ALADIN
ALADIN (Agro Logistic Analysis and Design INstrument) is a visual interactive simulation environment building on the Logistics Suite of the (object oriented) simulation package Enterprise Dynamics (ED).The application, developed by Wageningen UR, concerns a library of generic building blocks for modelling Fresh Supply Chains and Networks. Quality models for a range of fresh products are embedded in this library.These models describe quality behaviour, for example botrytis in strawberries or weight loss of bell peppers, under specified conditions (temperature, relative humidity, modified atmosphere, etc.). They incorporate parameters that reflect stochastic biological variations in product quality decay and are developed by experts in lab-experiments under controlled conditions.
ALADIN adds the indicator product quality or product freshness (keeping quality and product waste) to classical performance indicators such as transportation costs, stock levels, and delivery reliability. In this way,ALADIN helps the decision maker, to trade off logistics costs and service (product quality and availability), when assessing specific (re)designs of the supply chain.
Applications
ALADIN (Agro Logistic Analysis and Design INstrument) is a visual interactive simulation environment building on the Logistics Suite of the (object oriented) simulation package Enterprise Dynamics (ED).The application, developed by Wageningen UR, concerns a library of generic building blocks for modelling Fresh Supply Chains and Networks. Quality models for a range of fresh products are embedded in this library.These models describe quality behaviour, for example botrytis in strawberries or weight loss of bell peppers, under specified conditions (temperature, relative humidity, modified atmosphere, etc.). They incorporate parameters that reflect stochastic biological variations in product quality decay and are developed by experts in lab-experiments under controlled conditions.ALADIN adds the indicator product quality or product freshness (keeping quality and product waste) to classical performance indicators such as transportation costs, stock levels, and delivery reliability. In this way,ALADIN helps the decision maker, to trade off logistics costs and service (product quality and availability), when assessing specific (re)designs of the supply chain.
Applications
- Redesigning supply chains. Comparing alternative distribution systems (e.g. new chain actors, different transport modes, warehouses, cross docking, shorter lead times, and different environmental conditions) for the export of fresh products such as peppers and tomatoes. ALADIN visualizes and quantifies the consequences of design choices for the remaining keeping quality of the product at the customer.
- Decreasing fresh product waste. Most outlets have significant amounts of product losses, caused either by passing product’s best before date or by crossing other acceptance limits of customers, e.g. colouring, or loss of firmness. Product waste can be reduced in several ways. For example, by increasing the initial product quality, by applying chilled conditions at the store, or by changing ordering behaviour. ALADIN helps to analyze which type of improvement has maximum benefits (bottleneck analysis).
- Improving ordering policies for fresh produce. Because of its limited keeping quality ordering fresh produce means finding a balance between stock-outs and shrinkage.ALADIN makes the trade off transparent by estimating stock-outs and shrinkage on a daily basis from point of sale data and replenishment data.These results can help to find better ordering policies.
