. 2019; ():293-304.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Giulia Baruffaldi; Riccardo Accorsi; Luca Volpe; Riccardo Manzini; Fredrik Nilsson. 2019. "Sustainable operations in reusable food packaging networks." Sustainable Food Supply Chains , no. : 293-304.

Book chapter
Published: 21 June 2019 in Sustainable Food Supply Chains
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The increasing global food demand is forcing the food industry to identify new effective strategies for production and distribution, as was already experienced in the 1960s and 1970s with the birth of green chemistry and the explosion of fossil-fueled agriculture. The globalization of the food trade has bridged the barriers between production and consumption without respecting the balance of natural resources, resulting in enlarged gaps between developed and developing countries. In the food sector many issues affect the three dimensions of sustainability: economic, environmental, and social. These include land-use change and deforestation to widen farms, pastures, and biofuel cultivations, land grabbing to establish intensive agriculture, clean water consumption, soil and air pollution, lack of supply chain infrastructures, volatile prices, and climate change. Together these issues make current food supply chains (FSCs) unsustainable over the long term and challenge the future of the food industries and society as well. Such issues also reveal the lack of connections and coordination among actors involved in FSCs and open debate about the neglected role of the physical and logistic/distribution infrastructures in addressing long-term sustainability targets. This chapter illustrates a hierarchical framework aimed at modeling production and distribution food ecosystems through a set of interdisciplinary parameters and decision variables. The decision levers identified in this framework describe how the food ecosystem behaves according to an input-output flow analysis. The framework formulates a set of planning decision problems via mixed linear programming. The definition of the inclusive food ecosystem inspires collecting multidisciplinary parameters that impose collaboration between decision-makers. Furthermore, as part of the ecosystem, logistics and distribution processes are involved in the planning issues beyond the common perception that sees an FSC as a sequence of independent stages.

ACS Style

Riccardo Accorsi; Emilio Ferrari; Riccardo Manzini. Modeling inclusive food supply chains toward sustainable ecosystem planning. Sustainable Food Supply Chains 2019, 1 -21.

AMA Style

Riccardo Accorsi, Emilio Ferrari, Riccardo Manzini. Modeling inclusive food supply chains toward sustainable ecosystem planning. Sustainable Food Supply Chains. 2019; ():1-21.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Riccardo Accorsi; Emilio Ferrari; Riccardo Manzini. 2019. "Modeling inclusive food supply chains toward sustainable ecosystem planning." Sustainable Food Supply Chains , no. : 1-21.

Book chapter
Published: 21 June 2019 in Sustainable Food Supply Chains
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To meet the increasing demand for functional food and changing consumer habits, the food processing industry is shifting from flow manufacturing to batch manufacturing. As a consequence, job-shop (JS) systems are progressively developing to replace traditional food-processing systems. Such systems are characterized by high complexity in their design and management due to the high number of entities involved (i.e., products, components and parts, resources or workshops, operators, handling tools), the technological and operational constraints (i.e., working cycle, shop throughput, set-up tasks), and the layout issues (i.e., flow lines, congestions, bottlenecks). This chapter explores the impact of logistics and handling tasks in the design of food JS processing facilities. The aims of the JS designer are the minimization of the infrastructural costs, the optimization of the products and labor flows, and the enhancement of the safety of food products, affecting concurrently the layouts, operations, and related performances. The chapter illustrates a set of methodologies and quantitative indicators that aid the design of a JS system involving logistic efficiency, infrastructure cost minimization, and food safety targets. We assess the layout of the manufacturing system through a multidisciplinary dashboard of key performance indicators (KPIs) (1) and a design methodology addressing the resource dimensioning problem (2). A numerical example gathered from an Italian catering company showcases the application of the proposed tools and elicits debate on the best practice for facility design in the food service (catering) industry.

ACS Style

Alessandro Tufano; Riccardo Accorsi; Giulia Baruffaldi; Riccardo Manzini. Design-support methodologies for job-shop production system in the food industry. Sustainable Food Supply Chains 2019, 115 -129.

