Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Logistics planning directly impacts organizations' performance through non-monetary factors such as service quality, reliability, customer satisfaction, and equity (fairness). The aim of this research program is to study the role of risk and uncertain parameters in the reliable and/or equitable optimization of routing plans in logistics systems under two parallel themes. Theme I focuses on travel/service time uncertainty in both pick-up/delivery businesses and the service industry, whereas Theme II's focus will be on the impact of accident probability and consequence on the risky transportation of hazardous materials (hazmat) shipments. The proposed projects are the extensions of my ongoing engagement in this domain, and endeavor to develop novel methodologies to mitigate not only the hazmat risk but also the risk associated with regular routing plans under uncertainty by generating reliable and equitable plans. This proposed research program will be significant in three ways: first, identify the various sources of uncertainty in routing plans and understand how they contribute to the decision-making process; second, define appropriate quantitative measures to assess the routing plans' performance under uncertainty, which can be effectively embedded in the modeling of the plans; and third, investigate novel solution techniques to create plans that are ultimately able to mitigate the risk of both deviating from the desired initial plans and hazmat shipments. It is important that addressing these factors adds different layers of difficulties to the underlying optimization problems, such as non-convexity and non-linearity. Moreover, railroad networks entail other problems, such as rail-car consolidation, train make-up, and train scheduling, in addition to route decisions. Thus, this research program will enable me to contribute to my longer-term objectives to develop analytical methodologies for the mitigation of hazmat risk and safe transportation of rail hazmat shipments such that the probability of catastrophic train accidents could be further reduced; and, to develop strategies to ensure reliable and equitable routing plans for both the pick-up/delivery business and the service industry, which can enhance service level and customer satisfaction.