Smart Supply Chain was born from the integration of new technologies in in order to respond to the need for flexible and integrated logistics capable of adapting to customer needs.
Smart reverse supply chain of contract research organisations
The associated research focuses on managing shipments in reverse closed loop supply chains for contract research organisations. They allow tracking and tracing of location and temperature using Internet of Things technology and digitalizing the logistics documents using Blockchain technology.
The Swiss consulting market is one of the most liquid and most stable in Europe. At the business level, the project will lead to a new consulting approach to develop full 5PL services of the value architecture targeting first CROs, and pharmaceutical and medical devices companies as a second step. The consulting approach to be used by the partner Easyshipping4U (ES4U) consists of using the new functionalities to be developed within this project on the top of their existing cloud-based platform for tracking and tracing of incoming and outgoing shipments. The functionalities are embedded in three prototype modules, reducing complexity of logistics management and increasing visibility and traceability in the supply chain by allowing CRO to focus on their core competencies and reinforcing links with customers. This shift from 4PL to 5PL services, where ES4U seeks to manage all materials and information flows of the end-to-end supply chain in addition to the return materials and packaging (reverse flows) as shown in the Figure below.
Partners
Agile and sustainable closed-loop supply chains in hydrogen powered mobility ecosystems
A novel decision-making technique is required for the design of a closed loop supply chain solution for the distribution of solid-state cartridges using hydrogen as fuel. The problem addresses the optimisation of distribution facility locations based on sustainability, agility and economic criteria, and the identification of the optimal logistics routing for the network. This project will develop, implement and test a multi-criteria decision-making method (MCDM) to help select the best distribution/collection network while ensuring optimal economic, environmental and social impacts, a closed-loop supply network design tool to identify the best locations of the vending machines based on agility, sustainability and economic criteria, and an associated algorithm with the vehicle routing problem (VRP) to optimise cartridges distribution and collection. These solutions will be developed with a scalability perspective to extend their application to other cities inside and outside Switzerland.
Project funding
Partners
