Acht onderzoeksprojecten op het terrein van Duurzame Logistiek kunnen van start

Binnen het onderzoeksprogramma Duurzame Logistiek zijn acht onderzoeksvoorstellen gehonoreerd. Er waren 13 uitgewerkte voorstellen ingediend.

De gehonoreerde onderzoeksvoorstellen binnen het onderzoeksprogramma Duurzame Logistiek beslaan elk één of meer van de volgende terreinen: ICT- systemen in de logistieke sector; Fysieke Infrastructuur; Orgware voor de logistieke sector. De focus van het programma ligt zowel op de bedrijfsinterne logistiek (financiële dienstverlening, service, etc. voor zover dat van belang is voor het goederenvervoer) als op het goederenvervoer zelf en daarvoor gebruikte infrastructuurnetwerken. Uit de voorstellen moest duidelijk blijken hoe het onderzoek bijdraagt aan een verduurzaming van de logistiek. Het programma richt zich met name op de middellange en lange termijnperiode 2016-2040. Overigens kunnen diverse (tussentijdse) onderzoeksresultaten zich al lenen voor implementatie op kortere termijn voor beleid en/of praktijk.

Wetenschappers uit verschillende onderzoeksdisciplines konden in samenwerking met publieke en/of private partners een consortium vormen en financiering aanvragen. Het onderzoeksprogramma is een initiatief van het Ministerie van Infrastructuur en Milieu, NWO Maatschappij- en Gedragswetenschappen en NWO Exacte Wetenschappen. Zij stelden in totaal vijf miljoen euro beschikbaar voor de onderzoeksprojecten. Bijna anderhalf miljoen euro is daarbovenop aan co-financiering door bedrijven, overheden, maatschappelijke organisaties en publieke onderzoeksinstellingen ingebracht.

Topsector Logistiek
De onderzoeksprojecten genereren kennis die bijdraagt aan het realiseren van de roadmaps en de doelstellingen van de Topsector Logistiek, zoals verwoord in de topsectoragenda ‘Partituur naar de Top’. NWO is, samen met TNO en Dinalog, actief betrokken bij het Logistieke Topconsortium voor Kennis en Innovatie. Dit consortium is opgericht voor de bevordering en afstemming van de activiteiten die de verschillende betrokken partijen ontwikkelen en uitvoeren voor de Topsector Logistiek. Het onderzoeksprogramma Duurzame Logistiek maakt onderdeel uit van het NWO-thema Verbinden van Duurzame Steden.

Hieronder vindt u een overzicht van de gehonoreerde voorstellen:

Capitalizing on collaboration in sustainable logistics in food and flower chains
Hoofdaanvrager: Prof.dr.ir. Jack van der Vorst – Wageningen Universiteit 
Partners: ArgusI, SuperUnie en FloraHolland
Samenvatting: Following developments, supply chain actors are rethinking their logistics structures and management practices to arrive at concepts able to deliver perishable products to retail outlets more responsive, at lower cost, with less food waste and environmental impact. Previous projects have shown the advantages of horizontal and vertical collaboration, but still many questions are left to be answered: What key performance indicators at the individual actor level contribute optimally to network performance targets? What are relevant sustainable collaborative logistics concepts for perishable products and what are the potential performance improvements? Which drivers can create awareness with potential partners on the advantages of supply chain collaboration, and make them participate? And what does an ideal collaboration consortium looks like (number of partners and who)? Using a longitudinal case study approach these questions will be analysed by two PhD students in collaboration with business partners. The project team aims to build a toolbox and determine and quantify the added value of (cross)chain collaboration. The most promising collaboration scenario will be implemented in a real life pilot study, giving possibility to evaluate the validity of modelling efforts and identify additional barriers and drivers. Eventually the project will deliver (and transfer knowledge on) success factors of effective horizontal, vertical and diagonal (cross chain) collaborative logistics concepts for distributing conditioned fresh products, such that the right product quality can be provided to consumers in a costeffective, responsive and sustainable way.

Designing sustainable last-mile delivery services in online retailing
Partners: Ahold, ORTEC, Arnhem Nijmegen City Region, EVO, Thuiswinkel.org
Samenvatting: The continuous growth of online sales together with the inefficiency of the last-mile of the e-commerce supply chain puts a lot of pressure on urban areas in terms of congestion, emissions and pollution. It is critical to increase the efficiency of the last-mile deliveries to enhance the financial and environmental performance of internet retailers. The primary goal of this project is to develop and evaluate decision support models and tools to facilitate the optimal design of different delivery service models in online retailing and to identify service models and corresponding operating strategies that provide most benefits in terms of various sustainability criteria. To create more sustainable last-mile operations, the proposed research is organized around two PhD projects, one that particularly focuses on optimizing the delivery operations and one that focuses on the optimal design of the distribution network.

