How the food industry adapt to industry 4.0

This research proposal focuses on the implementation of industry 4.0 in the food industry of Singapore. It explores the current status of implementation globally, how the Singaporean food industry adopts industry 4.0, the challenges faced, and ways to adopt it more efficiently. The research methodology includes a literature review, survey questionnaire, and data analysis.

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
How the food industry adapt to industry 4.0
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Table of Content
1. INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................2
1.0 Introduction......................................................................................................................2
1.1 Research Purpose.............................................................................................................2
1.2 Research Questions & Objectives....................................................................................2
2. LITERATURE REVIEW.......................................................................................................3
2.1 Industry 4.0......................................................................................................................3
2.2 Food Industry of Singapore & Economic Contributions.................................................4
2.3 Implementation of Industry in Food Industry..................................................................4
2.4 Implementation of Industry 4.0 in Singapore..................................................................5
3. METHODOLOGY.................................................................................................................6
3.1 Research Methodology.....................................................................................................6
3.2 Research Design...............................................................................................................6
4. TIMETABLE AND MAIN STEPS.......................................................................................8
5. CONCLUSION......................................................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................10
Appendices...............................................................................................................................11
Appendix1: Survey questionnaire........................................................................................11

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1. INTRODUCTION
1.0 Introduction
This paper presents a proposal for a thesis on the topic of incorporation of industry 4.0 in the
food industry in Singapore. This proposal contains the research purpose, objectives and the
literature review to develop a basic understanding of the research. The proposed methodology
of this research has been also added in this proposal considering the research design followed
by the timeline and activates.
1.1 Research Purpose
In this era of digitalised advancement and technological revolution with the help of AI
and all others associated machine learning systems the business operations and model of
utilising the different tool in business management is changing rapidly. Industry 4.0 refers to
the fourth industrial revolution and digital advancements such as artificial intelligence,
advanced database system, wireless connectivity, and internet of things as others. The
purpose of this research is specifically focused on the implementation of industry 4.0 in the
food industry of Singapore.
1.2 Research Questions & Objectives
As per the purpose of the research, the research questions are:
 What is the current status of implementation and advancement of industry 4.0 in food
industry globally?
 How does the Singaporean food industry adopt Industry 4.0?
 What are the major challenges faced by the food industry of Singapore to adopt
Industry 4.0?

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 What are the ways for the food industry of Singapore to adopt Industry 4.0 more
efficiently?
The primary aim of this research is to explore the current situation or progress of
Singaporean food industry in adopting industry 4.0 and the secondary aim is to find out the
possible interventions that could help to improve the adaptation process.
The objectives of this research are:
 To explore the implementation and advancement of industry 4.0 in the food industry
globally
 To investigate the current usage of Industry 4.0 in the Singaporean food industry
 To examine the challenges faced by the food industry of Singapore to adopt Industry
4.0
 To find the possible solution or way out to adopt Industry 4.0 in the Singaporean food
industry with more efficiency
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Industry 4.0
Human civilization has made technological advancement through three industrial
revolutions where the first one within 1760 to 1830 was for steam-based automation, the
second one within 1820 to 1860 was for electricity based automation through petroleum use
and the third one within 1950 to 1990 information revolution through internet system and
computer technologies (Pan et al. 2015). Economical theorists named the digital advancement
we are currently going through a fourth industrial revolution which includes advancement in
a wireless connection, Internet of Things, robotics, Artificial Intelligence, cloud technologies
and Virtual Reality.

