17 September 2019

Research pick: Getting better with age - "Inventory models for maturing and ageing items: cheese and wine storage"

Some things fade and deteriorate as they age, but not fine wine and cheese, many types of these products get better with maturity and their value goes up. In the world of logistics coping with products whose value changes with age is a conundrum for storage and transport.

A team from Italy, writing in the International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, has looked in detail at this problem and come to some important conclusions for those handling and marketing maturing products.

Simone Zanoni, Lucio Enrico Zavanella, and Ivan Ferretti of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the Università degli Studi di Brescia, in Brescia, point out that particular cheeses, red wines, but also spirits, balsamic vinegar, and other consumable goods have a particular set of peculiarities associated with aging and maturing and their growing value on the market.

Their work points to a new way to model product lifecycles, inventory and logistics in a way that was not considered in the original business models from the early part of the twentieth century where products were either seen as having an essentially “infinite” storage time or were perishable goods that had a limited shelf life.

Zanoni, S., Zavanella, L.E. and Ferretti, I. (2019) ‘Inventory models for maturing and ageing items: cheese and wine storage‘, Int. J. Logistics Systems and Management, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp.233-252.

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