Network & Carbon Footprinting – Royal HaskoningDHV

 Overview

Company Description

Districon is a consultancy firm focusing on supply chains and logistics. Last year, Districon became part of Royal HaskoningDHV, a large engineering company in the Netherlands and abroad. Districon advises medium and large organizations from all over the world with their logistic strategies and their challenges around supply chains. Within Districon, there are different teams, each focusing on their own discipline.

One of these teams specializes in Network & Mobility operations. Our goal is to design, arrange, and optimize transport and distribution networks. Companies ask us for consult with questions like:

• Where can I best locate my distribution centers given my demand, personnel costs, transportation costs and warehousing costs?
• Which modes of transportation can I best use?
• Should I outsource my logistic operations? Which qualitative factors play a role in this decision?
• What is the impact of changing to a different distribution model on lead time?

Besides these questions, Districon notices that clients have more questions regarding the CO­₂ impact of their network design. The most cost-efficient design is not always the most sustainable.

Project Description

The student can interpret the assignment in its own way, but these are a few of the research directions we thought of:

• Which emissions are related to transport and distribution networks? Think of classifications in scope 1, 2, and 3.
• What is the impact in terms of CO­₂ when a tactical decision is made, such as switching from next-day to same-day delivery?
• Companies will soon be obliged to report their CO­₂ emissions and in a later stadium they will als have to pay tax depending on their emissions. How will this influence future networks? How does this affect decision making and what is the financial impact?

Goals of the Project & Deliverables

The literature review should cover research on cost accounting of emissions and the impact of network design decisions on emissions. These network design decisions can for instance be the mode of transportation, or the consideration of moving to a greenfield or brownfield warehouse. The student is encouraged to give their own twist to the research.

In the second phase of the research, the student builds a quantitative method or model which can be applied on a client’s case. Districon supplies data for the student to test their models. This should enable the student to quantify the impact of different configurations on carbon footprint and costs.

The outcomes of this research contribute to our knowledge of sustainable logistics. More specific, by quantifying reductions in emissions in transport and distribution networks. Knowledge on this topic helps Districon to consult their clients with advice on future legislation and sustainable network design decisions.

Suggestions for a tool/ model that the student can design is a model where different scenarios can be compared, such as:

• The costs for transportation increase due to legislation, how will this affect the decision on the number of warehouses?
• How do taxes regarding emissions affect the decision to invest in a more sustainable fleet (such as electric/hydrogen vehicles)?

Essential student knowledge

• You are ambitious and have a resultdriven mentality
• You are proactive, have affinity with IT and data and a passion for what you do
• You have affinity with logistics and follow a study related to this topic on university level (for example, Industrial Engineering, Operations Management and Logistics, Business, Logistics, Supply Chain Management or Econometrics)
• Excellent cummuncative skills in Dutch and English
• You are willing to frequently visit our office in Amersfoort

More information: escf@tue.nl