Optimization/Re-Optimization of Digital, Customer-Focused, Sustainable and Low-Carbon Logistics and transportation Network in Industry 4.0

With the boom of technological development and globalization, the competition in the market becomes increasingly severe. In order to survive in the ever-changing and competitive market, companies should not only to focus on the improvement of product quality and efficiency of the supply chain, but also to provide a higher variability of product portfolio, a higher flexibility and quicker responsiveness to individualized customer demand, and a digital platform for a better communication. The recently raised concept “Industry 4.0” has pinpointed a blueprint of the future production and logistics system with the help of state-the-of-art technologies, ICT and management methods, which will significantly shift the paradigm of both manufacturing and logistics. This will significantly change the design and operation of a logistics system at both strategic and operational levels. Taking into account of the customer requirements and technological possibilities in “Industry 4.0” era, the OptiLog 4.0 project aims at developing improved decision-support models and methods for the optimization and/or re-optimization of a digital, customer-focused, sustainable and low-carbon logistics network. The project is connected with two EU projects carried out at UiT—The Arctic University of Norway. One is TARGET project financed by Northern Periphery and Arctic (NPA) Programme, and the other is I3 Innovation & Industrial Internet project financed by InterReg programme, both of which aim at providing companies, especially in manufacturing industry, with support of technologies and management methods in order to enhance their competiveness and sustainability. The OptiLog 4.0 project aims first at understanding the most important features of the logistics system in Industry 4.0. Based on the knowledge obtained, the project aims also, through the development of improved mathematical models, to improve the decision-making of logistics network design.

The proposal of the OptiLog 4.0 project is for funding for Hao Yu from UiT—The Arctic University of Norway to conduct a 5-month research visit at the Canada Research Chair in Distribution Management at HEC Montreal. The research visit will enhance the knowledge building in the development of advanced mathematical models and methods for logistics system design. In addition, the project is connected with two EU project: TARGET and I3 Innovation & Industrial Internet, both of which aim at providing advanced tools and methods for enhancing the competitiveness of manufacturing companies. The OptiLog 4.0 project will contribute to both EU projects by developing advanced mathematical models and methods for the design, optimization and/or re-optimization of a digital, customer-focused, sustainable and low-carbon logistics network. The planning of a logistics system is a complex decision-making problem that has been extensively focused by both academicians and practitioners over the decades. The conventional methods focus mainly on the efficiency and cost effectiveness of the logistics activities. However, the influence of the technological revolution in Industry 4.0 on the re-optimization of the strategic design and operational planning of the logistics and transportation networks has not been thoroughly investigated. Therefore, the project aims at providing knowledge to fill this gap. The objective of OptiLog 4.0 include: (1) Provide knowledge and understanding of the features for the design of logistics network with new technologies and methods in Industry 4.0; (2) Conduct the first step of the mathematical modeling and design of computational method for the complex decision-making problem of logistics network planning. The result of the project can be used by a large variety of business sectors as well as the government for improving the decision-making of the design and operation of a digitalital, customer-focused, sustainable and low-carbon logistics system.