The supply chain system plays a vital role in the effective functioning of business processes. The term “supply chain”, defined as a network of information, goods, resources, and business activities, emerged and developed from logistics, marketing, production, and distribution [1]. The coordination of materials, resources, information, and financial flows is an important aspect of a supply chain system. In a broader sense, a supply chain is also known as an inter-organisational flow of services with important units to consider, such as production, marketing, procurement, and finances. Businesses aim to govern and monitor supply chain processes with enhanced efficiency and accuracy in order to perform effectively. Gayialis et al. [2] highlighted that high production levels, lower operational costs, fast-paced production systems, and enhanced sustainability strategies are currently some of the main objectives of organisations. As businesses have become more competitive than before, as a result of technological advancements and innovative implementations and adoptions, it is crucial to manage supply chain processes with more attentiveness and diligence [2].

According to Popkova et al. [3], technological innovations have improved process delivery and enabled organisations to meet sustainability criteria by streamlining business operations and increasing profit margins. Emerging technological solutions such as robotic process automation (RPA) have greatly improved and enhanced food processing and manufacturing and have helped supply chains achieve sustainability and a competitive advantage, as well as create value in business processes. Sustainable food production, which is safer, healthier, and more secure for human consumption, is currently one of the prominent and growing concerns for food supply chains. RPA helps food manufacturers to improve and speed up their business procedures to ensure the production of high-quality, healthy, and safe food with reduced operational and functional costs. In food production, it is extremely important to consider the economic growth and financial health of businesses as organisations are expected to cater to wider masses and a growing food demand, which is quite challenging, especially in a competitive business world [4].

RPA is seen as an emerging technology that can accelerate business processes through the automation of repetitive, strenuous, and rule-based tasks in supply chain systems. RPA is often referred to as software robotics or “bots”, and follows instructions defined by the end-users to automate repetitive processes or activities in business organisations. RPA technology uses software bots in place of the human workforce to perform tedious tasks. The implementation of RPA technology not only facilities business processes by making them less complex, but also reduces human error to make supply chains more well synchronized, integrated, and systematic. Digital transformation, such as RPA, has attracted corporate attention as a result of several supply chain complexities, uncertainties, risks, and barriers due to increased globalization and wide-spread supply chains. Technological advancements such as RPA have gained popularity as they accelerate supply chain processes, and reduce the time, cost, and energy required to enhance supply chain operations. RPA’s promising benefits include value addition and a competitive advantage for supply chains, thus creating sustainability. Achieving sustainable value is the main concern of supply chains; RPA automates tasks and makes businesses less reliant on the human workforce, thus enhancing production levels, improving supply chain processes, and reducing operational costs, which create sustainability in supply chain processes ^[5][6][7][5,6,7].

