Titulo Estágio
Development of a Digital Twin for Food Supply Chains of Regional Products
Áreas de especialidade
Sistemas de Informação
Engenharia de Software
Local do Estágio
DEI-FCTUC
Enquadramento
The growing complexity of food supply chains, especially for regional products, demands advanced technological solutions to ensure efficiency, traceability, and food safety. The concept of Digital Twin, defined as a digital representation of a physical process or system (Ivanov, 2024), offers a powerful platform for simulating and monitoring these chains in real time (Tao et al., 2018). By integrating technologies such as Blockchain at critical stages, it is possible to ensure the traceability and integrity of critical data throughout the supply chain, promoting transparency and trust between consumers and the different actors in the chain (Sinha et al., 2023).
Regional food products have unique characteristics that require strict control from production to final consumption, and it is crucial to ensure quality and compliance with food safety standards. Blockchain technology will be used to immutably record critical events such as animal health, hygiene, and food safety data, providing a transparent and reliable history (Chang & Chen, 2020). This selective implementation ensure that only critical data is stored on the Blockchain, avoiding overload and guaranteeing system efficiency.
Recent studies demonstrate the potential of combining Digital Twin and Blockchain to improve the traceability and management of food supply chains (Barge et al., 2023; Compagnucci et al., 2022). This proposal aims to develop a digital model of the supply chain for regional food products, exploiting these technologies to ensure traceability and food safety.
References:
Barge, P., Franchetto, M. A. A., Maritano, V., Tortia, C., Gay, P., Schifanella, C., & Cena, F. (2022, September). Blockchain Technology for Food Supply Chain Traceability and Authentication. In Conference of the Italian Society of Agricultural Engineering (pp. 295-303). Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30329-6_30
Chang, S. E., & Chen, Y. (2020). When blockchain meets supply chain: A systematic literature review on current development and potential applications. IEEE Access, 8, 62478-62494. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2983601
Compagnucci, L., Lepore, D., Spigarelli, F., Frontoni, E., Baldi, M., & Di Berardino, L. (2022). Uncovering the potential of blockchain in the agri-food supply chain: An interdisciplinary case study. Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, 65, 101700. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jengtecman.2022.101700
Ivanov, D. (2024). Conceptualisation of a 7-element digital twin framework in supply chain and operations management. International Journal of Production Research, 62(6), 2220-2232. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2023.2217291
Sinha, S. K., Mukhopadhyay, D., & Bhattacharyya, S. (2022). A Brief Review on the Role of Blockchain in Supply Chain Management. Human-Centric Smart Computing: Proceedings of ICHCSC 2022, 129-147. https://doi.org/ 10.1007/978-981-19-5403-0_11
Tao, F., Zhang, H., Liu, A., & Nee, A. Y. (2018). Digital Twin in Industry: State-of-the-Art. IEEE Transactions on industrial informatics, 15(4), 2405-2415. https://doi.org/10.1109/TII.2018.2873186
Objetivo
The main objectives of this work are:
• Design a digital model of the food supply chain, identifying the main processes and interrelationships between different actors, from production to consumption.
• Implement Blockchain technology selectively to record critical events, guaranteeing traceability and data integrity only at essential points.
• Evaluate the Digital Twin with experts from Estrela UNESCO Global Geopark.
Plano de Trabalhos - Semestre 1
The main phases for the first semester are presented as follows (may overlap):
1) Research the state-of-the-art Digital Twin, Blockchain, and food supply chain.
Start: September 2024
Duration: 2 months
2) Mapping the processes and flows of the food supply chain for regional products.
Start: November 2024
Duration: 1 month
3) Design of the digital model using appropriate simulation tools.
Start: December 2024
Duration: 1 month
Work results of the semester:
• Literature review about the most relevant concepts.
• Digital model, processes, flows and relationships between link in the supply chain, and critical attributes for blockchain.
• Intermediate report.
Plano de Trabalhos - Semestre 2
The main phases for the second semester are presented as follows (may overlap):
4) Digital twin development.
Start: January 2025
Duration: 3 months
5) Testing and validation
Start: April 2025
Duration: 1 months
6) Writing of the thesis and a scientific paper
Start: May 2025
Duration: 2 months
Results of the 2nd semester:
• Scientific publication
• Final report
Condições
The student will be integrated in the Information Systems group (ISG) of CISUC, Department of Informatics Engineering, University of Coimbra. A workplace and the required resources will be provided.
The student will have the opportunity to travel to the selected companies and to present the papers that are accepted at conferences, with expenses paid.
Observações
The student will be engaged with the activities of ISG in a topic with major relevance for industries worldwide. Therefore, this work offers an opportunity to strengthen the skills of IT consultancy and IS design for digital transformation.
Orientador
João Barata e José Monteiro
barata@dei.uc.pt 📩