Data driven close loop supply chains for sustainable logistics of the meat industry

Purpose: Data driven supply chain management is essential to operational efficiency, carbon footprint limitations, and satisfaction of customers. The principle objective of our study is to suggest a new data model of integrated processes of the meat industry in a close loop supply chain (CLSC), based on the ideas of extension of MRP to a reverse supply chain and on the developments of cyber-physical systems which are developing fast in a 4th generation industry. Like in the general spatial/urban studies also in the meat logistics chain the most important indicators of sustainability are energy consumption, land use, employment possibilities, waste production, food loss, food safety, and pollution. Design: For better integration, and visibility the extended MRP model is suggested as a skeleton on which the database of CLSC is constructed. This approach enables us to consider the product flows as units of analysis, and aim to reintroduce returned products and/or their components into the forward flow by implementing reprocessing operations such as recycling. Findings: In the meat industry, slaughterhouse waste consists of high portion of slaughtered animal that cannot be sold as meat or used as the meat products, also the used packaging material, made of iron, aluminium or plastic is similar to urban waste, therefore could be consider in joint outputs of industry and the waste of urban communities in the reverse activities of cogeneration plant (animal fat), biogas plant (other waste) and urban waste water treatments. Value: For all these outputs from the basic supply chain the data should be carefully collected in real time, processed and available in real time to management and control. How to achieve such results tied to the Bill of Materials and matrix of timing is presented here. In the literature mostly cost approach is available. Our Net Present Value approach enables to evaluate also perturbations in timing and other risk factors not observable in the cost approach, especially when Internet-of-Things is available as an infrastructure in which the cyber-physical system is developed based on a good database.