New centre will focus on the food sector’s supply chain
A new research centre will be established dedicated to improving the logistics supply chain in Australia’s domestic and international food markets.
Known as the Training Centre for Food and Beverage Supply Chain Optimisation, the centre will operate out of the University of Sydney’s Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies.
The centre is a cooperative effort involving the University of Newcastle, the CSIRO, the Georgia Institute of Technology and the New South Wales Department of Primary Industry.
The University of Sydney says the centre will focus on ways of maintaining a sustainable and financially viable supply of food.
“The food industry is important for the Australian economy with 15 per cent of the workforce involved in food production and exports of more than 30 billion dollars a year,” associate professor Behnam Fahimnia.
“A cost-effective supply chain is essential if the industry is to become more sustainable and globally competitive.”
Industry partners will include Coca-Cola Amatil, SunRice, the Batlow Fruit Co-operative and Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing have signed on as industry partners.
“The key to survival is logistics excellence with a focus on the delivery of products to the right customer at the right time,” Fahimnia, who will head the research centre at the University of Sydney, says.
“One of the big challenges is size. Coca Cola Amatil, for example, has 35 production lines, 14 primary distribution centres and over 125,000 delivery points.
“The rice industry generates a large volume of waste products in the form of rice hulls which are either buried or burnt. This waste could be converted into energy in the form of electricity.”
Fahimnia is now looking for three PhD students to join the centre and work on supply chain design and management projects in close collaboration Coca-Cola Amatil and SunRice.
“The students will focus on the development of decision tools and optimisation models for designing efficient, resilient, and sustainable supply chains in the food and beverage industry,” he says.
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