IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i9p7236-d1133669.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Adoption of Robotic Process Automation Considering Financial Aspects in Beef Supply Chains: An Approach towards Sustainability

Author

Listed:
  • Khushboo E-Fatima

    (Department of Business Systems and Operations, University of Northampton, Northampton NN1 5PH, UK)

  • Rasoul Khandan

    (Aston Professional Engineering Centre, Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK)

  • Amin Hosseinian-Far

    (Department of Business Systems and Operations, University of Northampton, Northampton NN1 5PH, UK)

  • Dilshad Sarwar

    (Department of Business Systems and Operations, University of Northampton, Northampton NN1 5PH, UK)

Abstract

Sustainable beef production is a global challenge in present times. This research paper aims to investigate the financial risks and barriers in the adoption of robotic process automation (RPA), which has emerged as a strategic catalyst for achieving sustainability in the beef sector. Beef manufacturers constantly strive to achieve sustainability and a competitive advantage in order to gain enhanced beef productivity at low operational costs. There is a gap in the research, as there is a lack of knowledge about the financial aspects, barriers, and challenges influencing the RPA adoption process in the beef supply chain. To bridge this gap, secondary research is used to extract statistical data and information relevant to the RPA adoption process in beef supply chains, considering financial aspects. This study utilises a simulation method adopting a process model created in previous research and analyses different scenarios based on financial parameters using values or variables in Simul8 software. The scenario analysis allows for the identification of financial risks in the adoption of RPA and evaluates the simulation results from a sustainability perspective. The scenario analysis highlights the financial risks and barriers in the adoption of RPA in beef supply chains through process simulation, using financial parameters as a basis. KPI values, income statements, and carbon emission reports are generated to evaluate the main bottlenecks at various beef supply chain stages, thus allowing business users to conduct a thorough cost analysis. Successful adoption of RPA can lead to reduced supply chain complexity, thus improving financial and operational efficiency, which results in increased beef productivity, quality, and shelf life. This study is extremely important as it assesses scenarios from a sustainability perspective and contributes to academic knowledge and professional practice. It provides a process model to support the financial and ethical decision-making of managers or stakeholders, while helping the beef sector adopt RPA with greater ease. The process model can be adopted or modified according to the financial circumstances and individual requirements of business users. Furthermore, it provides decision-makers with the knowledge to eliminate or prevent financial barriers, thus advancing and accelerating the adoption of RPA. Robust adoption of RPA assists beef supply chains in gaining higher productivity at reduced costs, thus creating sustainable value.