The beef supply chain is highly fragmented, which makes its management system complex and challenging. Sustainable beef manufacturing and processing has attracted attention globally and is a cause of concern for beef manufacturers. The beef sector involves various stages that include complex procedures in beef production and involve system uncertainties and disruptions. The beef manufacturing supply chains constantly face supply chain risks and challenges related to high operational costs, beef productivity, quality, safety, and shelf life. The beef sector, a representative of the food industry, has social, environmental, and economic challenges. Growing awareness towards beef quality and safety raises concerns for beef manufacturers, who constantly strive to achieve sustainable value and produce nutritious, healthy beef at low operational costs. Process automation within beef supply chains facilitates work-flow management systems, eases complex and tedious tasks through process excellence, and reduces human error to speed up processes. Moreover, automation in the beef sector serves as a process facilitator that enhances supply chain performance and boosts task delivery, resulting in a higher output to satisfy the growing demand for beef. Sustainability-oriented innovations and solutions such as RPA could reduce supply chain risks through process acceleration and support the beef sector to reduce operational costs and meet sustainability goals. RPA further enhances employee-level efficiency as bots are able to work 24/7, unlike humans, on processing lines to manufacture high-quality, sustainable beef at a low cost. Technological breakthroughs such as RPA have the potential to enhance supply chain operations and satisfy customers by maintaining quality standards. Automation acts as a sustainability driver in beef supply chains to add value in business processes. Innovative approaches such as automation within the beef sector improve production levels, increase supply chain resilience, and make businesses more competitive ^[8][9][10][8,9,10]. Sustainability in beef supply chains is a constant concern and challenge for the beef industry [11]. Beef supply chains are complex and large in order to cater to their dynamic structure and business system. Beef supply chains struggle to produce high-quality, nutritious beef due to the high financial costs and overhead expenses of production systems that companies install and implement for efficient beef production. The beef sector strives to achieve sustainable beef production to add value to their supply chains and satisfy the high customer demand due to growing consumer needs and requirements. Beef supply chains are fragmented and very complex across the world as well as in the UK with respect to their functioning, monitoring, and management. High production costs including labour work, machinery usage, technological adoptions, and organizational set-up are some of the financial aspects that are concerning for beef manufacturers. Manufacturing supply chains are seeking sustainable procedures and methods to ensure reduced financial burden and lower operational costs while aiming for higher production levels [12]. This promising RPA technology allows beef supply chains to achieve sustainable production systems. This research aims to investigate the financials aspects that are important to consider in the RPA adoption process. The study further analyses the financial barriers or risks that may potentially exist in the adoption process of RPA within the beef supply chain system. This researchtudy adopts the process model developed in previous research to conduct a ‘what-if’ scenario analysis based on financial parameters for the identification of financial barriers or risks in the adoption process of RPA that could potentially impact supply chain production levels, costs, and efficiency. Beef supply chain characteristics and features are critically analysed to understand the implementation process of RPA in the beef sector in an enhanced manner, considering the financial aspects. By simulating the business process model and considering the cost-related parameters, this researchstudy allows for the assessment and evaluation of the socio-economic benefits of RPA adoption, as well as how RPA can be adopted in a successful manner by eliminating financial barriers to create sustainability within beef supply chains.

