Application of digital twin models in the fruit supply chain

The goal of this study is to investigate the fundamental principlesunderlying the use of the digital twin in common industrial operations and theagri-food supply chain, as well as the development of methodologies andframeworks for the digital twin to reduce the waste of fresh produce,particularly fruits. Thus, the study began with the identification of basicconcepts related to the digital twin and its advances in the agri-food supplychain. Moreover, methodologies and a general framework for implementationhave been suggested based on the operating model of the Italian food bank(Banco Alimentare Campania Onlus), which includes fruit donors, the foodbank, and local charity groups as supply chain actors.First, a detailed review has been performed to explore the fundamentalconcepts of the digital twin application in the main industrial activities,including production, predictive maintenance, and after-sales services. This isfollowed by a section with an analysis of existing literature on the use ofdigital twins in the agri-food supply chain, which has recently attracted theattention of many research institutes and companies. In this sector, digital twincould be used to monitor the real-time status of fresh produce as well as supplychain activities, although the approaches are not specified. In the third chapter,a machine learning-based digital twin technique was devised and applied totrack the evolution of fruit quality changes throughout storage, and goodprediction accuracy was achieved to develop product twin. The fourth part ofthe study has focused on the creation of a cloud analytics-based digital twincapable of efficiently reducing fruit loss at the inventory level using historicaltime-series data. The fifth section of the study demonstrates the possible useof digital twins for near-real-time optimization of fruit deliveries from thefood bank to local charity organizations, which is also regarded to have aconsiderable improvement in fruit waste reduction, which is mostly driven bylimited fleet size and long routes during transportation. The last sectionpresents a general framework of a fruit supply chain digital twin model, whichincludes an integrated solution for monitoring fruit quality status, inventoryplanning, and delivery optimization.According to this research, despite a lack of common understanding of theconcept, digital twin applications could enhance operational performance inmany industrial sectors, including the agri-food supply chain. The proposedmethods could also increase visibility in the fruit supply chain, reducing wasteand meeting additional sustainability goals. [edited by Author]