Sustainable vehicle routing of agro-food grains in the e-commerce industry

Abstract

As a result of rapid industrialisation, rising food demand globally, and, increasing concerns associated with food safety and quality, the implementation of sustainable supply chain concepts is becoming critically important to the agro-food sector. This paper introduces an integrated first-mile pickup and last-mile delivery logistics problem, where agro-food grains are available at multiple farmer’s locations and are in demand by businesses like e-retailers, supermarkets, grocery shops, restaurants, hotels, etc. In addition, this work addresses a sustainable framework for agro-food grains supply chain (AFGSC) in urban and rural areas for e-commerce in developing countries. The proposed optimisation model considers costs related to first-mile pickup, transportation with last-mile delivery, carbon emission tax, inventory holding, vehicle and food damage due to accidents, and penalties on late pickup and delivery. This model also takes environmental and social (due to accidents) sustainability aspects into consideration, along with the economic aspects of sustainability. To solve the large complex practical scenarios by using four nature-inspired algorithms. The obtained results of this study are used to recommend significant managerial insights for implementing AFGSC in the e-commerce industry in considering practical conditions. Moreover, policy implications in terms of economic, social, and environmental aspects of sustainability are also discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• E-commerce
• sustainability
• metaheuristic
• agro-food grains supply chain
• triple-bottom line

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dhirendra Prajapati

Mr. Dhirendra Prajapati is a PhD Scholar in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design & Manufacturing, Jabalpur, India. He did his Bachelor of Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering from Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya, Bhopal, India in 2014, and Master of Technology in Manufacturing from Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design & Manufacturing, Jabalpur, India in 2018. His area of interest in E-commerce, logistics and supply chain network design, process planning and scheduling, operations management, mathematical modeling and optimisation, sustainability.

Felix T. S. Chan

Prof. Felix T. S. Chan received his BSc Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Brighton University, UK, and obtained his MSc and PhD in Manufacturing Engineering from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, UK. Prior joining Macau University of Science and Technology, Prof. Chan has many years of working experience in other universities including The Hong Kong Polytechnic University; University of Hong Kong; University of South Australia; University of Strathclyde. His current research interests are Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Operations Research, Production and Operations Management, Distribution Coordination, Smart Manufacturing, AI Optimisation. To date, Prof. Chan has published over 16 book chapters, over 370 SCI refereed international journal papers and 310 peer reviewed international conference papers. His total number of citations > 10700, h Index = 53. Prof. Chan is a chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong. Based on the recent compilation (2020) from a research group of Stanford about the impact of scientists (top 2% listed). The work is published in the following website: https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000918. Prof. Felix Chan is categorised in the field of Operations Research, ranked 10 out of 23,455 scientists worldwide, i.e. Top 0.04% worldwide

Yash Daultani

Dr. Yash Daultani is a faculty member of the Operations Management Group. He has over six years of academic work experience. Before joining IIM Lucknow, he was associated with ABV-IIITM Gwalior as an assistant professor. He holds a doctoral (Fellow) degree from the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow. He has published several research articles that appeared in the International Journal of Production Research, Expert System with Application, Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, etc. He is serving as a reviewer in reputed journals i.e. Computers and Industrial Engineering, International Journal of Production Research, Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, etc.

Saurabh Pratap

Dr. Saurabh Pratap is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Jabalpur, M.P, India. Previously, he worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering at the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. He received his B. Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering from Institute of Engineering and Technology, (India) and M. Tech degree in Production Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Durgapur (India) in the 2008 and 2011, respectively. He has completed his Ph.D. degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering Department at IIT Kharagpur, India in 2016. He has authored several technical papers. His publications appeared in such journals as International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, Computers and Industrial Engineering, Annals of Operation Research, Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing and Maritime Economics and logistics. He carried out collaborative research with the Laboratory for production Management and Process in EPFL, Switzerland and the University of Hong Kong, HK. He is working as a reviewer for 21 renowned International Journals.