AMA Style

Alessandro Tufano, Riccardo Accorsi, Giulia Baruffaldi, Riccardo Manzini. Design-support methodologies for job-shop production system in the food industry. Sustainable Food Supply Chains. 2019; ():115-129.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Alessandro Tufano; Riccardo Accorsi; Giulia Baruffaldi; Riccardo Manzini. 2019. "Design-support methodologies for job-shop production system in the food industry." Sustainable Food Supply Chains , no. : 115-129.

Book chapter
Published: 21 June 2019 in Sustainable Food Supply Chains
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The food industry has grown from a local industry into a global industry with the birth of technology. Products are delivered via trucking, water, rail, air, or some combination. The distribution of products in a supply chain is a difficult problem to solve, and perishable products bring additional complexity. While technology exists to slow down the deterioration rate of foods, products need to be delivered urgently to fulfill customer demands satisfactorily, with the expected quality. Most of the literature focuses on minimizing the time these products spend in the supply chain, as well as considering the measurement of perishability in various ways. This chapter covers the mathematical models that have been developed in the areas of routing, network design, and distribution with respect to the food distribution network.

ACS Style

Christine Nguyen; Zhané Goff; Riccardo Accorsi. Mathematical modeling of food and agriculture distribution. Sustainable Food Supply Chains 2019, 145 -158.

AMA Style

Christine Nguyen, Zhané Goff, Riccardo Accorsi. Mathematical modeling of food and agriculture distribution. Sustainable Food Supply Chains. 2019; ():145-158.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Christine Nguyen; Zhané Goff; Riccardo Accorsi. 2019. "Mathematical modeling of food and agriculture distribution." Sustainable Food Supply Chains , no. : 145-158.

Book chapter
Published: 21 June 2019 in Sustainable Food Supply Chains
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Over recent years, faster urbanization and natural resources depletion have compelled an increasing attention to environmental conservation and the careful management of soil and land use. Sustainable Land-Use Planning (LUP) is the activity of allocating resources and uses to specific sites and areas, with different purposes that depend on the decision maker. Examples of these include maximizing crop yields or the profits of landowners and minimizing environmental impacts such as water consumption or greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions. Several environmental drivers and stressors can be considered in LUP, but one of the goals of environmental conservation is undoubtedly the reduction of carbon emissions. Considering the rapid growth of cities, which centralize resources, population, and consumers and thereby contribute to climate change, sustainable LUP planning of integrated urban and rural ecosystem can be the key to addressing such environmental and social issues. This chapter builds on the well-known LUP problem by investigating the relationship between transportation of people, i.e., mobility, and of food resources within a closed urban-rural ecosystem, and by determining how this affects the overall carbon emissions. The proposed LUP approach is based on a model that integrates agricultural properties such as soil features and crop yields, with the renewable energy potential of the area and the urban needs of accessibility and density. The discussed mix integer linear programming (MILP) model is implemented into a planning-support tool aimed at studying the optimal allocation of land uses in an urban-rural ecosystem with the goal of minimizing the carbon emissions. The model takes into account a closed ecosystem where agriculture, energy production, and residential areas satisfy different internal demands and needs. Some results obtained by the application of this tool are illustrated and discussed, showing the potential of the proposed approach in supporting the planning of low-carbon urban-rural ecosystems.

ACS Style

Stefano Penazzi; Riccardo Accorsi. Sustainable urban food planning: Optimizing land-use allocation and transportation in urban-rural ecosystems. Sustainable Food Supply Chains 2019, 277 -291.

AMA Style

Stefano Penazzi, Riccardo Accorsi. Sustainable urban food planning: Optimizing land-use allocation and transportation in urban-rural ecosystems. Sustainable Food Supply Chains. 2019; ():277-291.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Stefano Penazzi; Riccardo Accorsi. 2019. "Sustainable urban food planning: Optimizing land-use allocation and transportation in urban-rural ecosystems." Sustainable Food Supply Chains , no. : 277-291.

