Resilience in supply systems – What the food industry can learn from energy sector

Abstract

Drastic events such as pandemics, earthquakes or other disasters not only threaten the immediate living conditions of people but also indirect circumstances such as energy supply, infrastructure and food production. To ensure that damage and failures in these areas do not lead to a disaster, special requirements are placed on this critical infrastructure. In this context resilience, which is defined as the resistance of a system to external effects, is required. A field that is indeed part of the critical infrastructure, but which has not been considered as intensively as the energy sector, is food production.The investigation focuses on how fundamental principles of thermodynamics, system theory and reliability theory can be applied to the modelling of food production processes to obtain a measure of resilience. Using known state and process variables from thermodynamics and electrical power engineering, analogous variables are derived for the food industry. These variables serve as an evaluation standard for a quality measure Q. In addition to system-theoretical considerations, it is investigated how existing evaluation criteria of power engineering, such as System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) and Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI), can be transferred to food production.Design: The investigation focuses on how fundamental principles of thermodynamics, system theory and reliability theory can be applied to the modelling of food production processes to obtain a measure of resilience. Using known state and process variables from thermodynamics and electrical power engineering, analogous variables are derived for the food industry.Purpose: Drastic events such as pandemics, earthquakes or other disasters not only threaten the immediate living conditions of people but also indirect circumstances such as energy supply, infrastructure and food production. To ensure that damage and failures in these areas do not lead to a disaster, special requirements are placed on this critical infrastructure. In this context resilience is required.Findings: The aforementioned state and process variables serve as an evaluation standard for a quality measure Q. In addition to system-theoretical considerations, it is investigated how existing evaluation criteria of power engineering, such as SAIDI and CAIDI, can be transferred to food production.Originality: This paper fulfils an identified need to study a part of the critical infrastructure that has not been as extensively looked at as the energy sector, namely food production.