Suggested Citation

  • Khushboo E-Fatima & Rasoul Khandan & Amin Hosseinian-Far & Dilshad Sarwar, 2023. "The Adoption of Robotic Process Automation Considering Financial Aspects in Beef Supply Chains: An Approach towards Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-34, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:9:p:7236-:d:1133669
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/9/7236/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/9/7236/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lambert Rutaganda & Rudolf Bergstrom & Avijeet Jayashekhar & Danushka Jayasinghe & Jibran Ahmed, 2017. "Avoiding pitfalls and unlocking real business value with RPA," Journal of Financial Transformation, Capco Institute, vol. 46, pages 104-115.
    2. Singh, Akshit & Mishra, Nishikant & Ali, Syed Imran & Shukla, Nagesh & Shankar, Ravi, 2015. "Cloud computing technology: Reducing carbon footprint in beef supply chain," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 462-471.
    3. Cătălin Nicolae Cebuc & Rozalia Veronica Rus, 2023. "The Use of Robotic Process Automation for Business Process Improvement," Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, in: Adina Letiția Negrușa & Monica Maria Coroş (ed.), Remodelling Businesses for Sustainable Development, chapter 0, pages 117-131, Springer.
    4. Paulina Golinska-Dawson & Karolina Werner-Lewandowska & Karolina Kolinska & Adam Kolinski, 2023. "Impact of Market Drivers on the Digital Maturity of Logistics Processes in a Supply Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-19, February.
    5. Charles C. Martinez & Joshua G. Maples & Justin Benavidez, 2021. "Beef Cattle Markets and COVID‐19," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(1), pages 304-314, March.
    6. Sotiris P. Gayialis & Evripidis P. Kechagias & Georgios A. Papadopoulos & Dimitrios Masouras, 2022. "A Review and Classification Framework of Traceability Approaches for Identifying Product Supply Chain Counterfeiting," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-20, May.
    7. João Gilberto Mendes dos Reis & Sivanilza Teixeira Machado, 2022. "The Role of Logistics Management in Food Supply Chains," International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, in: Y. Ilker Topcu & Şule Önsel Ekici & Özgür Kabak & Emel Aktas & Özay Özaydın (ed.), New Perspectives in Operations Research and Management Science, pages 551-582, Springer.
    8. Sube Singh & Ramesh Kumar & Rohit Panchal & Manoj Kumar Tiwari, 2021. "Impact of COVID-19 on logistics systems and disruptions in food supply chain," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(7), pages 1993-2008, April.
    9. Jason A. Hubbart & Nathan Blake & Ida Holásková & Domingo Mata Padrino & Matthew Walker & Matthew Wilson, 2023. "Challenges in Sustainable Beef Cattle Production: A Subset of Needed Advancements," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, February.
    10. Chris Lamberton & Damiano Brigo & Dave Hoy, 2017. "Impact of Robotics, RPA and AI on the insurance industry: challenges and opportunities," Journal of Financial Perspectives, EY Global FS Institute, vol. 4(1), pages 8-20.
    11. Hayes Dermot & Jacobs Keri & Schulz Lee & Crespi John, 2023. "Resilience of U.S. Cattle and Beef Sectors: Lessons from COVID-19," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 21(1), pages 53-67, May.
    12. Popkova, Elena G. & De Bernardi, Paola & Tyurina, Yuliya G. & Sergi, Bruno S., 2022. "A theory of digital technology advancement to address the grand challenges of sustainable development," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ahmad Ali Atieh & Alhareth Abu Hussein & Saheer Al-Jaghoub & Ahmad Fathi Alheet & Murad Attiany, 2025. "The Impact of Digital Technology, Automation, and Data Integration on Supply Chain Performance: Exploring the Moderating Role of Digital Transformation," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-24, January.
    2. Leonel Patrício & Lino Costa & Leonilde Varela & Paulo Ávila, 2023. "Sustainable Implementation of Robotic Process Automation Based on a Multi-Objective Mathematical Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-29, October.
    3. Ebenezer Laryea & Amin Hosseinian-Far & Simon Derrick, 2023. "Climate Justice Implications of Banning Air-Freighted Fresh Produce," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-18, November.
    4. Sina Davoudi & Peter Stasinopoulos & Nirajan Shiwakoti, 2024. "Two Decades of Advancements in Cold Supply Chain Logistics for Reducing Food Waste: A Review with Focus on the Meat Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-67, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Abderahman Rejeb & Karim Rejeb & Andrea Appolloni & Mohammad Iranmanesh & Horst Treiblmaier & Sandeep Jagtap, 2022. "Exploring Food Supply Chain Trends in the COVID-19 Era: A Bibliometric Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-33, September.