2. The Dynamics and Challenges of the Beef Supply Chain

Singh et al. ^[13][25] described beef supply chains as a challenging business system involving complex processes and stages. It is imperative to consider the dynamics and features of the beef supply chain system in order to understand its unique characteristics and procedures that are different from other food supply chains. The beef supply chain has various stages and phases that demand high vigilance, monitoring, and handling due to the complexity of the execution process and beef production. In previous years, the beef sector has mainly been manual-centric because of procedures requiring human handling and intervention. However, as a result of the growing demand for beef, technological advancements, fast-paced competitive markets, and unprecedented events such as the pandemic, the industry has started to consider adopting innovative technology. Technological innovations such as RPA have simplified beef processing tasks and relieved employees from performing strenuous and repetitive tasks. The beef industry involves complicated procedures as the animal must be disassembled into different products for human consumption or sale in the market. The products are marketed to different industries, such as retailers, export, and food service. The beef industry was also impacted by COVID-19 as the business processes were mostly manual-centric in the past. The beef sector was impacted economically as a result of the pandemic, and producers, manufacturers, and consumers were significantly impacted ^[14][26]. The beef supply chain involves different stages in which the carcass is processed for the produced and manufactured into beef products that ultimately reach the consumer for the purpose of consumption. The first stage of the beef supply chain is the farming or breeding stage, after which the cattle progress to the next stage of logistics or reaching the abattoir, as depicted in Figure 1. The third stage is the beef manufacturing or processing stage, where the carcass is processed further for boning, fat trimming, cutting, etc. Then, the processed beef reaches the retailer or distribution centre, after which it reaches its last stage of the supply chain—the customer. The Figure 1 depicts all the significant beef supply chain stages that are crucial to highlight for firmer understanding. The beef manufacturers constantly face sustainability challenges, as the supply chain system is typically complex and difficult to manage. The beef supply chain is sensitive to manage as it involves environment, financial, and food-related concerns and challenges, which increase its complexity ^[16][28]. Considerations regarding beef shelf life, quality, human consumption, and financial aspects makes the beef supply chain challenging. Because of the constant social and financial pressure faced by beef manufacturers, they are constantly seeking sustainable strategies that could be implemented to address these concerns. According to Cox et al. ^[17][29], the supply and demand of beef is highly uncertain due to the nature and distinctive features of the beef supply chain. Beef manufacturers are seeking sustainable approaches and autonomous production systems in order to meet the growing demand for beef, achieve customer satisfaction, and maintain a high level of production. Some central problems related to beef production are quality concerns, shelf life, environmental challenges, and high costs. Globalization and technological advancements have the potential to enhance production systems, cut-down labour costs, and increase operational and employee-level efficiency to achieve sustainability and a competitive advantage ^[18][30]. The demand for beef is growing as a result of the increasing population, which has introduced challenges within the beef sector. The dynamics of the beef supply chain are unique and complex due to the presence of various actors in the stages of the supply chain. These actors involve breeders, butchers, slaughterhouses, producers, manufacturers, retailers, end consumers, etc., which increase its managerial and processing complexities in task delivery. The beef industry is competitive and faces issues such as cultural and managerial challenges, economic difficulties, supply chain disruptions, and unprecedented events, which make the processes in the supply chain complicated and risky to handle. To address these issues and prevent any discrepancies that could cause supply chain disruptions, it is crucial to assess the risks in advance and to develop an efficient management system by adopting systematic, innovative tools and techniques ^[19][31]. The beef supply chain is also considered to be risky as it consists of its complex production and manufacturing stages involving strenuous processes that could be harmful to the environment and employees working on the processing lines. Widespread stages and procedures in the supply chain result in coordination, synchronization, and managerial issues. The beef industry faces unprecedented events that raise concerns about its manual-centric processes; the adoption of innovative and sustainable strategies that could create supply chain resilience is thus encouraged. Resilience in beef supply chains is important as the consumption of beef is directly related to human health concerns that impact both society and the environment. Sustainable solutions and innovative procedures in the supply chain could help these procedures, thus making the supply chain resilient to any risks or disruptive events such as COVID-19. Other than disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, other risks such as animal diseases and agricultural disturbances also impact the production and manufacture of beef. The beef industry is focussed on addressing labour shortages, supply and demand uncertainties, high operational costs, and environmental issues; to achieve resilience in these issues, sustainable and long-term strategies should be adopted to avoid any losses or failures in the respective supply chains. As a result of these prevailing sustainability challenges, the beef sector should endeavour to adopt efficient techniques and systems to deal with environmental and social concerns, such as labour scarcity and the transmission of diseases, in order to create financial and operational resilience and enhance management practices ^[20][21][32,33].

