Smart packaging and its impact on key performance indicators of a supply chain : literature review and development of a new framework

Smart packaging solutions have the potential to greatly enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of supply chains. It is a combination of “Active” and “Intelligent” elements which means that it can sense, monitor and inform about the changes in the packaging (Intelligent) and also react upon those changes (active) in order to preserve the integrity of the product inside the package. For this purpose, it uses smart devices such as Time Temperature Indicators and RFID tags to monitor and track the condition of the product along the whole supply chain. The eventual goal is to increase shelf-life, monitor product deterioration, exchange information quality with consumers and enhance visibility among all the supply chain partners. Various researches on smart packaging have been done up till now. However, most of them were limited to the concepts and applications only. The topic has not been discussed in the context of supply chain and how it can actually make a difference in improving the key set of indicators. Therefore, taking into consideration the lack of the researches in understanding the performance indicators that are most affected by the “Smart Packaging” solutions, and in order to evaluate, examine and analyze the existing literature related to the topic, a non-systematic literature review has been conducted. Additionally, to achieve this evaluation, this research has followed four-step analysis approach that includes material collection, descriptive analysis, categorization and synthesis. Following the literature review on smart packaging and performance measurement systems, a new framework has been developed which incorporates the identified Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) with respect to the specific supply chain activity (Plan, Source, Make, Deliver, Return) based on the most famous SCOR model, and spread across three performance categories i.e. Resource, Output and Flexibility, proposed by Beamon in 1999. The impacts of smart packaging on the identified supply chain KPIs were then extensively analyzed on the basis of authentic literature reviews. This led us to prepare causal maps for each KPI, which makes it more elaborative for the reader. Due to time constraints, this research has been solely conducted on available literature reviews, therefore, it is quite limited. However, scope of this topic is enormous. Future research can include evidence-based data on the identified KPIs, for example, through case studies and interviews. Another limitation is that the study has not considered the deterrents to implementing the smart packaging technology, especially in terms of RFID tags and smart sensors. Therefore, there is a need to dig-in deep and consider these costs as well when discussing about the overall impacts of smart packaging solutions. Moreover, research could be expanded with respect to each industry frequently cited in the literature and also towards finding potential industries that could benefit from this technology. Further research could also focus on the better integration of smart packaging with state of the art information systems like ERP and also explore the topic in terms of emerging usage of Internet of Things, smart sensors and data analytics.