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Several industries from retail to manufacturing industry are currently using these
technologies to make their work more efficient and productive (Rüßmann et al 2015). Some
of the terms used in manufacturing and company activities such as Cloud Computing,
Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), ADBMS
(Advanced Database Management System), Software Automation, Artificial Intelligence,
Business Intelligence, Computer Aid Design (CAD), Cyber-Physical System (CPS) and other
technical advances are frequently used with these advances (Thorsteinssonand Page2018).
2.2 Food Industry of Singapore & Economic Contributions
The food industry is one of the core industrial attributes of any nation. Singapore's
food and beverage industry contributes an estimated S$14.4 billion to GDP and employs
nearly 300,000 people, as per the report released on 2018 by Food Industry Asia (FIA) (Paoli
et al. 2018). Therefore, utilising industry 4.0 in the food industry can significantly increase
the production and quality of the industry that can directly contribute to the national economy
and employment. At the same time, in order to implement the technological advancement of
industry 4.0, exploration of current utilisation of advanced technologies in the food industry
of Singapore is essential (Majid, Nayikand Nanda2015). There are very few researches that
have been done for exploring the current technological implementation in the Singaporean
Food industry.
2.3 Implementation of Industry in Food Industry
The process of food production includes different layers of systematic activities and
operations that consist of farming to produce raw food material, logistics to collect those
ingredients, processing to develop testy consumable food, packaging and distribution for
merchandising. Through the incorporation of industry 4.0 these operations are improving the

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efficiency and productivity of the food industry worldwide. The Food industry is also using
the Industry 4.0 for the logistics operation. After the successful integration of the RFID
system with the IoT technology, a significant amount of start-up food retailer in Singapore
are using the advanced logistics management (LMS) and warehouse management system
(WMS) (Ojo et al. 2018). Food is very vulnerable to the temperature difference and changing
moisture level. Therefore in food industry, environment monitoring is a major factor of the
warehouse management system. In the case of processed food manufacturing, the packaging
section of the industry uses the simulation system as a major part of resource estimation
(Luco et al. 2017). In this process, the factory automation the effectiveness of new product
lifecycle is tested through this simulation that also calculate the cost benefit analysis
automatically to measure the operational efficiency of the new food production process. As
animal performance drives profitability, enhancing performance and managing the waste
(thus emphasizing animal health) is driving industry growth, feed innovation, and the demand
for Agricultural Technology (Dilberoglu et al. 2017). In livestock management for milk, meat
and egg production the Industry 4.0 has been adopted in the Singaporean agriculture to
monitor the health conditions of the animal while having a real-time update regarding the
potential food raw food production capacity.
2.4 Implementation of Industry 4.0 in Singapore
This type of technology has been used in the Singapore agriculture industry as a part
of larger operational enhancement namely Farm Management System of FMS. SengChoon
Egg Farm is the best example of adopting Industry 4.0 in agriculture in managing an egg
farm effectively. Similarly, for SweeChioh Fishery in Singapore, the Industry 4.0 is being
used 1for viticulture (Brockgreitensand Abbas2016).

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3. METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Methodology
The selection of methodology of this research is based on the structure of the research
onion. The research onion is the conceptual framework for the selection of the appropriate
research methods for a study. The outer layers of the onion refer to a more conceptual
attribute of selecting method than the internal layers. Hence the selection of this research
methodology is based on the out to inward progression in the research onion that includes
selection of research philosophy, research approach, research design, sampling, data
collection and data analysis respectively (Basiasand Pollalis2018). The major types of
research philosophies are positivism research, interpretivism research, realism research and
pragmatism research. This research is based on collecting data from the large number of
sample in order to analyse the data collectively, to find the implications out of it. Therefore,
for this type of data collection and analysis the positivism research philosophy has been
selected. The major types of research approaches are inductive, deductive and abductive
approach. This research does not have any pre-determined assumption or hypothesis and
therefore the chosen research approach is the inductive research design.
3.2Research Design
The major types of research designs are systematic review, experimental study, and
non-experimental study, cross-sectional study, observational study, case study analysis and
reflections (Flick2015). As the purpose of this research is to explore the current utilisation of
the industry 4.0 in the food industry of Singapore, the exploratory research the cross-sectional
data collection will be used for this study using a survey.

