# Pallet Picking Strategy in Food Collecting Center
## 7 Discussion and Conclusions  
In trying to find a solution to increase the environmental and economic sustainability of the food supply chain, this study shows that such issues can be treated with having consideration of the logistics inside the warehouse where foodstuffs are stocked. In that case, seasonal foodstuffs of the fruits and vegetables chain have been considered, and the logistics issue regards the layout design for stocking food in order to find the optimal solution in terms of Carbon Footprint and related Managing Costs. The researched value to be added to the supply chain [43] implies that through minimizing the picking time of the goods, the Carbon Footprint and related costs are optimized with checking out among the performance of each layout. Results show that when the layout is fixed over the time, the performance return the best solution. However, to fix the layout, it is necessary to take into account the turnover index of the supplied goods. Within a long supply chain, the issue does not \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline  & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Input Parameters**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Output (minimal MCs)**} \\ \hline
**Scenarios** & **N (u)** & **A (\%)** & **B (\%)** & **C (\%)** & **Layout** & **MHE** \\ \hline \#1 & 120 & 100 & 0 & 0 & Longitudinal/Transversal & Electric-forklifts \\ \#2 & 120 & 70 & 20 & 10 & Longitudinal/Transversal & Electric-forklifts \\ \#3 & 120 & 40 & 30 & 30 & Longitudinal/Transversal & Electric-forklifts \\ \#4 & 120 & 20 & 50 & 30 & Longitudinal/Transversal & Electric-forklifts \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Layout and MHE identified in order to minimizing of the Management Costs due to facilities costs (FCs) and Operative Costs (OCs). Figure 6: Log report generate by the model regarding the Carbon Footprint (**a**) and Management Costs (**b**) evaluation in all scenarios. matter, on the contrary, the short fruit and vegetable chain entails that the suppliers are locally placed, and the production comes from seasonal farming [50]. Nowadays the short chains of the seasonal foodstuffs are seen as a paradigm of quality and trust for the producers, and they are quickly taking hold. This evidence is mainly appearing in contexts where operate farms having small-medium sizes. Indeed, although they work close to the consumers, they make use of intermediaries to increase the market share. Intermediaries (collecting centers), in turn, when collecting freights from different small farms, need to set up the finest resources organization that encompass the logistics issues [13; 51; 52]. Nonetheless, the results of this study display that the optimum layout changes when changing the turnover index of the stocked goods. In this regard, the seasonal fruit and vegetable carry different turnover indexes in the warehouse, and the sustainability of the performance is inevitably subjected to change over the seasons. Results, hereby presented, clearly suggest that when most goods stocked in collecting centers are characterized by high turnover indices, the fishbone layout ensure the minimal environmental impact if compared with the longitudinal and transversal layouts, by keeping lower level of Carbon Footprint for collecting center in which most goods stocked are characterized by low values of turnover index ratios. Of course, the difference in terms of Carbon Footprint is much more relevant when considering the two types of engine fuel instead of the layout modification only. With a fishbone layout, in fact, the electrical engine generates half of the emissions produced by LPG engine instead. This finding brings meaningful insight concerning the evolution of the warehouse layout studies: bringing together the fishbone layout and electrical engine, they can produce positive synergies in terms of environmental impact. Further comments in terms of cost level can be made, taking into account that implementing the fishbone layout is more expensive due to larger surface required and the higher complexity of the design.