Models and Decomposition Methods for Facility Location and Network Design

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The increased complexity of modern manufacturing and supply chain networks has drawn attention to the importance of logistics and transportation in Engineering. Logistics deals with the efficient flow of goods from their points of production to their points of consumption. It involves the integration of several activities such as procurement, production, inventory, transportation, warehousing, and material handling. In Canada, the transportation and warehousing sector accounted for 4.6 % of the GDP in 2016 and thus, contributed $74.81 billion to the economy (see Statistics Canada). Many companies are thus turning their attention to the optimization of their logistics and transportation networks to ensure that the products are delivered at the right time, in the right place, at the least possible cost, while minimizing their environmental impact. The explosive growth of telecommunications systems, partly due to the widespread use of the internet, has made of vital interest for telecommunication firms the determination of the optimal evolution of their networks. In Canada, the telecommunications sector accounted for 1.8% of the GDP in 2016.This research program is centered on the development of innovating methodologies for the solution of complex facility location and network design problems arising in the design and operation of transportation, logistics, and telecommunication systems, both from the industry and the public sector. These problems give rise to mathematical models which, due to their size and inherent complexity of their interrelated decisions, are very challenging to solve. This program aims to develop ad-hoc methods capable of solving large-scale, difficult discrete optimization models arising in real applications. These methods will be developed by using state-of-the-art techniques in operations research and analytics. This research program strives to intensify the continued efforts of the applicant in studying more complex problems that integrate several features of real-life applications.The long term vision of this program focuses on closing the gap between theory, methodology and practice in two major research areas in operations research: facility location and network design. In particular, the long-term goals of this program are: Part I) increase our ability to solve large-scale discrete optimization problems by developing innovating models and decomposition methods, and Part II) exploit knowledge to solve more realistic applications in the broad areas of transportation, logistics, and telecommunications by studying new problems in the fields of hub network design, multi-commodity network design, and discrete facility location. This research program has the potential to make important contributions to the solution of complex problems of high practical relevance for the Canadian economy.