ERCIM News 105
April 2016
Special theme Planning and Logistics
Guest editors Rob van der Mei (CWI) and Ariona Shashaj (SICS)
Trends and Challenges in Logistics and Supply Chain Management
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by Henk Zijm
In today’s global economies, logistics is a key facilitator of trade, and hence an important factor in rising prosperity and welfare. Natural resources are scarce and not evenly distributed in terms of type and geographical location in the world. Logistic chains enable the distribution of materials, food and products from the locations where they are extracted, harvested or produced to people’s homes and nearby stores. At the same time, current logistics systems are fundamentally unsustainable, due to the emission of hazardous materials (CO2, NOx, particulate matter), congestion, stench, noise and the high price that has to be paid in terms of infrastructural load. Things are even getting worse: while the European Commission has set (not achieved) targets to reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GGE) in 2015 to 60 % as compared to 1990, the percentage of transport related GGE increased from 25 % in 1990 to 36 % today.
Visions of the Future: Towards the Next Generation of Logistics and Planning Systems - Introduction to the Special Theme
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by Rob van der Mei, CWI, and Ariona Shashaj, SICS
In December 2013, one of the biggest online retailers announced its intention to use drones to deliver products to consumers. Perhaps the next step towards future logistics will be the use of teleportation beams! Although we are under no immediate threat of being pelted by delivery drone rain while dodging teleporting beams of products, logistics systems have undoubtedly become more complex in order to face new challenges imposed by the growth of the global market, mass urbanization, and the move towards sustainability. This Special Theme of the ERCIM News is dedicated to recent advancements in logistics, planning, scheduling and supply chain optimization.
Defining the Best Distribution Network for Grocery Retail Stores
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by Pedro Amorim, Sara Martins, Eduardo Curcio and Bernardo Almada-Lobo, INESC TEC
Large food retailers have to deal with a complex distribution network with multiple distribution centres, different temperature requirements, and a vast range of store formats. This project used an optimization-simulation approach to help food retailer Sonae MC make the best decisions regarding product-warehouse-outlet assignment, product delivery modes planning and fleet sizing.
Planning Production Efficiently
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by Andreas Halm, Fraunhofer Austria
Many parameters and variants have to be taken into account when planning new production buildings. How do you find the optimal positioning for the production equipment and the most efficient transport paths? Is there a way to find bottlenecks before they hinder your production? The new GrAPPA software makes planning the production a lot easier.
ICT for a Logistics Demonstration Centre
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by Miguel A. Barcelona, Aragón Institute of Technology
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have become a key element in improving collaboration and decision-making in the field of transport and logistics. The Spanish ICT4Logistics Demonstration Centre is a test-bed infrastructure where providers or potential customers may run pilots and demonstrations.
Production Planning on Supply Network and Plant Levels: The RobustPlaNet Approach
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by Péter Egri, Dávid Gyulai, Botond Kádár and László Monostori, SZTAKI
In today’s competitive manufacturing industry, efficient production planning is of crucial importance to match the supply with the customer order stream. The RobustPlaNet approach aims to support the decision makers at different hierarchical levels of production enterprises to react or even to proactively plan and manage their activities in a more robust way than it used to be in the traditional practice.
Modelling and Validating an Import/Export Shipping Process
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by Giorgio O. Spagnolo, Eda Marchetti, Alessandro Coco and Stefania Gnesi, ISTI-CNR
In recent years, business process management has become increasingly popular in many industrial contexts and application domains. This is mainly because it facilitates the modelling of process specifications and the development of an executable framework, while providing concise definitions and taxonomies. The data acquired during the business process execution phase can be used for quality analysis and to demonstrate compliance to specifications. We describe an experience in the real world context of the Livorno Port Authority.
