Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Distribution management encompasses transportation and location activities within organizations. This includes problems related to supply chain management and reverse logistics, as well as operations related with garbage collection, mail delivery, snow clearing, etc. Here it also includes the design and operation of mass transportation systems for passengers. The focus of this proposal is on the development of innovative methodologies and on the solution of complex problems arising in distribution management. This research program includes four major projects related to 1) rich vehicle routing; 2) green vehicle routing; 3) discrete location problems; 4) metro network design. The impacts of this research program will be felt at two levels. 1) From a scientific point of view, we will introduce new complex problem that have not yet been treated in the scientific literature. We will study their fundamental properties and we will develop new models and algorithms (heuristic or exact) for them. 2) From an economic and societal point of view, this research program addresses problems of major importance for transportation planners (private fleet operators, postal operations managers). Our models and algorithms will integrate and balance economic and environmental concerns. Our research on metro network design goes in the same direction in the sense that it aims to design cost-effective mass transportation systems that will increase people mobility while reducing car traffic and pollution.