Description:

Northwestern University Transportation Center presents:

"Optimizing the Middle-Mile"

MIKE HEWITT
Loyola University Chicago

Registration Requested - Refreshments & networking at 3:30pm in the lower level of Chambers Hall prior to Seminar.

ABSTRACT: Middle-mile logistics can be thought, broadly, as the transportation of goods from the region of shipment origin to the region of shipment destination. Such shipments are often small relative to vehicle capacity, and thus carriers seek to consolidate them to provide cost-effective transportation services. To enable such consolidation, carriers route shipments through a network of terminals. The design of these routes can be assisted by solving a network design-type optimization problem that is often called the Service Network Design Problem.

Two dimensions of the SNDP that impact its computational tractability are the number of shipments to transport and the precision with which the timing of transportation activities must be modeled. E-commerce has dramatically increased the size of industry-sized SNDPs on both these dimensions. Recently, Dynamic Discretization Discovery (DDD) has been proposed as an algorithmic framework for managing the second dimension (time). In this talk, we will review that framework, including enhancements that reduce its runtime by nearly 30%. While the correctness of DDD has been proven for a specific variant of the SNDP, not all carriers face the same operational considerations. Thus, we will also review different industry-relevant variants of the SNDP and identify which DDD can solve.

SPEAKER BIO: 

Dr. Hewitt is an Associate Professor in the Information Systems and Supply Chain Management Department in the Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University Chicago, where he also serves as the Director of graduate programs in Supply Chain Management. His research includes developing quantitative models of decisions found in the transportation and supply chain management domains, particularly in freight transportation and home delivery.  His work has assisted the decision-making of companies such as Exxon Mobil, Saia Motor Freight, and Yellow Roadway. He has expanded his area of expertise to include workforce planning, including working on multi-disciplinary projects at the intersection of operations management and cognitive psychology. His research has been funded by agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the Material Handling Institute, and the New York State Health Foundation. Before entering the PhD program at Georgia Tech, Dr. Hewitt worked as a software engineer, contributing to the development of software to support consumer set-top boxes and content delivery to LED signs in mass transit stations.

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Meeting ID: 847 491 7287