Where is the Money? - Optimizing Cash Supply Chain Networks
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by Leendert Kok and Joaquim Gromicho, ORTEC
“German CIT truck robbed with Bazooka” 12-12-2015, “Attack on CIT in Amsterdam” 4-06-2015, “Failed robbery on the Italian highways” 15-05-2015. These are three examples of the motivation of one part of a joint research project of ORTEC, Geldservice Nederland (GSN), and the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam called ‘Optimizing cash supply chain networks’.
An Industrial Take on Breast Cancer Treatment
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by Sara Gestrelius and Martin Aronsson, SICS Swedish ICT
When a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer she is drawn into a network of examinations, tests and treatments with interdependencies in several steps. Because the prognosis for recovery is tied to how quickly she gets help, it is important to reduce the time from the first doctor’s appointment to the start of treatment.
Evaluating Operational Feasibility before Investing: Shunting Yards in Sweden
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by Sara Gestrelius, SICS Swedish ICT
The cost of building a new shunting yard is in the order of €100 million and the expected lifespan is over 50 years. Discussions about new railway infrastructure investments are currently ongoing in Sweden, and SICS Swedish ICT are using mathematical optimization to solve NP-hard shunting yard problems to help the Swedish Infrastructure Manager choose between different yard layouts.
Boosting the Responsiveness of Firefighter Services with Mathematical Programming
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by Pieter van den Berg, TU Delft, Guido Legemaate, Amsterdam Fire Department, and Rob van der Mei, CWI
In life-threatening situations where every second counts, the timely arrival of firefighter services can make the difference between survival and death. Motivated by this, the Stochastics Department at CWI in collaboration with the TU Delft and the Fire Department Amsterdam-Amstelland in the Netherlands have developed a mathematical programming model for determining the optimal locations of the vehicle base stations, and for optimally distributing the different firefighter vehicle types over the base stations. Extensive analysis of a large data set for the Amsterdam area demonstrates that, and how, response time can be improved by relocating only few base locations and redistributing different vehicle types over the base locations.
Predicting the Demand for Charging Stations for Electric Vehicles
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by Merel Steenbrink, Elenna Dugundji and Rob van der Mei, CWI
At the Stochastics research group at CWI we use socio-economic features of neighbourhoods to predict the demand for charging stations for electric vehicles. Based on a large set of behavioural data, a discrete choice model is estimated, and the utility of charging stations in every neighbourhood is calculated. In this way the demand can be predicted and the municipality of Amsterdam can proceed proactively.
Data-driven Optimization for Intelligent and Efficient Transport
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by Björn Bjurling and Fehmi Ben Abdesslem, SICS Swedish ICT
Data-driven models derived with big data techniques can be used to improve and automate strategic and tactical decision making in heavy-duty road transportation.
Adopting a Machine Learning Approach in the Design of Smart Transportation Systems
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by Davide Bacciu, Antonio Carta, Stefania Gnesi and Laura Semini, ISTI-CNR
We have applied a machine learning approach to both implement and assess new services for the users of a bike-sharing system. The aim is to predict the destination station of a bike in use, given information on its pick up details.
Remote Service Using Augmented Reality
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by Björn Löfvendahl, SICS Swedish ICT
For a global industrial company like ABB, sending maintenance specialists around the world costs a lot of money and is neither time efficient nor environmentally friendly. Augmented reality allows the specialist to stay in the office and guide a local employee remotely.
Value Stream Mapping with VASCO - From Reducing Lead Time to Sustainable Production Management
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by René Berndt and Alexander Sunk, Fraunhofer Austria
Value stream mapping (VSM) is a lean management methodology for analyzing and optimizing a series of events for production or services.
Risk Analysis for a Synchro-modal Supply Chain Combined with Smart Steaming Concepts
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by Denise Holfeld and Axel Simroth, Fraunhofer IVI
SYNCHRO-NET is an EU Horizon 2020 funded research project that is developing a powerful and innovative synchro-modal supply chain platform. Based on three demonstrators SYNCHRO-NET will show that a cloud-based solution can support the deployment and application of the synchro-modality concept, guaranteeing cost-effective robust solutions that de-stress the supply chain to reduce emissions and costs for logistics operations while simultaneously increasing reliability and service levels for logistics users.