Book chapter
Published: 21 June 2019 in Sustainable Food Supply Chains
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Food supply chains (FSCs) allow the effective and safe delivery of food products from farmed crops to consumer forks. The challenging properties of many varieties of food, that is, perishability, quality decay, and short shelf life, require shipping and storage conditions able to guarantee high standards of safety and quality for the final consumers. Behind these conditions lies the demand for large amounts of energy to power refrigerated storage and shipping modules, to speed handling and transportation, etc. A switch from fossil fuels to renewables is mandatory to increase the sustainability of modern FSCs. Traditionally, no integration has taken place between the renewable power system design and the supply chain infrastructure location and management. The attention placed on FSC designs for green energy is rising. Thus this chapter provides a high-level analytic model for efficient design of FSCs in the direction of integrating renewable plants, for example, solar, photovoltaics, wind, biomass, etc., as a key input for green operations, so that the node location and flow allocation is driven by both network efficiency and the green energy supply possibilities.

ACS Style

Marco Bortolini; Riccardo Accorsi; Mauro Gamberi; Francesco Pilati. A model to enhance the penetration of the renewables to power multistage food supply chains. Sustainable Food Supply Chains 2019, 305 -315.

AMA Style

Marco Bortolini, Riccardo Accorsi, Mauro Gamberi, Francesco Pilati. A model to enhance the penetration of the renewables to power multistage food supply chains. Sustainable Food Supply Chains. 2019; ():305-315.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Marco Bortolini; Riccardo Accorsi; Mauro Gamberi; Francesco Pilati. 2019. "A model to enhance the penetration of the renewables to power multistage food supply chains." Sustainable Food Supply Chains , no. : 305-315.

Book chapter
Published: 21 June 2019 in Sustainable Food Supply Chains
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Finding an appropriate food package solution is a challenging task today, due to the necessity of integrating an increasing number of cross-linked and sometimes contradictory requirements related to the specific multiple purposes that a packaging system is supposed to provide. The complexity and variety of food products, stricter food quality requirements, rapidly changing consumer demand paradigms, increasing demands for sustainability, and the fast adaptations of multimodal food distribution networks to the modern way of living of our liquid society make food packaging development a difficult task in today’s world. This chapter provides a taxonomy of existing research, design, and engineering approaches and technologies for food packaging and provides some examples of their application in practice. Such techniques provide wide support to designers and even food supply chain planners committed to proposing cost-effective, ergonomic logistics and environmentally friendly food packages.

ACS Style

Fabrizio Sarghini; Ferruh Erdogdu; Riccardo Accorsi. Designing advanced food packaging systems and technologies through modeling and virtualization. Sustainable Food Supply Chains 2019, 83 -104.

AMA Style

Fabrizio Sarghini, Ferruh Erdogdu, Riccardo Accorsi. Designing advanced food packaging systems and technologies through modeling and virtualization. Sustainable Food Supply Chains. 2019; ():83-104.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Fabrizio Sarghini; Ferruh Erdogdu; Riccardo Accorsi. 2019. "Designing advanced food packaging systems and technologies through modeling and virtualization." Sustainable Food Supply Chains , no. : 83-104.

Journal article
Published: 04 June 2019 in Sustainability
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Manufacturing, storage, and transportation processes are typically facilitated by pallets, containers, and other reusable transport items (RTIs) designed to guarantee many cycles along a lifespan of several years. As a consequence, both supply and reverse transportation of RTIs need to be managed to avoid stockout along the supply chain and the unsustainable production of new tools from virgin materials. This paper focuses on the business of pallet management by analyzing the transport operations of a pallet pooling network serving a large-scale nationwide retailer. The pooler is responsible for supplying, collecting, and refurbishing pallets. The combination of the pooler’s management strategies with different retailer network configurations results in different pooling scenarios, which are assessed and compared in this paper through a what-if analysis. The logistical and environmental impacts generated by the pallet distribution activities are quantified per each scenario through a tailored software incorporating Geographic Information System (GIS) and routing functionalities. Findings from this analysis suggest how to reduce vehicle distance traveled (vehicles-km) by 65% and pollutant emissions by 60% by combining network infrastructures and pooling management strategies—identifying an empirical best practice for managers of pallet businesses.

