Prioritizing evaluation criteria of IoT-driven warehousing startups: a silver lining to the unorganized sector in food supply chain

PurposeThis research is designed to meet two research objectives: firstly, to weigh up the criteria of Internet of Things (IoT) adoption in warehousing startups; secondly, to rank warehousing startups on the basis of benefits they derive from IoT adoption catering to an unorganized sector in the food supply chain.Design/methodology/approachA blend of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and complex proportional assessment (COPRAS) methods of multi-criteria decision-making techniques were applied. AHP determined the weights of various criteria using pairwise comparison, and COPRAS technique ranked the 10 warehousing startups on account of performance indicators. The study has been conducted at the warehousing startups of Bangalore, a hub of food warehousing startups.FindingsThe critical findings of the study revealed that these food warehouse startups attain improved productivity in terms of enhancing efficiency when implemented with IoT adoption. When evaluated using both AHP and COPRAS techniques, the combined results show WH5 as the best performing and WH10 as the least performing warehouse startups.Practical implicationsWarehouses that are embarking on their business opportunity in food storage can strategize to leverage the benefits of IoT in terms of food safety and security, capacity planning, layout design, space utilization and resilience.Originality/valueDespite the numerous research works on food supply chain, the research on IoT in warehousing startups is limited. The rankings for the 10 food warehousing startups integrated with IoT using AHP-COPRAS approaches are the novelty of this work.