With the development of the Indian social economy, people’s living standards are improving day by day, and at the same time, the demand for types of industrial, and agricultural or dairy product is also increasing. Affected by the Indian natural and social environment, industrial/agricultural products’ logistics has become a massive obstacle to develop the rural economy. The circulation of dairy or agricultural products can look at the quantity and has high requirements in terms of quality. The state has also introduced some policies; the construction of chain logistics has risen to the focus of national economic development construction projects.
The logistics models centered on the supply chain include the third-party logistics integration model, the strategic alliance logistics operation model, the regional logistics distribution center model based on the integration of supply chain logistics, etc. For the low-temperature storage requirements of dairy products, fruits, and vegetables, we should adopt a logistics model based on third-party logistics and integration of social resources, which can provide for the time cost and capital cost in the logistics and transportation process, as well as the payment of accounts and the ability to preserve freshness.
Judging from the current transportation process of fresh agricultural products in India, certain defects are still unavoidable, such as high corrosion rate, low cold chain rate, and high logistics costs. The challenges mentioned above are mainly caused by the new agricultural product supply chain inadequacy in India. As a result, the supply chain of fresh dairy or agricultural products should be improved from the overall perspective.
The small scope and low application rate of logistics standardization and unification have increased carbon emissions in the industrial or agricultural product supply chain to a certain extent. The low applicability of standardized logistics packaging and logistics operations has led to repeated packaging and frequent loading and unloading vehicles in the cold chain process.
Due to the high cost of energy-saving and emission-reduction technologies, and the country has not yet given detailed implementation rules for carbon trading, most cold chain logistics service providers for industrial or agricultural products have not applied emission reductions, low-temperature storage, and low-temperature transportation, which have high carbon emissions. Technology, refrigerated warehouses with high energy consumption and low cooling effect, and mechanical refrigeration vehicles in cold chain logistics have led to a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions.
Design of monitoring and management platform for cold chain supply
Network structure design of product supply chain
The innovative supply chain network structure of shipping products is a social consumption network composed of multiple businesses and commercial relationships. The network can realize three essential physical movement functions in physical form, market intermediary, and consumer demand as shown in Fig. 1. According to the end consumer’s preferences or buying methods, buying behaviour, and the guidance of buying fashion and then adjust the content and form of fresh products, creatively meet the needs and desires of consumers.
Demand analysis
Cold chain logistics require select items such as perishable food and critical medicine, be kept at the specified lower temperature and humidity in all logistics links such as production, procurement, distribution, warehousing, sales, recall, and recycling, to reduce the loss of items in the logistics link. The survey shows that not all companies engaged in cold chain logistics can provide temperature monitoring and control records at this stage, and there are still problems such as poor temperature control in the cold chain transportation process. Because there is no temperature control record, once a particular logistics link is ‘broken’, it is difficult to investigate which link has the problem. Therefore, logistics companies engaged in the cold chain of shipping products must be included in the mandatory supervision of GSP, and electronic files of the cold chain supply chain monitoring system must be established nationwide to manage the information of the temperature, humidity, transportation, and storage conditions of the entire supply chain.
Based on the above requirements, a unified data information platform must be established to trace cold chain logistics products. The traceability links include raw material procurement, production, distribution, warehousing, sales, recall, recycling, and other logistics links. Consumers and regulatory authorities access the electronic archives of the cold chain logistics management system through the computer system to understand the product purchase, production, distribution, warehousing, sales, recall, and recycling information on time, and grasp the number and location of products in the cold chain logistics, thereby improving supply chain performance of cold chain logistics. Simultaneously, access to the cold chain supply chain system’s electronic archives can conduct comprehensive dynamic monitoring of various cold chain logistics vehicles and provide traceable information support for a food safety review.
Cold chain logistics product label design based on RFID technology
To develop the design of a real-time monitoring system for cold chain logistics; RFID technology and GPRS are used for label design and information mining of cold chain logistics products. The label identification process of cold chain logistics products based on RFID technology is shown in Fig. 2. Although RFID has been existing for many years, the technology still has applications and can potentially help companies improve their supply chain operations. RFID provides logistics managers with multiple ways to track and manage products and assets in the supply chain. RFID tags and scanners can potentially improve products and materials handling inside and outside the warehouse environment, with applications ranging from inventory management to automation.
Forward tracking design of cold chain logistics based on GPRS
To realize the design of a real-time monitoring system for cold chain logistics, the forward tracking design of cold chain logistics is based on GPRS technology. Enterprise managers and employees trigger the internal tracking process. Chain logistics products are different from industrial products. GPRS technology is used for information communication. The identification technology used in the cold chain logistics real-time monitoring system mainly includes UHF RFID and GPRS communication identification technology. The forward tracking process of chain logistics is composed of readers, electronic tags, and application software. The establishment of cold chain logistics product supply chain information management system should be based on information systems. Realize the internal tracking of high organization, high order, high standardization, and high modernization. The forward tracking process of cold chain logistics based on GPRS is shown in Fig. 3.
Conclusions
With the rapid development of the urban fresh product logistics industry and the progress of collaborative logistics and distribution technology, a large number of cold chain logistics enterprises rely on innovative supply chain technology innovation to succeed.
Cold chain logistics enterprises are the carriers to ensure the economic growth and economic development of the logistics industry, modern industrial and agricultural product supply chain innovation, agricultural product industry organizational development methods, technical levels and collaborative operation levels directly determine the competitiveness of enterprises and they play an essential fundamental role in the development of the entire cold chain and logistics industry of the country.
Dr. (Prof.) D.B. Jani received Ph.D. in Thermal Science (Mechanical Engineering) from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee. Currently he is a recognized Ph.D. Supervisor at Gujarat Technological University (GTU). Published more than 240 Research Articles in reputed International Conferences and Journals. He has also published 10 reputed books and book chapters in area of thermal engineering. Working as Academic Editor for the Journal of Materials Science Research and Reviews. Presently, he is an Associate Professor at GEC, Dahod, Gujarat Technological University, GTU, Ahmedabad (Education Department, State of Gujarat, India). His area of research is Desiccant cooling, ANN, TRNSYS, and Exergy.