ACS Style

Riccardo Accorsi; Giulia Baruffaldi; Riccardo Manzini; Chiara Pini. Environmental Impacts of Reusable Transport Items: A Case Study of Pallet Pooling in a Retailer Supply Chain. Sustainability 2019, 11, 3147 .

AMA Style

Riccardo Accorsi, Giulia Baruffaldi, Riccardo Manzini, Chiara Pini. Environmental Impacts of Reusable Transport Items: A Case Study of Pallet Pooling in a Retailer Supply Chain. Sustainability. 2019; 11 (11):3147.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Riccardo Accorsi; Giulia Baruffaldi; Riccardo Manzini; Chiara Pini. 2019. "Environmental Impacts of Reusable Transport Items: A Case Study of Pallet Pooling in a Retailer Supply Chain." Sustainability 11, no. 11: 3147.

Journal article
Published: 29 May 2019 in Procedia Manufacturing
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Returnable container networks have caught the eye of those companies that aim to reduce waste generation and environmental impact. The literature already includes studies on the environmental impact (i.e. Life Cycle Assessment, LCA) of these networks. However, the major part is based on secondary data since the collection of primary data is complex and time-intensive. This paper proposes an object-relational database dedicated to the storage of data from a closed-loop reusable plastic crates (RPC) networks for fruits and vegetables. The goal is supporting scholars and managers during the LCA through a user-friendly data architecture, while suggesting structured guidelines for the primary data collection. Each node of the RPC network is characterized by a similar set of entity types, such as machines, which allows to process the RPCs with respect to specific cycles. Each entity, process and cycle are therefore reflected in the database by objects that are connected with relations.

ACS Style

G. Baruffaldi; R. Accorsi; L. Volpe; R. Manzini. A Data Architecture to aid Life Cycle Assessment in closed-loop Reusable Plastic Container networks. Procedia Manufacturing 2019, 33, 398 -405.

AMA Style

G. Baruffaldi, R. Accorsi, L. Volpe, R. Manzini. A Data Architecture to aid Life Cycle Assessment in closed-loop Reusable Plastic Container networks. Procedia Manufacturing. 2019; 33 ():398-405.

Chicago/Turabian Style

G. Baruffaldi; R. Accorsi; L. Volpe; R. Manzini. 2019. "A Data Architecture to aid Life Cycle Assessment in closed-loop Reusable Plastic Container networks." Procedia Manufacturing 33, no. : 398-405.

Journal article
Published: 11 March 2019 in Industrial Management & Data Systems
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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to illustrate an original decision-support tool (DST) that aids 3PL managers to decide on the proper warehouse management system (WMS) customization. The aim of this tool is to address to the three main issues affecting such decision: the cost of the information sharing, the scarce visibility of the client’s data and the uncertainty of quantifying the return from investing into a WMS feature.Design/methodology/approachThe tool behaves as a digital twin of a WMS. In addition, it incorporates a set of WMS’s features based both on heuristics and optimization techniques and uses simulation to perform what-if multi-scenario analyses of alternative management scenarios. In order to validate the effectiveness of the tool, its application to a real-world 3PL warehouse operating in the sector of biomedical products is illustrated.FindingsThe results of a simulation campaign along an observation horizon of ten months demonstrate how the tool supports the comparison of alternative scenarios with theas-is, thereby suggesting the most suitable WMS customization to adopt.Practical implicationsThe tool supports 3PL managers in enhancing the efficiency of the operations and the fulfilling of the required service level, which is increasingly challenging given the large inventory mix and the variable clients portfolio that 3PLs have to manage. Particularly, the choice of the WMS customization that better perform with each business can be problematic, given the scarce information visibility of the provider on the client’s processes.Originality/valueTo the author’s knowledge, this paper is among the first to address a still uncovered gap of the warehousing literature by illustrating a DST that exploits optimization and simulation techniques to quantify the impacts of the information availability on the warehousing operations performance. As a second novel contribution, this tool enables to create a digital twin of a WMS and foresee the evolution of the warehouse’s performance over time.

ACS Style

Giulia Baruffaldi; Riccardo Accorsi; Riccardo Manzini. Warehouse management system customization and information availability in 3pl companies. Industrial Management & Data Systems 2019, 119, 251 -273.