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The target population for this research is employees of the food industry and
associated companies. The employees can review and provide their valuable opinion based
on their experience. The sampling can be done through probability sampling or non-
probability sampling procedure. The procedure used in this research is probability sampling
where each potential participant has an equal opportunity to be selected. The online platform
based survey will be distributed by selecting only those potential participants who are the
employees of the food industry and associated companies of Singapore. From the total
responses collected from the participants, randomly 50 responses will be selected and will be
considered for the final sample size for data analysis.
The data collection of any research can be done by primary or secondary data
collection. In this research, the mixed data collection procedure will be used through using
the primary data collection as well as secondary data collection (Barnham2015). This
research will secondary data collection for literature review and primary data collection for
collecting data from the target population. For primary data, this research conducted an
online survey as discussed before. The survey will be conducted in social media website. For
this survey the survey form will be distributed among the target population. The survey
questions will include the demographic questions as well as the questions about their
perception and experience about the utilisation of industry 4.0 or advanced digital software
technologies in their companies.
Two types of data analysis procedures are used to analyse the collected data. For non-
numerical data analysis the qualitative data analysis process is used and the numerical data
analysis the quantitative data analysis is used through statistical and mathematical methods.
Both qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods will be used for this mixed research.
The qualitative analysis will be done by thematic data analysis. The quantitative analysis will
be used to analyse the numerical data collected from the survey. The statistical methods used

8RESEARCH PROPOSAL
in this research are descriptive analysis using the mean value distribution process considering
the mean, median, mode and standard deviation (Wang et al. 2013). For statistical analysis
the Microsoft Excel software will be used. Through Excel spreadsheet, the graphical
presentation will be developed for visual indication of data trends and findings.
In every research Ethical consideration is a major factor of a research holds the
reliability, authenticity and validity of the research. The ethical consideration of this research
has three major aspects namely confidentiality of the data, health impact of used tool on
participants and consent of the participants. The consent form will be distributed among the
participants mentioning the purpose and the process of the data collection method. After
receiving the acknowledgement from the participants the data collection procedure was
conducted. Apart from that, it will be also ensured that the data will not be used in any other
research or any other purpose.
4. TIMETABLE AND MAIN STEPS
Timeline 20-Jan 27-Jan 03-Feb 10-Feb 17-Feb 24-Feb 02-Mar 09-Mar 16-Mar
Activities
Finding topic
Conducting initial research
Aim and objectives
Literature review
Developing methods
Collecting Data
Analysis
Developing final draft
Final submission
5. CONCLUSION
As per the above discussion, it can be said that the purpose of this research to explore
the current level of implementation of advanced technologies in the Singaporean food
industry. This research will be helpful to identify the scope of further development in the

9RESEARCH PROPOSAL
implementation of the advancement of industry 4.0 in the food industry. It is expected that,
there are many technical advancements that are already implemented. Some of them has been
already found in the literature review.

10RESEARCH PROPOSAL
References
Barnham, C., 2015. Quantitative and qualitative research: Perceptual
foundations. International Journal of Market Research, 57(6), pp.837-854.
Basias, N. and Pollalis, Y., 2018. Quantitative and qualitative research in business &
technology: Justifying a suitable research methodology. Review of Integrative Business and
Economics Research, 7, pp.91-105.
Brockgreitens, J. and Abbas, A., 2016. Responsive food packaging: recent progress and
technological prospects. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, 15(1),
pp.3-15.
Dilberoglu, U.M., Gharehpapagh, B., Yaman, U. and Dolen, M., 2017. The role of additive
manufacturing in the era of industry 4.0. Procedia Manufacturing, 11, pp.545-554.
Flick, U., 2015. Introducing research methodology: A beginner's guide to doing a research
project. Sage.
Luco, J., Mestre, S., Henry, L., Tamayo, S. and Fontane, F., 2019, September. Industry 4.0 in
SMEs: A Sectorial Analysis. In IFIP International Conference on Advances in Production
Management Systems (pp. 357-365). Springer, Cham
Majid, I., Nayik, G.A. and Nanda, V., 2015. Ultrasonication and food technology: A
review. Cogent Food & Agriculture, 1(1), p.1071022.
Ojo, O.O., Shah, S., Coutroubis, A., Jiménez, M.T. and Ocana, Y.M., 2018, November.
Potential Impact of Industry 4.0 in Sustainable Food Supply Chain Environment. In 2018
IEEE International Conference on Technology Management, Operations and Decisions
(ICTMOD) (pp. 172-177). IEEE.

