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============Project Idea 1: Logistics and supply chain security ============

Description

Logistics and supply chain security:

LOOM has had about 10 years research experiences in logistics and supply chain security assessment, evidenced by three completed PhD research projects (“Risk analysis and decision making of container supply chains”, “the development of safety and security assessment techniques and their application to port operations”, and “enabling security and risk-based operation of container line supply chains under high uncertainties” ).Many security modelling and decision making models have been developed, including the following:

·         A container security score model addressing 10+2 elements.

·         A port security level model.

·         A seafarers reliability model.

·         Formal safety/security assessment of container supply chains.

·         Threat based assessment of container supply chains.

·         Terrorism modelling of container supply chains (e.g. Figure 1).

·         Multiple criteria modelling for security based decision making in container supply chain operations.

·         Quality assurance of port operations using 6-sigma.

·         Optimal operations of maritime/logistic systems in dynamic environments

·         Realistic 3D simulations of complex maritime and logistics systems

The above may be used to contribute to:

·         propose, towards end-to-end supply-chain security, a mechanism for transparent multi-hazard risk assessment.

·         increase the overall security of the supply chains.

·         possible solutions to new risks and threats required to secure supply chains in the future.

·         identify suspicious cargo (people), as early as possible, through the provision of reliable and sufficient data including “who” is shipping “what” to “whom”, “when” and “by which means”.

·         improve supply chain resilience using risk management principles, contingency planning and enhanced real-time reaction capabilities.

·         deliver collateral benefits, especially higher cost effectiveness for transportation and supply chain systems to stakeholders (incl. SME) as an important factor for ensuring broad acceptance.

·         predict possible under-attack scenarios and predict the behaviours of the supply chain when being under attack.

·         provide optimal solutions to deal with broken links in supply chains.

============Project Idea 2: Non-military protection measures for merchant shipping against piracy ============

Description

LOOM has an on-going doctoral research project on maritime piracy modelling in collaboration with the IMO. The research has been conducted since Nov. 2009 and is expected to be completed soon. The project has developed a technical model for investigating how parameters such as ship size, season of the year, ship type, location of the ship, time of the day, visibility, freeboard, speed, good practices, etc. would influence the likelihood of a ship being attacked by pirates (e.g. see Figure 2 of the attached document). The model is also capable of looking at how naval support and available guards would influence the likelihood of the ship being hijacked.

The above work can be used for studying piracy root causes and piracy protection measures, helping protect EU merchant fleets and maritime supply lines from criminal abduction and harassment. Relevant civil stakeholders / end-users should be provided with an exhaustive practical guide on active and passive contemporary optimal measures to counter pirate threats and their legal, economic and societal implications. Advantages and disadvantages of these measures can be highlighted and realistic improvements proposed. Simulation can be used to validate the proposed measures under different realistic scenarios.

In particularly, LOOM research can be used to answer the following questions:

·         Given available data of a specific maritime area and a particular ship, what is the likelihood of the ship being attacked?

·         What would be the best level of support for ships?

·         What to do when being attacked?

·         What to do after being attacked? Best escape route? Best coordination strategy?

============Project Idea 3: Simulation/optimisation for resources and supply chains in emergency/crisis situations ============

Description

Simulation/optimisation for resources/supply chains in external emergency situations:

LOOM has a strong research expertise in optimisation, simulation and security/safety for supply chains. The institution is the work-package leader in two major work-packages of optimisation/simulation in a recent €7m EU project, the work-package leader in another recent €9m EU project on logistics supply chain, and the grant holder of various EPSRC projects on security/safety of supply chains and maritime business processes. LOOM’s research in these areas has been published in top journals in Computer Science such as IEEE Transactions, European Journal of Operational Research and International Journal of Neural systems, etc. The institution also has the UK-only 360-degree ship simulator (see http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/lairdsidemaritimecentre/).

Optimisation, simulation and security/safety for supply chain research in LOOM have always been focused on real-world freight supply chain applications. Recent examples are:

• Optimisation:
  • The optimal scheduling  in many EU ports (e.g., see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVpOWEYTeNQ andhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXEMT39wItg).
  • The optimal fleet sizing, routingfor  equipments/vehicles in the above organisations.
• 3D virtual simulation models of:
  • business processes in the above ports. LOOM also combined the optimisation and simulation into an integrated framework (e.g., see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVpOWEYTeNQ ).  
  • sea-to-land/ rail-to-road and road freight transport processes (e.g. seehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzwU1ykk3fM).

Below are our research ideas:

Supporting freight supply chains to deal with unexpected changes and external emergency situations is an important challenge. Real-time responses may include rescheduling productions/ managements /purchases etc; changing the transport modes; re-allocating resources and rerouting the process flows. Crisis/emergency situations can also be prevented by understanding EU’s external interoperability logistics, anticipating the risks, implementing safety procedures, providing backup plans, and designing robust schedules /plans for the chains. Such responses and anticipations are especially important in multimodal logistics hubs, where goods are collected and distributed.

LOOM research ideas involve providing the above solutions to effectively help (a) anticipate crisis/emergency situations and (b) response to crisis/emergency situations. We focus on container supply chains, especially those connecting multimodal logistics hubs due to that 90% of world goods are containerized. We believe these go in line with the requirements from the EC. 3D simulations of the supply chains and emergency situations will be provided; robust solutions (schedules of activities; layout of facilities and allocation of resources) in anticipation of emergencies will be suggested, and dynamic optimisation solutions (rescheduling, replanning, rerouting, reallocating) in responses to emergencies will be offered.