Predictive quality-aware control for scheduling of potato starch production

Modern technologies have enabled approaches to estimate freshness of perishable products during production and distribution. This allows supply chains to apply more advanced decision support systems in order to further reduce the loss of perishable products. In this paper we focus on the postharvest scheduling of starch potatoes. In particular we propose a quality-aware scheduling method that can be used in a decision support system for starch potato postharvest operations. Considering the quality of stored potatoes in real-time, the method determines when and how many potatoes should be harvested, sent for starch production, or stored. A centralized and a distributed control strategy are developed, with the aim of minimizing total starch loss in dynamic environments. Simulation experiments illustrate how the proposed approaches deal with disturbances, and that the total starch loss can be reduced when real-time quality information of potatoes is taken into account.