DSV Chair For Smart Warehouse Optimization
Warehouses, and in particular 3rd party logistics warehouses, more than ever face several challenges such as rapidly changing order-mixes, ever shorter delivery times, more variability in delivery requirements, and more diversity in volume and mix of product returns. At the same time, technological advancements in warehouse automation offer opportunities for improving flexibility and efficiency.
Aim
The goal of this research chair is to address the challenges that warehouse management faces by developing smart solutions for flexibility and efficiency in warehousing for both internal and external logistics. In particular, advanced and intelligent optimization and simulation techniques will be developed for warehousing processes in order to quickly adapt to changing circumstances.
Donor
Period
2025 – 2029
Supervisors
Dieter Claeys is associate professor at the Industrial Systems Engineering (ISyE) research group at Ghent University. His research is focused on the performance analysis and control of manufacturing systems with particular attention to uncertainties that occur in these systems. He teaches courses on designing manufacturing and service systems in the MSc Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, and courses on maintenance optimization and spare parts inventory control in the advanced master programme smart operations and maintenance in industry.
Dieter Claeys is active in Flanders Make, the strategic research center that supports the Flemish manufacturing industry. Previously, he was a research assistant and FWO postdoctoral research assistant at the department of Telecommunications and Information processing at Ghent University. In 2013, he was a visiting researcher at Eurandom, Technical university Eindhoven. He is board member of the Beta research school for operations management and logistics, which is a network of Dutch and Flemish universities that fosters collaboration in that field.
Birger Raa is professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management. He holds a master's degree in computer science engineering (UGent, 2001) and a Ph.D. in applied operational research (UGent, 2006). He teaches courses on Algorithmic Programming, Manufacturing Planning & Control, and Supply Chain Engineering to the engineering students of UGent, and he chairs the program committee in charge of the MSc Industrial Engineering and Operations Research.
In his research, he applies operations research techniques to challenging supply chain optimization problems. In particular, he focuses on developing computationally efficient (meta)heuristic solution methods for production-distribution network design problems and rich vehicle routing and scheduling problems encountered in warehousing and distribution logistics.