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Pan, M., Sikorski, J., Kastner, C.A., Akroyd, J., Mosbach, S., Lau, R. and Kraft, M., 2015.
Applying industry 4.0 to the Jurong Island eco-industrial park. Energy Procedia, 75,
pp.1536-1541.
Paoli, A. and Swainson, M., 2018. Automated Food Manufacturing System and Robotic
Flexible Food Manufacturing System-Innovate UK/EPSRC. Impact, 2018(5), pp.89-91.
Rüßmann, M., Lorenz, M., Gerbert, P., Waldner, M., Justus, J., Engel, P. and Harnisch, M.,
2015. Industry 4.0: The future of productivity and growth in manufacturing industries. Boston
Consulting Group, 9(1), pp.54-89.
Thorsteinsson, G. and Page, T., 2018. The Evolution of 3D printing and Industry 4.0. i-
Manager's Journal on Future Engineering and Technology, 14(1), p.1.
Wang, L.L., Watts, A.S., Anderson, R.A. and Little, T.D., 2013. 31 Common Fallacies in
Quantitative Research Methodology. The Oxford handbook of quantitative methods, p.718.

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Appendices
Appendix1: Survey questionnaire
Questions Options
1 Your Gender Male Female Others
2 Your age group in
years
20 to 30 31 to 40 41 to 50 51 to 65 More than 65
3 You are currently
occupied in
Government
Service
NGO (non-
profitable)
Public
limited
company
Private
Limited
Company
Self employed
4 How much
experience do you
have in
food/agricultural
industry
Less than 1
year
1 to 5 years 5 to 10 years 10 to 20
years
More than 20
years
5 Your Industry Agriculture Food
processing or
Manufacturing
Retailer Logistics
6 What is your current
occupation or
department
Operation and
manufacturing
Administration Finance Marketing
and sales
IT and
communication
7 How much
dependent your
work is on
information
technologies
No
dependency
Slight
dependency
Moderate
dependency
Significant
Dependency
Full dependency
8 Have you ever
trained to use the
information
Never Rarely Sometimes Frequently Very Frequently

13RESEARCH PROPOSAL
technologies and
components of
Industry 4.0 in your
work
9 Are you well aware
of Information
technology usage
(Industry 4.0) in
food industry
Highly
Disagree
Disagree Neither
agree not
disagree
Agree Highly Agree
10 Have you ever used
or listen about the
Warless
communication for
business operation
Highly
Disagree
Disagree Neither
agree not
disagree
Agree Highly Agree
11 Have you ever used
or listened about
cloud computing for
business operation
Highly
Disagree
Disagree Neither
agree not
disagree
Agree Highly Agree
12 Have you ever used
or listen about Radio
Frequency
Identification
Highly
Disagree
Disagree Neither
agree not
disagree
Agree Highly Agree
13 Have you ever used
or listened about
GPS, GPRS or
Location detection
Highly
Disagree
Disagree Neither
agree not
disagree
Agree Highly Agree
14 Have you ever used
or listened about
business intelligence
software and
communication
Highly
Disagree
Disagree Neither
agree not
disagree
Agree Highly Agree
15 How often do you Never Rarely Sometimes Frequently Very Frequently

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find the information
technology system
dysfunctional
16 Your opinion on
adopting industry
4.0 would be
beneficial for food
industry
Highly
Disagree
Disagree Neither
agree not
disagree
Agree Highly Agree
17 What is the primary
challenge in
adopting Industry
4.0
Lack of
funding
Lack of
knowledge and
awareness
Lack of
cooperation
and
coordination
Lack of
interest in
adaptation
Lack of human
resource
18 What is the
secondary challenge
in adopting Industry
4.0
Lack of
funding
Lack of
knowledge and
awareness
Lack of
cooperation
and
coordination
Lack of
interest in
adaptation
Lack of human
resource
19 What should be
primarily/urgently
done to adapt
Industry 4.0 in food
industry
Recruitment
and Training
Changes in
policies
Government
support
Increasing
awareness
and interest
Exploring the
innovative
implementations
20 In a long run what
should be done to
adopt Industry 4.0 in
food industry
Recruitment
and Training
Changes in
policies
Government
support
Increasing
awareness
and interest
Exploring the
innovative
implementations

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