Planning and Design of Production and Distribution Systems

The long-term objective of my research program is to develop methods to facilitate the rapid design of production and distribution facilities. This research proposal aims to develop and extend optimization methods for planning and design problems in production and distribution systems. The research described in the proposal covers two broad areas: facility design and distribution systems design. In facilities design, two specific research themes will be explored: F1) Multi-objective dynamic production systems design to deal with uncertainties. The plan is to study this problem by taking into account recourse opportunities. F2) Multi-objective product slotting in distribution centres to minimize picking distance and congestion. In the area of distribution systems design, the specific themes addressed are: S1) Computationally effective methods for order promising in supply networks using clearing functions to model the queuing effects of throughput. S2) Modelling the highly modularized Physical Internet distribution system to understand its behaviour. ***The basic methodologies employed in the fields of industrial engineering and operations research such as linear and integer programming, stochastic modelling, simulation, and mathematical analysis of production and distribution systems will be used. Emphasis will be placed on computational methods to solve these models either optimally or approximately (using heuristics). ***The research themes in this research proposal have practical significance and will make an impact within the industrial engineering research community. Industry involvement in many of these areas will be sought so that the concepts and methods developed will have relevance to industry. The research carried out will advance the current state of knowledge in the domain, and contribute to the training of HQP.**