Using the Multi-Criteria ABC-Analysis to Minimize Food Waste : A Qualitative Case Study at a Swedish Food Warehouse

Abstract: Food waste is a global concern due to its negative contribution to all aspects ofsustainability and organizations are looking for new ways to directly impact their own food waste and operate their business in a more sustainable way. Part ofthe food waste stems from warehouse activities where mishandling and poorly packed rolling storage containers (RSCs) lead to damaged items during transport. The storage assignment dictates how the items are ordered in awarehouse and is therefore responsible for how items are packed into RSCs. Due to the lack of previous research in this area, this thesis aims to investigate how the multi-criteria ABC-analysis can be used to optimize the storage assignment with the intent of minimizing food waste. A qualitative case study at Warehouse X was conducted where ten employees highlighted several criteria such as weight, volume, and similarity, that all need to be considered when optimizing the storage assignment. A total of nine criteria were used to generate eight classes that are used in the proposed multi-criteria ABC-analysis. The proposed model can be used by all actors in the Swedish food industry to improve their warehouse operations and operate them in a more sustainable way to reduce their food waste. It is also generalizable to warehouses outside the Swedish food industry