AMA Style

Giulia Baruffaldi, Riccardo Accorsi, Riccardo Manzini. Warehouse management system customization and information availability in 3pl companies. Industrial Management & Data Systems. 2019; 119 (2):251-273.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Giulia Baruffaldi; Riccardo Accorsi; Riccardo Manzini. 2019. "Warehouse management system customization and information availability in 3pl companies." Industrial Management & Data Systems 119, no. 2: 251-273.

Journal article
Published: 01 January 2019 in Procedia Manufacturing
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In the current industrial context, signed by the advent of Industry 4.0, traditional manufacturing systems are evolving towards the new class of Next Generation Manufacturing Systems (NGMSs), characterized by the main attributes of changeability, reconfigurability and self-adaptability. Such advanced systems are able to cope with the new industrial and market challenges as the dynamic market demand, short products life cycles and the need for flexibility. This paper presents the design and control of an innovative prototype of Self-adaptive Smart Assembly System (SASAS) able to real-time reconfigure its structure according to both product and operator features. An easy-to-use graphic user interface (GUI), developed in Matlab environment, supports the human operators in the real-time system reconfiguration and self-adaptability by storing information about the work cycles of the products manufactured by the case company and associating each operation of the product work cycle to a specific movement of the system. Finally, the proposed GUI allows the operators to quickly add new products work cycles in response to the customers’ request for new product variants, matching the Industry 4.0 principles.

ACS Style

Marco Bortolini; Riccardo Accorsi; Maurizio Faccio; Francesco Gabriele Galizia; Francesco Pilati. Toward a Real-Time Reconfiguration of Self-Adaptive Smart Assembly Systems. Procedia Manufacturing 2019, 39, 90 -97.

AMA Style

Marco Bortolini, Riccardo Accorsi, Maurizio Faccio, Francesco Gabriele Galizia, Francesco Pilati. Toward a Real-Time Reconfiguration of Self-Adaptive Smart Assembly Systems. Procedia Manufacturing. 2019; 39 ():90-97.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Marco Bortolini; Riccardo Accorsi; Maurizio Faccio; Francesco Gabriele Galizia; Francesco Pilati. 2019. "Toward a Real-Time Reconfiguration of Self-Adaptive Smart Assembly Systems." Procedia Manufacturing 39, no. : 90-97.

Book chapter
Published: 01 January 2019 in Sustainable Food Supply Chains
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ACS Style

Riccardo Manzini; Riccardo Accorsi; Marco Bortolini; Andrea Gallo. Quality assessment of temperature-sensitive high-value food products: An application to Italian fine chocolate distribution. Sustainable Food Supply Chains 2019, 201 -217.

AMA Style

Riccardo Manzini, Riccardo Accorsi, Marco Bortolini, Andrea Gallo. Quality assessment of temperature-sensitive high-value food products: An application to Italian fine chocolate distribution. Sustainable Food Supply Chains. 2019; ():201-217.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Riccardo Manzini; Riccardo Accorsi; Marco Bortolini; Andrea Gallo. 2019. "Quality assessment of temperature-sensitive high-value food products: An application to Italian fine chocolate distribution." Sustainable Food Supply Chains , no. : 201-217.

Book chapter
Published: 01 January 2019 in Sustainable Food Supply Chains
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ACS Style

Riccardo Accorsi; Federica Garbellini; Francesca Giavolucci; Riccardo Manzini; Alessandro Tufano. Recipe-driven methods for the design and management of food catering production systems. Sustainable Food Supply Chains 2019, 351 -366.

AMA Style

Riccardo Accorsi, Federica Garbellini, Francesca Giavolucci, Riccardo Manzini, Alessandro Tufano. Recipe-driven methods for the design and management of food catering production systems. Sustainable Food Supply Chains. 2019; ():351-366.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Riccardo Accorsi; Federica Garbellini; Francesca Giavolucci; Riccardo Manzini; Alessandro Tufano. 2019. "Recipe-driven methods for the design and management of food catering production systems." Sustainable Food Supply Chains , no. : 351-366.