3. RPA Technology—An Essential Sustainability Tool in the Beef Sector

The beef industry has been a late adopter of technology due to the unique structure of the supply chain system and its individual characteristics and features; hence, most of its procedures are manual-centric. Producing nutritious beef is challenging for manufacturers as a result of variables in the weight, height, and colour of the carcass; intensive beef cutting procedures; maintaining standards of quality; and health concerns. RPA allows for process excellence by using software bots to perform rule-based, repetitive tasks that were manually conducted in the past. The adoption of RPA enhances the operational and financial efficiency of the beef supply chain and ensures that high-quality, healthy beef that is safe for human consumption can be manufactured. The promising benefits of RPA also include a high level of productivity and faster manufacturing lines, as well as being time saving, energy efficient, and cost effective; these are currently concerns of the beef industry and supply chains due to the increasing demand for beef. RPA provides autonomous solutions to complex systems and its implementation could reduce the costs and energy use of organisations, thus achieving maximized output levels and satisfying consumers ^[22][34]. Lynch et al. ^[23][35] shed lights on sustainability-focused innovation, which has been a topic of debate within the beef sector due to the complex management and attributes of its supply chains. Recently, the beef supply chain has faced many challenges related to human health, animal welfare, biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions, quality, and shelf life. The beef industry seeks to implement sustainable approaches and solutions to cater to all of these problems and to gain sustainable beef production for human consumption. Achieving sustainability remains a multi-dimensional issue within the beef supply chain and it requires attention and focus. This is because the structure of the beef supply chain is broad and wide-spread, and its procedures are not fully automated due to their individual complexities. Therefore, the supply chain still requires human involvement and handling. The use of RPA in the beef sector will allow tasks to be automated, less complex, and improve beef quality and safety. RPA also enables organisations to enjoy long-term financial and social gains by reducing operational costs, minimizing beef wastage during processing, and preventing any accidents or environmental hazards. Innovative efforts such as RPA could bring socio-economic gains and help business owners gain a sustainable competitive advantage in beef production and processing. Sustainability-oriented innovations such as RPA will pave the way for green production, as automated tasks produce less waste along the processing line with lower chances of disease and viral transmissions. Developing sustainable beef production systems through by implementing and adopting technological innovations such as RPA enables the production of low-cost, high-quality beef with social, economic, and environmental benefits. Food safety and quality in beef has encouraged decision-makers to pursue and implement sustainable technological solutions in order to enhance the performance, maximize financial benefits by lowering the associated operational costs, and meet health and safety requirements ^[24][25][36,37]. Achieving sustainability has created awareness within business setups, encouraging the adoption of sustainable business approaches so that long-term advantages can be achieved. The awareness and recognition of sustainable supply chains incorporating modern technology such as RPA has attracted many businesses ^[26][38]. The different approaches and perspectives of sustainable supply chains are explained in Table 1. Sustainability has gained a lot of attention and has become a primary goal of beef supply chains to add value and achieve corporate social responsibility ^[35][47]. Sustainable beef processing and manufacturing brings considerable benefits to organisations as they could achieve long-term viability, profit, and cost reduction. Sustainable business strategies and procedures such as the use of technology could prevent risks and hazards and achieve a positive social, economic, and environmental impact. The use of RPA tools can maximize profits and enhance task efficiency in processes such as beef cutting, deboning, and packaging. The implementation of RPA can also reduce environmental or social hazards such as accidents on the processing line or the transmission of diseases by replacing humans with software bots to complete tasks. The bots are also able to work 24/7 and do not require any breaks, which increases beef production levels; this also ensures the quality of beef produced as the chances of meat contamination are reduced. RPA not only provides technological support to beef supply chains, but also enables decision-makers and managers to achieve sustainability criteria in the fast-paced market. RPA is a valuable addition to beef supply chains as it assists and improves system processes and allows firms to achieve sustainable value and achieve a competitive advantage ^[36][48]. Modern technological advancements in simulation and process automation have been widely adapted for use within businesses and industry. Incorporating sustainable technologies in organisations has gained value as automation can relieve employees who perform strenuous, repetitive tasks, as well as provide sustainable solutions to complex and disruptive business environments. RPA is a leading and widely adopted technology that has the potential to improve business process management through task automation and it is considered a sustainable practice to enhance supply chain operations. RPA technology facilitates, improves, and optimizes business processes considering the addition of value and sustainability criteria. For instance, RPA acts as a helpful sustainability tool to enhance workforce efficiency by replacing tough and repetitive tasks with automation, allowing humans to use their potential and expertise in judgement-based tasks or managerial areas. Moreover, RPA also simulates different process systems and analyses the data to develop a more cost-effective and sustainable method of organising. It is crucial for business users to decide which processes would be most suitable for automation in order for successful adoption of the process. Digital transformation, such as RPA, continuously improves supply chain operations and process efficiency, and helps organisations meet their sustainability agendas and goals ^[37][49]. RPA serves as a process efficiency tool to create sustainable value in beef supply chains. Automation solutions such as RPA accelerate production processes by speeding up the processing line and reducing errors by replacing the human workforce with software bots. New sustainability demands are linked to beef quality, safety, and cost and are associated with supply chain processes in the beef industry. The integration and adoption of RPA assists by adding value to supply chain processes and producing high quality beef that is sae for human consumption. RPA also allows for an eco-friendly beef production environment as tasks are automated, resulting is less human error; reduced chances of accidents on the processing line; lower transmission of diseases; and less time, cost, and energy consumed when conducting strenuous tasks. It also improves supply chain synchronization and coordination through the removal or reduction of human error and through efficient process delivery at different stages of the beef supply chain ^[38][50]. RPA is now perceived as an asset as it eases employee-level pressure by improving processes, thus allowing the human workforce to concentrate on meaningful and skilled-based activities. RPA provides business organizations with various advantages for achieving effectiveness and competitiveness. RPA increases productivity levels, improves the quality of production, and ensures enhanced consumer satisfaction. The value provided by RPA technology improves accuracy levels, increases profitability margins, and boosts the financial conditions of the business organization ^[39][51].

