Robotic Process Automation for Reducing Food Wastage in Swedish Grocery Stores

Abstract

In the wake of global warming and ever-increasing conflicts and instabilities for controlling resources and interests hampering agricultural development, food security has been the main priority of nations. Besides, food wastage is a global issue that has become more serious. For example, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations reports that it aims to reduce global food wastage in production, retail, and supply chain. In Sweden, roughly 100,000 tons of food is wasted every year due to the date of expiry in grocery stores, according to a government report published in 2020. On the other hand, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can streamline the control of the expiring date of food, leading to less food wastage. Besides, disruptive technologies such as RPA are predicted to have an economic impact of nearly 6.7 trillion dollars by 2025. However, research on RPA or automation to manage food wastage still needs to be conducted as more needs to be done. Besides, research on the benefits and challenges needs to be done, and food wastage in Sweden is a serious issue that calls for stakeholders’ action. This research investigates the opportunities and challenges associated with using Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to reduce food wastage in Swedish grocery stores. Thus, we collected data from seven Swedish grocery store employees using semi-structured interviews. We applied thematic analysis to the collected data. The result shows several opportunities associated with using RPA in organizations for food wastage management in grocery stores. On the other hand, respondents fear losing jobs if RPA is implemented to manage food wastage.