Fresher Food Supply: Evaluating the impact of pick-to-zero strategy on freshness of produce using discrete event simulations

Consumers frequently reach behind supermarket shelves to find products with the latest expiration dates. This instinctive behavior highlights a universal desire for fresh produce. Therefore, our capstone sponsor is eager to consistently deliver fresh produce to maximize customer satisfaction. One innovative approach to increasing freshness is to minimize the duration produce spends in the supply chain by implementing a pick to zero strategy. However, can a pick to zero strategy improve freshness without significantly increasing costs or waste? Using discrete event simulation in SimPy we compared the current state and future state supply chain by incorporating factors of uncertainty at each node of the network. The simulation model indicates that a pick to zero strategy improves freshness of produce by 16%, reduces excess by 40% but doubles the transportation costs. However, using a strategically located consolidation center in conjunction with the pick to zero strategy reduces the transportation costs. Furthermore, our results also indicate that products with higher forecast accuracy and lower forecast variance are more suitable for a pick to zero strategy.