4. RPA Adding Value and Dimensions to Sustainability in the Beef Sector

RPA automates tasks to make business processes simpler, easier, and faster. Among others, some of the promising benefits of adopting RPA include scalable business solutions and gains, as well as financial stability. The positive role of RPA includes adding value by optimizing and simplifying supply chain processes. Value-added opportunities such as performance management, scalable production, and reduced human error or risks also enhance supply chain processes. According to Langmann and Turi ^[40][52], the adoption of RPA by business owners allows organisations to rely less on the human workforce by deploying software bots to complete mundane, routine-based tasks. The process of hiring, training, and accommodating the human workforce is costly. In times of unprecedented events such as COVID-19, the human workforce might be unable to carry out their roles and responsibilities. To deal with such issues, the adoption and implementation of RPA ensures the delivery of tasks in a robust manner, with greater control. This allows the human workforce or employees to focus on more judgement-based and skilled job roles and creates newer opportunities. Employees can focus on value-added tasks rather than performing repetitive tasks that are strenuous. Moreover, RPA is seen as a valuable addition to business processes due to its potential benefits, and is perceived as a sustainable business solution in complex supply chains such as the beef industry ^[41][53]. Digitalization has created new possibilities and opportunities for businesses to develop and progress ^[42][54]. Digital transformations such as RPA technology has redefined and optimized supply chain systems by recognizing the role and impact of automation in process delivery and excellence. New business models concentrate on adopting innovation-based technology that create sustainability and provide long-term benefits and higher levels of output. Internal and external pressure and unprecedented events such as COVID-19 have urged and stressed business organisations to transform their ideas about business and automate processes in order to reduce dependence on the human workforce. The traditional workforce has also transformed and re-organized into a good blend of humans working alongside software bots. The largest and most dominant concerns of businesses at present is achieving sustainability and business viability. Technological innovations such as robotic process automation (RPA) change and transform the nature of and strategy taken to complete tasks. RPA serves to ease business functions, reduce any human error by replacing humans with software bots, and gain competitive opportunities within business organisations. This emerging and innovative technology reduces process complexity and enhances operational efficiency, thus allowing beef supply chains to be more productive and efficient in nature. RPA allows process excellence and adds value at different stages of the supply chain in order to gain a competitive advantage in beef processing and manufacturing ^[43][55]. The beef supply chain is a complex management system where achieving sustainability is a challenge as the supply chain is highly fragmented. Optimising beef production systems to fulfil social and economic objectives remains a challenge. However, technology such as RPA contributes to automating complex and repetitive tasks, such as carcass cutting or splitting, beef cutting, and packaging, and helps to reduce human error ^[44][56]. RPA has been widely adopted in food supply chains to execute many repetitive tasks for business processes in order to be more cost-effective, scalable, and viable. The availability and accessibility of innovations has allowed beef supply chains to adopt sustainable business practices and approaches that reduce beef waste during processing, and to increase production levels while being cost-effective. The adoption of technology such as RPA enables more sustainable production systems as rule-based tasks are automated and performed by software bots. RPA allows for valuable additions within business processes at different stages of the beef supply chain, and increases the shelf life and quality of beef. The integration of innovative opportunities such as RPA facilitates beef supply chains in being more economically sound and robust, and helps businesses to improve in social and environmental dimensions. This also greatly benefits beef supply chains as sustainable approaches such as RPA help improve supply chain management and achieve corporate social responsibility within the beef sector ^[45][46][57,58].

