Food supply chain management is challenged by various uncertainties present in daily operations such as fluctuation in supply and demand as well as varying product qualities along production and logistics. Related processes are highly complex as various product characteristics need to be considered simultaneously to ship products from farm to fork on time and in the right quality. This opens a wide range of research questions and opportunities to improve corresponding systems and operations.
At the center of the research activities stands the development of simulation and optimization-based decision support systems (DSSs) to improve understanding, evaluate impacts and derive managerial and policy implications in practice of various activities related to food supply chain management. DSSs provide various benefits to decision makers in the food industry, particularly if time-critical and complex managerial problems subject to uncertainty are faced. Such systems focus on providing the users flexible and personal ways to support decision making processes by assisting in the investigation of data and underlying models.
