PhD Position in Ecological and Economic Logistics Service Network Design
il y a 4 semaines
Inria University of Lille is a leading research centre in the field of digital sciences, employing 360 people, including 305 scientists in 15 research teams. The centre is recognized for its strong involvement in the socio-economic development of the Hauts-De-France region and pursues a close relationship with large companies and SMEs. By promoting synergies between researchers and industrialists, Inria participates in the transfer of skills and expertise in digital technologies and provides access to the best European and international research for the benefit of innovation and companies, particularly in the region.
The centre is located at the heart of Lille's university and scientific ecosystem, as well as at the heart of Frenchtech, with a technology showroom based on Avenue de Bretagne in Lille, on the EuraTechnologies site of economic excellence dedicated to information and communication technologies (ICT).
Context and Challenges
This PhD thesis is part of the collaboration between INRIA and LOG'ISSIMO, a company of the French national postal service provider, La Poste. The main challenges faced by LOG'ISSIMO are described, and the thesis proposal is detailed in order to address some of them.
Context
La Poste, like all postal operators, is facing an inexorable decline in its traditional mail business due to the digitalization of exchanges. Therefore, a key challenge for La Poste is to find new sources of growth in order to maintain and develop its business.
LOG'ISSIMO's strategic business area is in the B2B (business-to-business) logistics sector. It is the delivery of goods to professionals, with volumes ranging from 3 parcels to 3 pallets. LOG'ISSIMO offers efficient first- and last-mile logistics solutions for small and large companies and local authorities. Its network is made up of 76 logistics platforms and 13,500 daily routes, enabling it to transport more than 35 million shipments a day.
LOG'ISSIMO's development poses challenges in terms of structuring and supporting the growth of the business. In addition to scaling up its processes and resources, LOG'ISSIMO faces major challenges in clarifying its own logistics model, particularly with a view to combining it with La Poste's historical logistics activities.
There are many strategic questions to be answered that could benefit from decision support in a number of areas, including system performance:
- Manage the logistics network as effectively as possible. LOG'ISSIMO's offer is based on logistics terminals that were originally designed to sort mail and manage parcels, rather than more voluminous items. Therefore these infrastructures have to be modified so that LOG'ISSIMO can operate its logistics business efficiently. The question primarily concerns terminals both in terms of locations and of the overall service network in France. It also concerns the means of transport and their
- Reduce CO2 emissions at the lowest total cost. In order for Log'issimo's offer to be a success, the various services offered have to be consistent with La Poste's historical positioning and to be able to differentiate LOG'ISSIMO from the competition, by integrating the energy efficiency into all LOG'ISSIMO activities.
- Analyze and anticipate existing and/or potential break of bulk points via new customers or new services. Via our management tools and information systems, any logistics activity needs to be managed using appropriate performance indicators. Based on the logistics solutions identified, the challenge is to determine the most relevant KPIs for managing this new logistics activity.
Research Objectives
This thesis aims to answer three main questions: i) How can we design a logistics network that is both economically and ecologically efficient? ii) How can we adapt this network to new demands (location of products, transportation routes)? iii) What KPIs should we define, given solutions proposed by decision-support methods, to effectively manage the network?
The problems addressed in this thesis belong to two classes of transportation optimization problems. At a tactical level, it is similar to a logistics service network design problem. In this problem, a logistics operator seeks to determine where products in a logistics network are stored so as to fulfil customer orders efficiently. The logistics network to be designed is a cost-effective multi-level distribution network, which includes the different types of warehouses and customer sites.
As the distributed products are in small quantities compared with vehicle capacities, consolidation is an effective strategy for reducing transport costs. Specifically, it involves routing products in such a way that vehicles carry multiple products at the same time, each of which may come from a different site and be destined for a different customer. At the operational level, this is a vehicle routing problem with pick-ups and deliveries. This problem consists in elaborating a set of routes from a logistics platform to satisfy a set of transport requests characterized by a pick-up point and a delivery point for the goods.
After the mathematical modelling of the problems, the thesis work will focus on the development of heuristic approaches combining artificial intelligence and mathematical programming techniques. One of the main challenges in this thesis will be to solve these problems for the very large instances provided by LOG'ISSIMO in reasonable computational times, especially when considering new transport demands given an initial situation.
Key Performance Indicators
The work plan for this thesis will be as follows:
First, a comprehensive state of the art on the problems of logistics service network design and route planning with delivery and collection will be realized. This state-of-the-art will allow us to take advantage of the models and methods developed in the literature and to position the project in relation to existing studies.
Second, ad-hoc mathematical models will be developed, taking into account the specificities of the case proposed by LOG'ISSIMO, and then, heuristics combining artificial intelligence and mathematical programming techniques associated with the models will be designed, implemented, and evaluated
Finally, key performance indicators will be developed on the basis of the solutions provided to companies to enable system management.
Required Skills
Technical skills and level required :
Good knowledge in combinatorial optimization, integer programming, heuristics
Coding: C++, Java
Benefits
- Subsidized meals
- Partial reimbursement of public transport costs
- Leave: 7 weeks of annual leave + 10 extra days off due to RTT (statutory reduction in working hours) + possibility of exceptional leave (sick children, moving home, etc.)
- Possibility of teleworking and flexible organization of working hours
- Professional equipment available (videoconferencing, loan of computer equipment, etc.)
- Social, cultural and sports events and activities
- Access to vocational training
- Social security coverage
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