Nikolaos A. Panayiotou

The modern agricultural sector faces a multidimensional crisis, mainly consisting of an aging workforce, labor shortages, exhausting working conditions, and high rates of work-related accidents. In response, the authors carried out a systematic literature review (SLR), to explore the latest research on smart agricultural technologies, their effects on occupational safety, ergonomics, and worker health, and pinpoint obstacles to sustainable adoption. A thorough search was performed solely in the Scopus database, covering peer-reviewed publications from 2020 to 2026, strictly following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Based solely on Scopus, this study provides a focused synthesis, with the results suggesting that hazards such as chemical exposure and musculoskeletal strain are significantly reduced with the use of innovations such as unmanned vehicles, exoskeletons, and collaborative robots. These technologies also show great promise in cutting down resource waste, helping farmers practice sustainable agriculture. However, a recurring gap between research and real-life deployment exists, as adoption is hindered by cost considerations, reliability issues, and ergonomic problems. To achieve a sustainable technological transition in agriculture, it is necessary to simultaneously bridge three critical gaps: technological (ensuring robust field performance), ergonomic (design and testing processes based on real end-users and their needs), and socio-economic (addressing adoption barriers).

Background: Global food supply chains have become increasingly complex, sourcing ingredients from multiple countries and intermediaries, creating opportunities for fraud, adulteration, and mislabeling that may compromise consumer safety and market confidence. Digital traceability technologies have been suggested as potential countermeasures, but there is little concrete evidence of their impact in practice. This research presents an assessment of the maturity and effectiveness of these technologies, identifies implementation barriers and security/privacy concerns, and maps research gaps/future directions. Methods: A scoping review of 64 studies from 2023 to 2026 with data extracted from the Scopus and IEEE databases was carried out according to the PRISMA-ScR guidelines and a structured pre-specified data extraction framework. Results: The field is empirically immature, with none of the reviewed solutions offering a provably correct, adversarially tested solution to the oracle problem. There is a lack of alignment between on-chain immutability and GDPR right to erasure and an unequal burden of implementation costs imposed on smallholder producers. Conclusions: A gradual implementation of traceability regulations, along with cost-of-ownership models and harmonized certification measures that do not disadvantage smaller producers are proposed. Finally, field trials, adversarial testing and reporting results in a standardized format, capturing detection performance and implementation costs, are essential.

Background: Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (RMSs) address the deficiencies of previous manufacturing systems with expandable capacity and capability to respond to dynamic demand. While research on RMSs has been ongoing for decades, comprehensive classifications and categorizations of RMS research and their supply chain implications are sparse. Methods: The PRISMA 2020 guidelines were used for a systematic literature review on the Scopus database covering peer-reviewed publications from 1990 to 2025, and 247 papers were analyzed based on a four-stream classification framework (research scope, industry sectors, type of research, and RMS characteristics) that was inductively derived. Furthermore, a three-level conceptual model connecting RMS characteristics with manufacturing capabilities and supply chain resilience was established. Results: RMS research, particularly post 2020, has seen significant growth. However, RMSs are mainly oriented to heavy industries, while process industries and supply chain implications have been understudied. The dominance of theoretical research over experimental/practical research points to a theory-practice gap. Modularity is the most frequent RMS characteristic, underpinning the others, while diagnosability, despite its operational importance, is the least studied one. Conclusions: RMSs have significant potential as a supply chain resilience enabler through their characteristics. Nevertheless, this relationship is mostly theoretical and untested in practice, requiring interdisciplinary and application-oriented research.

This paper addresses the critical and urgent need to reduce food losses and waste (FLW) resulting from stringent marketing standards. It proposes a comprehensive and actionable framework grounded in the three pillars of sustainability—environmental, economic, and social—to effectively evaluate FLW across the entire food supply chain. The paper involves a thorough review of existing marketing standards, including research on FLW due to marketing standards, and proposes the implementation of targeted key actions within four key food sectors: fruits, vegetables, dairy, and cereals. The study provides a detailed analysis of the significant impact marketing standards have on FLW at various stages of the supply chain, including primary production, processing, retail, and consumption. By focusing on these critical points, the research underscores the necessity of addressing marketing standards to achieve meaningful reductions in FLW. The proposed framework aims to foster improved business practices and drive the development of innovative, sector-specific solutions that balance sustainability goals with economic viability. The holistic approach followed for this research lays the foundation for ensuring that the proposed framework is adaptable and practical, leading to measurable improvements in reducing FLW and promoting sustainability across the food industry.

The maritime supply chain is a colossal ecosystem and the interface of the intercontinental trade market. Within this ecosystem, freight transportation is considered a fundamental component of all supply chain systems. As a matter of its demanding multimodal and intermodal character, freight transportation is a highly competitive market where actors involved, demand reliable and high-quality services at competitive prices. However, even though its systems keep evolving, being spurred by developments at multiple levels, the maritime actors’ fundamental operational processes keep an unprecedented low pace of evolution and transformation, and the maritime supply chain market is considered to be as hyper-fragmented as ever. This paper investigates how the effective, efficient, and sustainable matching of the demand and supply needs of the actors involved in the maritime supply chain domain can be strategically achieved and supported through specialised information systems. The paper, also presents a holistic framework for designing these systems. The analysis was based on the outcomes received from a number of interviews conducted with strategically positioned experts, pointing out their emerging needs and the challenges they face. The outcomes showed that digital transformation is still in its infancy but that the embracement of a decision-matchmaking system could be a real game changer.

Traceability is among the most significant challenges in supply chains, where multiple stakeholders and activities are involved in the production and distribution of products. No supply chain can become sustainable without effectively addressing the problem of traceability by recognizing, monitoring, and implementing all necessary activities of the processes. This research provides a reference model for effective wine supply chain traceability and is part of a research project for the development of a blockchain-enabled traceability system. The reference model not only depicts processes but also covers all views that are necessary for achieving the whole picture of an effective traceability system. These views include the value chain, organizational resources, functions, processes, systems, data, and risks that are related to wine production and distribution. The reference model has a strong contribution to practice and research as it pertains to bridging the barrier between developers and users while also offering significant research outcomes. The research output is the reference model that includes standard wine traceability processes and all necessary data for effective wine supply chain traceability. The results of this research will be used for creating the traceability system’s specifications and ensuring that it will be effectively designed and implemented. The reference model can also be used for the implementation and adaptation of the traceability system to the stakeholders of the wine supply chain.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is the implementation of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in a manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) in Greece in order to understand the contribution of LSS in its process improvement and to identify the parameters playing a crucial role in LSS adoption by SMEs. The ability to achieve high-effect improvements without cost investment is also examined to cope with low investment margin that is a characteristic of SMEs.Design/methodology/approach: This case study is based on the combination of Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control (DMAIC) phases with the Yin's method for case studies for a complete and efficient implementation and presentation of the project.Findings: The analysis of this case study revealed that by accomplishing specific critical success factors for the fulfillment of the LSS project, the company attained important benefits by utilizing only the working hours of employees. It was also found that the improvements of LSS projects can be measured using other metrics which can indirectly be translated into monetary terms.Practical implications: The paper can be a useful guide of how SMEs can achieve high-impact improvements with low or no investment cost utilizing LSS initiatives in small-scale projects.Originality/value: According to the literature, there is a need for more case studies concerning LSS implementation in SMEs. Examples of how low-cost/high-effect improvement initiatives can be implemented have not been adequately presented before. The assessment of the impact of improvement initiatives with non-monetary measures is also innovative.