Designing Sustainable Last-Mile Delivery Services in Online Retailing
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by Niels Agatz, Leo Kroon, Remy Spliet and Albert Wagelmans, Erasmus University Rotterdam
The continuous growth of online sales together with the current inefficiency of delivery services puts a lot of pressure on urban areas in terms of congestion, emissions and pollution. Researchers at Erasmus University Rotterdam are developing decision support tools to facilitate efficient delivery services for products purchased online.
Spare Parts Stocking and Expediting in a Fluctuating Demand Environment
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by Joachim Arts, TU Eindhoven
Capital goods, such as trains and railway infrastructure that facilitate our public transport, are an important part of our daily lives. Maintenance operations are necessary to ensure safety and prevent disruptive failures. To make these operations run smoothly, it is crucial to have the right amount of spare parts available. Eindhoven University of Technology and NedTrain collaborate to optimize the spare parts supply chain using stochastic modelling and optimization.
Packing with Complex Shapes
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by Abderrahmane Aggoun, KLS OPTIM, Nicolas Beldiceanu, Gilles Chabert, École des Mines de Nantes and François Fages, Inria
Constraint programming methods can be used to solve hard geometric placement and packing problems such as those encountered in the operational logistics and in the conception of packing plans.
Allocating Railway Tracks Using Market Mechanisms and Optimization
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by Victoria Svedberg, SICS Swedish ICT
New rules call for new methods. The deregularisation of the railway market in Sweden has not only opened the market for new railway operators, but also posed challenges to the old methods. SICS Swedish ICT is developing a process to make timetabling transparent, easy and fair, while still satisfying societal needs.
OscaR, an Open Source Toolbox for Optimising Logistics and Supply Chain Systems
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by Renaud De Landtsheer, Christophe Ponsard and Yoann Guyot, CETIC
The efficient operation of logistics and supply chain systems requires businesses to solve large and complex optimisation problems such as production planning, fleet management and order picking. The OscaR Open Source framework supports the optimisation of such problems through a variety of powerful solvers offering various expressivity, optimality, and scalability trade-offs.
Integrated Resource Planning in Maintenance Logistics
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by Ahmad Al Hanbali, Sajjad Rahimi-Ghahroodi, and Henk Zijm
The MLOG (Optimal Exploitation of Resources in Maintenance Logistics) project, executed jointly by the University of Twente and the University of Qatar, focuses on an integrated planning of resources needed for asset maintenance.
Utilising the Uniqueness of Operation Days to better Fulfil Customer Requirements
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by Sara Gestrelius
No two days are exactly the same on the Swedish railways. Despite this, most trains are granted only one train path that they are supposed to use every day of operation. Restricting each train to a single train path wastes infrastructure capacity and prevents train operators from getting the capacity they require. In a project funded by the Swedish Transport Administration, SICS Swedish ICT used optimization to plan for each operation day individually. The results show a major improvement in customer requirement fulfilment.
Planning Complex Supply Networks Facing High Variability
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by Ulrich Schimpel and Stefan Wörner, IBM Research
Interwoven production lines may be complex, with variable yield and production times, various sub-components competing for processing capacities, and fixed batch sizes. Furthermore, inventory costs need to be minimized and fluctuating customer demands need to be satisfied 98 % of the time. Such complex production lines need to be optimized using a combination of techniques. We describe an approach using a simplified mathematical model that allows for sensitivity analyses, followed by a discrete event simulation to adequately represent the complex business environment.
How Science can Improve Marine Ecosystem Predictions: the BlueBRIDGE Case
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- Category: Joint ERCIM Actions
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by Sara Garavelli
BlueBRIDGE - Building Research environments fostering innovation, decision making, governance and education - is a European project aimed at providing innovative data services to scientists, researchers and data managers to address key challenges related to sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sectors.