Dynafloat: Dynamic urban traffic flow management using floating-car, planning, and infrastructure data
Hoofdaanvrager: Prof.dr. Richard Boucherie – Universiteit Twente
Partners: ARS Traffic & Transport Technology, De Verkeersonderneming Rotterdam, Stichting Sensor City Assen
Samenvatting: The growing urbanization concentrated in large cities poses enormous challenges to the society. The efficient use of available infrastructure and sound mobility and logistics planning and control frameworks are among the main challenges. This proposal focuses on logistics and mobility, and seeks to reconcile economic, social and ecological objectives. That is: transport and logistics should be maximally efficient, with minimum delay and limited adverse environmental effects (carbon and particle emission, noise). In particular, we focus on the use of massively available planning and floating-car data in addition to data from roadside equipment, to enable dynamic control of both freight and passenger flows. In addition, we will extend existing mathematical models for road traffic so as to jointly study interacting bottlenecks while capturing the essential characteristics of road traffic dynamics. In an urban setting, optimal control for smooth traffic flow requires an integrated approach, simultaneously controlling the network of intersections as a whole. Besides the ‘network view’ our research proposal is also innovative in accurate traffic modeling. We will combine distinct modeling approaches to accurately capture the essential dynamics of road traffic. Depending on the research questions at hand, we will use microscopic models that mimic individual car dynamics, mesoscopic models that capture aggregated traffic flows and macroscopic models that incorporate space-related dynamics in urban networks with different characteristics.

Sustainability Impact of New Technology on After sales Service supply chains (SINTAS)
Hoofdaanvrager: Dr. Matthieu van der Heijden – Universiteit Twente
Partners: Additive Industries, Fokker Services, Ministerie van Defensie, Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium, Thales Netherlands, Dinalog
Samenvatting: 3D printing (also referred to as additive manufacturing) offers a huge potential to increase the sustainability of after sales service supply chains for assets like defence systems or airplanes. Instead of stocking a large variety of slow moving spare parts with high demand uncertainty, these parts may be printed on demand, or repaired downstream the supply chain using printed components. This project aims to identify how 3D printing can be deployed, for which types of parts and in which part of the assets? life cycle. We will show, using mathematical models, applied in case studies, the sustainability impact on design and planning of service supply chains. We expect lower system downtime and lower inventory levels of spare parts, leading to lower holding costs and strongly reduced numbers of scrapped components. Sustainability is further improved by de-stressing the supply chain: less emergency supplies in case of stock outs are needed, which typically require air transportation. Also, forward flows of specific parts are replaced by distribution of a limited diversity of raw materials that can be sourced at many locations. In work package (WP) 1, we aim to identify the types of parts for which 3D printing may be applied, and to study its impact on failure behaviour and material costs. WP2 focuses on the design of the after sales service supply chains, including the optimal installation of resources for system upkeep. WP3 focuses on the tactical planning and the impact on spare parts inventories, obsolescence and (emergency) transportation of spares.

Enhancing resilience while maintaining efficiency: planning and human decision-making for the unpredictable
Hoofdaanvrager: Prof. Dr. Dirk Pieter van Donk – Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Partners: Friesland Campina, Variass Electronics B.V., Waterbedrijf Groningen, Bosch Thermotechniek B.V.
Samenvatting: Today’s business environment is characterized by increased levels of connectivity: within companies through the application of lean and efficiency measures as well as between organizations due to an augmented level of supply chain integration. In such an interconnected world organizations recognize the potential risk of experiencing a supply chain disruption. To be able to manage the unforeseen, supply chains need to develop resilience. While the importance of being resilient to sustainable operations is without question, it remains unclear how supply chain resilience can be achieved and balanced with the need for efficiency. This project explores the antecedents of resilience aiming to make the concept more tangible and implementable for organizations. The proposed research intends to identify and test what critical elements in relation to vertical, horizontal and diagonal coordination mechanisms should be taken into account and included into the design of highly optimized supply chains to make them more resilient based on the 4C approach. More specifically, we will conduct a number of exploratory case studies with our business partners, building on our current projects with, among others, ProRail/Dutch Railways. Insights from exploratory case studies will provide the basis for further experiments with decision-makers in both the laboratory and in the field. Furthermore, a management training tool will be developed to further acquire insights into supply chain resilience as well as help managers to better deal with uncertainty. Results will be valorized through annual workshops, lectures, involvement of students and the use by TNO of the training tool.

