Solving the world’s Food Crisis with Advanced WMS

We could go a long way to solving the World’s Food Crisis with Advanced WMS

It’s fair to say that the world needs to urgently embrace sustainability when it comes to the way that it produces and distributes food. As the population of the planet grows ever larger, and the average temperature nudges ever higher, the need to sustainably feed humanity is growing ever more critical.

We live in a food paradox.

As a planet, we produce enough food to feed everyone – but 2.5 billion tonnes of it goes to waste each year (which in turn contributes to global warming) – while at the same time, about 10% of the population goes hungry. It’s not acceptable, and it doesn’t make sense.

Food waste, however, isn’t only down to us all buying too much salad and then letting it turn to sentient slime in the ill-named ‘crisper drawer’ of our fridge. There are massive inefficiencies in our global food network, and climate change is only exacerbating the problem.

There are droughts, heatwaves and unexpected frosts that decimate food crops on one side of the coin and floods and storms that disrupt supply chains on the other, just to start off with. And the impact is felt world-wide.

But what if we could mitigate some of these issues? What if we could adapt the way we work? What if we could change the way that we produced and distributed food? What if we could affect the outcomes?

You know what I’m going to say, don’t you. I’m going to talk about the role that an advanced WMS has in all of this. 

Because it’s significant.

An advanced WMS, like Blue Yonder’s Dispatcher WMS, for example, is perhaps currently a bit of an unsung hero when it comes to revolutionising our approach to food distribution.

Because it’s not just a tool for inventory management – WMS can also be a powerful tool when it comes to optimisation. We can use it for real-time tracking, yes, but we can also use the immense amount of data that it collects to create demand forecasting and seamless logistics coordination.

We can use WMS to make sure that the right food gets to the right place, at the right time. We can make decisions using accurate and timely information, and we can rapidly take action, based on those decisions.

Even if you knew nothing about humankind, the fact that so much food goes to waste while a significant percentage of the population goes to bed hungry will tell you a lot. The world is made up of many different ecosystems and economies. Different places have different characteristics and different challenges. We all know that no two warehouses work the same way – now extrapolate that information to every country in the world, with all their individual locations, peoples, and requirements.

But far from this being a challenge, it’s where advanced WMS can shine. 

If you get the right one, it’ll be able to offer you a customisable solution that can cater to regional requirements. Those requirements might be optimising cold storage in the arctic tundra or streamlining grain distribution at the equator. Either way, there are systems that will do both, without raising so much as a digital eyebrow. And they’ll stop food going to waste within the warehouses as well, so long as the FIFO and shelf life are set up correctly.

As societies evolve, so do their consumption patterns. Some regions will see increased wealth, which means that they’ll likely also see an uptick in consumption, and thus, waste. Other regions, probably the ones where climate change is already threatening food production, will experience negative outcomes on people’s livelihoods. But the use of WMS could be aligned with sustainable consumption trends, and it could be used to increase equitable food distribution. It could help us create the kind of balance that we’re going to need if we’re going to make the world a fairer place – even in the face of climate change.

2050 is the current target for net-zero emissions. But it’s a goal that’s fraught with challenges. There are technological barriers, local turf wars and dogged resistance to change. The sheer scale of the logistical coordination required is mind-boggling. But we could address these challenges if we really wanted to. And advanced WMS could be a tool for progress, it could be used to innovate, to help support policy reform and through available advances in supply chain visibility, it could promote collaboration.

We’re rapidly approaching the edge, and if we want to keep away from it and leave a better world for future generations – one where hunger is no longer a thing, and sustainability is the norm, then we need to act. 

Now.

So, if you’re part of the Supply Chain, and if you haven’t already implemented one, please understand that embracing an advanced WMS isn’t just a good strategic business decision – it’s also a very effective step that you can take towards supporting sustainability.

If you’ve got questions, then please, don’t hesitate to get in touch – info@socius24.com. We’d be delighted to help you explore the possibilities – and to be part of the solution.