ManyVal 2015 - Workshop on Many-Valued Logics
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- Category: Joint ERCIM Actions
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by Carles Noguera
ManyVal is a series of international workshops on the logical and algebraic aspects of many-valued reasoning. The 2015 workshop served as the official meeting of the ERCIM Working Group of the same name.
Business Process Execution Analysis through Coverage-based Monitoring
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- Category: Research and Innovation
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by Antonello Calabrò, Francesca Lonetti, Eda Marchetti, ISTI-CNR
Nowadays, Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) represents the de facto standard language for creating a description of processes and then developing executable frameworks for the overall planning and management of these processes. We describe a methodology for the development of execution adequacy criteria able to identify the main entities of the business process that are covered during execution, and to issue a warning if some entities are not covered.
Quality of Experience-assessment of WebRTC Based Video Communication
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by Doreid Ammar, Katrien De Moor and Poul Heegaard, NTNU
Web real-time communication has enabled hassle-free, no installation, in-browser applications such as Google hangout and appear.in. Multi-party video conferencing has now finally been made easy. But how can we provide acceptable quality of experience in such an interactive service? Our research aims to gain insight into what matters, and how to assess, design, and manage the services accordingly.
D2V – Understanding the Dynamics of Evolving Data: A Case Study in the Life Sciences
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by Kostas Stefanidis, Giorgos Flouris, Ioannis Chrysakis and Yannis Roussakis, ICS-FORTH
D2V, a research prototype for analysing the dynamics of Linked Open Data, has been used to study the evolution of biomedical datasets, such as the Experimental Factor Ontology (EFO) and the Gene Ontology (GO).
Detection of Data Leaks in Collaborative Data Driven Research
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by Peter Kieseberg, Edgar Weippl, SBA Research, and Sebastian Schrittwieser, TARGET
Collaborative data driven research and development is one of the big issues in BigData-Analysis. Still, several obstacles regarding the preservation of ownership over the shared data need to be overcome to enable the techniques to unfold their full potential. This especially concerns the detection of partners that leak valuable data to the outside world.
HOBBIT: Holistic Benchmarking of Big Linked Data
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by AxelCyrille Ngonga Ngomo, InfAI, Alejandra García Rojas, ONTOS, and Irini Fundulaki, ICS-FORTH
The HOBBIT project aims at abolishing the barriers in the adoption and deployment of Big Linked Data. To this end, HOBBIT will provide open benchmarking reports that allow to assess the fitness of existing solutions for their purposes. These benchmarks will be based on data that reflects reality and measures industry relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) with comparable results using standardized hardware.
Smart Solutions for the CNR Campus in Pisa
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- Category: Research and Innovation
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by Erina Ferro, ISTI-CNR
The research area of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) in Pisa is a 130,000 m2 village where 3000 people live and move daily. It can thus be considered as a laboratory where smart solutions to problems that can be encountered in any town or city can be tested.
SHIFT2RAIL - European Railway Research of 2015-2024
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- Category: In Brief
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Announcement
SHIFT2RAIL is a joint technical initiative that will handle all railway research within Horizon 2020. The founding members are Trafikverket, Network Rail, Bombardier, Alstom, Siemens, Ansaldo STS, CAF and Thales, together with the European Commission. The total budget for the program during 2015-2024 is about 800 million €. Shift2Rail has five main innovation programs that can briefly be described as development of vehicles, signal systems, infrastructure, information systems and freight traffic. The overall ambitious targets are to double the capacity of the European rail system, and increase its reliability and service quality by 50%, all while halving the lifecycle costs.
The ExaNeSt project - Fitting Ten Million Computers into a Single Supercomputer
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- Category: In Brief
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Announcement
The next generation of supercomputers must be capable of a billion billion calculations per second. These are referred to as Exascale computers and with this ability to undertake such volume of calculations, they will transform our understanding of the world through advanced simulation and problem solving. It will take ten million processors working together to achieve Exascale; so how can this be achieved?