Integrated Synchromodal Transport System Analysis (ISOLA)
Hoofdaanvrager: Prof. dr. Albert Veenstra – TNO Delft
Partners: Havenbedrijf Rotterdam, Europe Combined Terminals (ECT)
Samenvatting: The research aims to support the development of the multimodal transport system in the Netherlands, and by extension, in Europe, into a truly synchromodal transport system, in which infrastructure use, transport services and operations are perfectly aligned with market demand. This requires the integration of data on infrastructure, services and transportation, the development of new synchromodal control mechanisms, and the further analysis of demand characteristics of shippers. This project provides the academic underpinning of the ambition and innovation vision that is formulated for synchromodality in the Topsector Logistics. So far research has mainly addressed horizontal alignment between modes into a coherent network. The main research angle for this project is the vertical alignment, i.e. the shipper/client orientation and the relations with the underlying network management. In addition to the fact that these vertical relations constitute scientifically unexplored territory, we argue that they are of critical importance for the deployment of synchromodal transport services. In short, if service demand is difficult to predict and if capacity availability is uncertain, the synchromodal service market will not function. Academic contributions include (1) improved freight modelling by improving the representation of shippers? supply chain considerations; (2) quantification of the impact of the level of information exchange and collaboration / competition among organizations on synchromodal planning and execution; (3) new real-time decision making approaches and pricing mechanisms for synchromodal solutions; and (4) the development of information concepts that enable ‘data synchromodality’.

Sustainable Logistics in Fresh Food (SLIFF)
Hoofdaanvrager: prof. dr. ir. Hans Wortmann – Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Partner: Albert Heijn
Samenvatting: The central objective of SLIFF is to enhance the sustainability of fresh food logistics by improving logistics resource utilization while distribution lead times are reduced. The project addresses two prevalent challenges in this context:
1. Optimization of network logistics versus optimization at distribution centre (DC);
2. Inventory optimization versus transport optimization.
Distribution network planning and local DC planning problems have been largely addressed separately in science and practice. However, inventory reduction policies have resulted in a just-in-time flow of products with little or no storage buffers throughout the distribution network. This requires a synchronization of network level and local DC logistics planning. SLIFF aims to propose (distributed) decision-structures and develop optimization models to facilitate such synchronization. Another novelty of SLIFF resides in acknowledging that vendors may share both transportation resources and storage space at the DC in the replenishment of the DC. Accordingly, SLIFF aims for joint optimization of transportation, inventory, and material handling resources. These resources are generally owned by many independent parties. Therefore, this requires research in the domain of:
” Organization design; because the vendors, retailer and logistics service providers are autonomous companies
” Optimization models; because decision support for multiple interdependent decisions is needed
” ICT interoperability; because parties will be heavily interacting to synchronize decisions
The partner retailer has recently contracted an LSP who, in the future, could act as a cross chain control centre coordinating transportation and inventory optimization for the many vendors involved. Insights from SLIFF are disseminated via academic channels, professional societies and branch organizations.

Sustainable service logistics for offshore wind farms
Hoofdaanvrager: prof. dr. Ruud Teunter – Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Partners: Provincie Groningen, DHL Supply Chain Benelux, Groningen Seaports, Siemens Nederland N.V., Van Oord Offshore Wind Projects B.V., Wijnne Barends Logistics B.V., Eekels Technology B.V., ECN, Oliveira International Group, EYEWIND, Energy Valley, Dutch Institute World Class Maintenance.
Samenvatting: Offshore wind farms are expected to deliver 14% of total EU electricity demand by 2030, saving 315 Mt of CO2 emissions annually. With projected cumulative investments at €211.1 billion and expected employment at 50,000 FTE by 2030, this sector’s future looks bright. However, a 40% decrease in costs is widely considered to be prerequisite to make this happen. Considering that about 50% of the costs incurred during the operational phase are related to logistics, we aim in this project at developing new innovative methods for the sustainable design and operation of service logistics for offshore wind farms.
This project is composed of several work packages that cover network design, condition-based maintenance strategies, cross-chain control of goods flows, as well as collaboration and governance aspects. In each work package, new methods will be developed that can serve as enablers for an improved service logistics process. These methods contribute in general to the field of Operations Research, proposing novel combinatorial and stochastic optimization and improvement approaches. Extensive simulation studies and scenario analyses will be performed to test the robustness and resilience of the integrated network for offshore wind farms. The consortium includes 12 public and private partners who plan on providing practical insights, and disseminating and implementing research results.

Bron: NWO