    2. Brenda Cardoso & Luiza Cunha & Adriana Leiras & Paulo Gonçalves & Hugo Yoshizaki & Irineu de Brito Junior & Frederico Pedroso, 2021. "Causal Impacts of Epidemics and Pandemics on Food Supply Chains: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-28, August.
    3. Daniel Durão & António Palma Reis, 2024. "How does robotic process automation create value for firms?," Information Systems and e-Business Management, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 721-740, December.
    4. Nishant Saravanan & Jessica Olivares-Aguila & Alejandro Vital-Soto, 2022. "Bibliometric and Text Analytics Approaches to Review COVID-19 Impacts on Supply Chains," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-33, November.
    5. Charfeddine, Lanouar & Umlai, Mohamed, 2023. "ICT sector, digitization and environmental sustainability: A systematic review of the literature from 2000 to 2022," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    6. Priom Mahmud & Sanjoy Kumar Paul & Abdullahil Azeem & Priyabrata Chowdhury, 2021. "Evaluating Supply Chain Collaboration Barriers in Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-28, July.
    7. Ahmad Ali Atieh & Alhareth Abu Hussein & Saheer Al-Jaghoub & Ahmad Fathi Alheet & Murad Attiany, 2025. "The Impact of Digital Technology, Automation, and Data Integration on Supply Chain Performance: Exploring the Moderating Role of Digital Transformation," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-24, January.
    8. Mona Haji & Laoucine Kerbache & Mahaboob Muhammad & Tareq Al-Ansari, 2020. "Roles of Technology in Improving Perishable Food Supply Chains," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-24, December.
    9. Mohd Fahmi Bin Mad Ali & Mohd Khairol Anuar Bin Mohd Ariffin & Aidin Delgoshaei & Faizal Bin Mustapha & Eris Elianddy Bin Supeni, 2023. "A Comprehensive 3-Phase Framework for Determining the Customer’s Product Usage in a Food Supply Chain," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-20, February.
    10. Rozhkov, Maxim & Ivanov, Dmitry & Blackhurst, Jennifer & Nair, Anand, 2022. "Adapting supply chain operations in anticipation of and during the COVID-19 pandemic," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    11. Li, Ying & Dai, Jing & Cui, Li, 2020. "The impact of digital technologies on economic and environmental performance in the context of industry 4.0: A moderated mediation model," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    12. Karzan Mahdi Ghafour & Abdulqadir Rahomee Ahmed Aljanabi, 2023. "The role of forecasting in preventing supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic: a distributor-retailer perspective," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 780-793, June.
    13. Fazal Ur Rehman & Basheer M. Al-Ghazali & Adel Ghaleb Haddad & Ehab Abdullatif Qahwash & M. Sadiq Sohail, 2023. "Exploring the Reverse Relationship between Circular Economy Innovation and Digital Sustainability—The Dual Mediation of Government Incentives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-21, March.
    14. Wang, Xiaojun & Zhang, Shukai & Schneider, Niels, 2021. "Evaluating the carbon emissions of alternative food provision systems: A comparative analysis of recipe box and supermarket equivalents," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    15. Dev, Navin K. & Shankar, Ravi & Swami, Sanjeev, 2020. "Diffusion of green products in industry 4.0: Reverse logistics issues during design of inventory and production planning system," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    16. Vaiknoras, Kate & Hahn, William & Padilla, Samantha & Valcu-Lisman, Adriana & Grossen, Grace, "undated". "COVID-19 Working Paper: COVID-19 and the U.S. Meat and Poultry Supply Chains," USDA Miscellaneous 319353, United States Department of Agriculture.
    17. Hui Zhang & Haiqian Ke, 2022. "Spatial Spillover Effects of Directed Technical Change on Urban Carbon Intensity, Based on 283 Cities in China from 2008 to 2019," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-19, February.
    18. Desmond Ohene Poku, 2025. "Developing Resilient, Technology-Enabled Supply Chains to Strengthen National Security and Ensure Critical Goods Availability," International Journal of Scientific Research and Modern Technology, Prasu Publications, vol. 4(9), pages 86-97.
    19. Boyer, Christopher N. & Griffith, Andrew P., 2023. "Subsidy Rate Changes on Livestock Risk Protection for Feeder Cattle," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 48(01), January.
    20. Mukesh Kumar & Rakesh D. Raut & Mahak Sharma & Vikas Kumar Choubey & Sanjoy Kumar Paul, 2022. "Enablers for resilience and pandemic preparedness in food supply chain," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 1198-1223, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:9:p:7236-:d:1133669. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.