Group description

The description of the Production Engineering Group is available at

https://www.ims-bordeaux.fr/en/recherche/research/109-production-engineering/115-production-engineering

Within this group, the “LOgistique COopérative et Optimisation” (LOCO2) team focuses on the optimisation of production and transport activities. We study the operational and tactical levels of supply chain planning. The solving methodologies are based on mathematical modelling (i.e. linear programming), on approximated optimisation methods (i.e. metaheuristics) and on the implementation of game theory approaches.

The main scientific achievements are in the following areas:

- Cooperative supply chain planning. In this field, two contributions (Zhen-Zhen Jia and Yiting Wang phDs) focus on the producer/carrier relationship and deal with the development of a negotiation protocol allowing to reach a planning compromise satisfying the producer while improving that of multiple carriers. In the field of reverse logistics, another work (Alioune Fall phD) proposes a generic planning model for collection and disassembly taking into account the uncertainty on the quality of the processed product, based on a stochastic linear programming approach.

- Planning of vehicle routing in freight transport. The work carried out (Rodrigue Tchapnga-Takoudjou phD), addresses the problems of pickups and deliveries with transhipment. To solve this problem, we use on the one hand a mathematical model in mixed variables and on the other hand an approximate optimization method which allows to obtain solutions of satisfactory quality. More recently, the work has been oriented towards the implementation of advanced methodologies in exact optimisation (decomposition methods, column generation) allowing to push back the barriers of the complexity (NP-hard) of the problems that appear in urban logistics. In this field, a collaboration started in 2017 with the INRIA Sud-Ouest "RealOpt" team (in connection with the IMB of the University of Bordeaux) to solve multi-step vehicle routing problems integrating satellite depots (Guillaume Marques phD).

- Optimisation of reconfigurable production systems is being addressed in the framework of a Cifre phD  started in 2020 and supported by the PORTAGE project (see Ongoing Project). This work aims to develop a methodology for improving and optimising flows coupled with discrete flow simulation addressing internal logistics. The target application of this methodology concerns the autonomous electric wheel developed by the company Ez-Wheel (See Ongoing Portage project)