Research
Network Design
Fast, efficient, flexible, and reliable urban last-mile logistics services require highly optimized, multi-echelon, multi-modal distribution networks. Research in this domain encompasses optimization and simulation modeling to improve distribution network design and operational planning.
Policy & Infrastructure
The efficiency and sustainability of urban goods distribution is strongly dependent on local regulatory constraints and the provision of appropriate urban freight infrastructure. Research in this domain provides policy makers with insights and tools on how to design effective urban freight policies and where to invest in critical infrastructure.
Logistics Big Data
Logistics operations around the world are generating tremendous amounts of transactional, operational, geospatial, and telemetry data on a daily basis. Leveraging advanced methods of data analytics and machine learning, research in this domain focuses on developing the necessary tools and algorithms to navigate the data, and turn it into intelligible, actionable insights that make logistics operations smarter.
Interactive Visualization
Technology is changing the world of supply chain and logistics, making it increasingly complex to maneuver and sensitive to real-time information. Visual Analytics will form the basis for ground-breaking advancements in handling these new levels of complexity by taking advantage of the increasing velocity of data to improve decision making. Research in this domain focuses on creating new and immersive ways of visualizing and interacting with data, models, and analytical tools – facilitating the work of both researchers and practitioners.
About
Dr. Matthias Winkenbach, Director MIT Megacity Logistics Lab
Matthias Winkenbach is the Director of the MIT Megacity Logistics Lab and a Research Scientist at the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics. His current research focuses on multi-tier distribution network design in the context of urban logistics and last-mile delivery, urban freight policy and infrastructure design, as well as data analytics and visualization in an urban logistics context. Dr. Winkenbach received his Ph.D. in Logistics and his Masters in Business with specializations in Finance and Economics at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany. He also studied at NYU Stern School of Business in New York as well as at the École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC) in Montréal, Canada. His doctoral studies focused on the optimal design of multi-tier urban delivery networks with mixed fleets. His work was closely linked to a research project with the French national postal operator La Poste. During and after his doctoral studies, he spent several months at the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics as a Visiting Scholar. Dr. Winkenbach’s previous professional work includes working with Volkswagen in South Africa on local sourcing and cost optimization, with Deutsche Telekom in Germany on co-investment models for network infrastructure expansions, with McKinsey & Company in the United States, and in Germany on organizational redesign in the automotive industry and on innovative delivery models in the postal and express logistics sector, as well as various other projects in the mining, shipbuilding, consulting and logistics industries. Dr. Winkenbach won the Science Award for Supply Chain Management of the German Logistics Association (BVL) in 2014, was amongst the finalists for the 2015 Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in Operations Research Practice, and recently published academic papers in Transportation Science, and Interfaces, as well as some practitioner oriented pieces in the Wall Street Journal and the Sloan Management Review.
