Helping students deliver Vehicle Routing Optimisation

When Griffith University’s Business School asked for support developing a network optimisation case for the Applied Business Modelling course, Biarri was happy to assist.

An opportunity to teach and demonstrate state-of-the-art thinking

Robert Ogulin Lecturer and Program Director of Griffith’s Master of Supply Network Management (MSNM) identified an opportunity to “teach and demonstrate state of the art thinking” to his logistics and supply chain students. The Masters program provides students with the opportunity to develop an understanding of effective and sustainable management of global sourcing and international business, and Ogulin recognised the importance of ensuring that students get practical experience with advanced supply chain and optimisation tools.

“It is becoming increasingly clear to me that logistics and supply chain students (and business students in general) require more exposure to related IT” Ogulin said.

The course required access to advanced logistics and supply chain software that had been proven in the rigours of a commercial setting. Biarri’s expertise in the development of easy to use, powerful optimisation solutions across a range of commercial applications and industry sectors proved a good fit with Griffith University’s high performance expectations. Biarri’s Vehicle Routing Optimisation (VRO) tool could accommodate a wide variety of constraints and scenarios, from basic functionality for a homogeneous fleet and fixed load/unload times, to more complex issues such as multi-day workload balancing or managing multiple depots and tours.

Biarri’s VRO helped Schweppes Australia achieve great results with the development of a comprehensive vehicle routing solution, customised to Schweppes’ unique requirements. This application was designed to optimise routes based on their customers’ limited delivery windows while still meeting rigorous customer service level agreements. The VRO tool helped Schweppes achieve a 10% reduction in total fleet kilometres, saving the business thousands of unnecessary kilometers and reduced overall environmental impact via reduced fuel and truck usage.

This made Biarri’s VRO a perfect choice for the program, allowing students to test challenging scenarios and deliver optimised results within real-world constraints. A total of 40 students from the Undergraduate BBUS (Logistics and Supply Network Management) and Master of Supply Network Management courses were offered free on-line access to the VRO software across a two week period and by all accounts the project proved to be a success.

“The tool provided an easy to use but powerful learning environment. The scenarios that (Biarri) provided were perfect to get the students to think through the implications of changing constraints or cost parameters”