Modelling and simulation of supply chain resilience for unnecessary perishable foods using an agent-based modeling approach

The new challenge for business managers is to model and simulate an efficient and effective perishable foods supply chain network that is resilient enough to deal with different disruptions. Therefore, this research aims to model a resilient supply chain for unnecessary perishable foods using an agent-based simulation to deal with future disruptions. To confirm the strategies and model, the statistical population and sample include 7 prominent university professors and 11 managers of various departments of companies producing perishable foods (sales department; production department; planning and warehouse department; laboratory and quality control department; and commercial department). NetLogo software has been utilized to test the agent-based model. The simulation environment in this study includes the behavior and interactions between the members of the supply chain of unnecessary perishable foods and the consumers in Shiraz City. The simulation results indicate that the use of strategies such as consumer behavior tracking, discount, awareness of product safety, robotics, the use of blockchain among the levels of distributors and retailers, and the activation of several supporting suppliers, leads to a resilience supply chain of unnecessary perishable foods under different disruptions. In addition, among the different scenarios, the 30% discount and 40% robotics have been the most effective in the resilience of the supply chain of unnecessary perishable foods under different disruptions.