5. Simulation-Based Approach to Create Sustainability in the Beef Sector through RPA Adoption

Magalhães et al. ^[47][59] pointed out that the beef supply chain has highly fragmented, broad, and unique characteristics. The beef sector faces constant pressure and challenges when attempting to achieve sustainability and gain added value. As the beef supply chain has complex procedures and activities, increasing production levels and enhancing operational efficiency is complicated. Emerging technological solutions such as RPA help improve business process delivery and reduce task complexity. Value-based beef supply chains help the beef sector to maintain quality and safety standards in production, while allowing for higher levels of output. Value-based supply chain systems are prioritized nowadays due to the awareness and need to build sustainable business systems. To enhance consumer satisfaction and maintain high food quality standards, innovative strategies are implemented within organisational structures to serve business purposes and gain sustainable value. Organisations in beef supply chains are responsible for the health and safety concerns of humans; hence, producing high-quality, nutritious beef is one of the main aims. To satisfy the demand for beef and ensure the production and processing of healthy, safe beef, valuable additions such as RPA could reduce human error and minimize the cost to perform these processes ^[48][49][60,61]. The simulation and optimization of food supply chains help to identify barriers so as to enhance business operations and prevent any risk factors present ^[50][62]. It is imperative that comprehensive and precise sustainable evaluation and assessment of business processes are conducted within the food industry. This is because the food industry, comprising of meat supply chains, includes the production and manufacture of perishable food items and thus it is essential that organisations meet the quality and safety standards. As the demand for beef has grown within recent years, it has become important for the beef sector to adopt and implement technological innovations such as RPA that could potentially help save money, time, and energy, as well as the lower cost of manufacturing beef ^[51][63]. Simulation-based approaches help business organisations to improve efficiency, lower waste due to processing, and increase business productivity and viability. Simulations also aid in identifying risk factors that are present in the business environment and help supply chains achieve sustainable value by ensuring social, economic, and environmental gains. Simulation-based approaches guide organisations in calculating and assessing the best approach for adopting technological and innovative strategies. Supply chains can gain long-term success through simulation and optimization, as risk events can be pre-determined in a virtual environment and the best approach for conducting processes or business activities can be discovered and then implemented ^[52][64]. It is difficult to eliminate or prevent risks and assess supply chain performance in real-world processes; therefore, simulation-based approaches could be used to determine and investigate supply chain risks using a virtual environment, and thus be used to plan accordingly for the future. The beef industry is highly seasonable due to the cycle of calving, which raises issues regarding the supply and demand of beef, making supply chain processes inconsistent. Issues such as seasonality increase the risks of fulfilling the demands of consumers and manufacturers. Implementing innovative machinery and equipment, as well as employees working on the processing lines could be costly due to tension between the producers and manufacturers. Another concerning challenge is that supply chain procedures are cost-intensive, making the profit margins narrow. This is because supply chain processes are intensive due to the large supply chain system. The beef supply chain strives to achieve sustainable business development strategies that could facilitate supply chain processes, reduce operational costs, and improve production levels. A simulation-based approach could help address such concerns as it has the potential to provide a well-coordinated supply chain system with the integration of technology such as RPA, which could minimize costs and enhance financial and functional efficiency to create sustainable value at different stages of the supply chain. Simulations could potentially help evaluate supply chain activities and observe behaviour at various stages, thus identifying any inconsistencies or risks during task delivery. Process simulation and optimization allows beef supply chains to mitigate slaughtering, processing, and manufacturing bottlenecks while reducing operational costs, time, and energy. Simulation-based techniques use a virtual environment to develop models that accelerate supply chain performance and determine any handling issues to ensure smooth and systematic beef processing and distribution. The simulation and optimization of the beef supply chain also allows for the smooth adoption of technology such as RPA, allowing for automating labour-intensive tasks and replacing human workers with robots for process excellence. Simulation allows for minimization of the total production or system costs, and enables business organisations to enjoy socio-economic benefits and create sustainable value within beef supply chains ^[53][65]. Sustainability is the main goal of beef supply chains due to its complicated business structure and fragmentation; the simulation of beef supply chains can facilitate decision-makers or stakeholders to follow the best approach for technological adoption, and remove or prevent any risk events in real-life scenarios and create supply chain resilience ^[54][66]. The adoption of RPA could create sustainable value within supply chain systems and enhance business profitability and sustainability.