Category Archives: Research

Improving the accessibility to public schools in urban areas of developing countries

The location of primary public schools in urban areas of developing countries is the focus of this study. In such areas, new schools and modification of the current schools are required, and this process should be developed using rational and broad supporting tools for decision makers, such as optimization models. We propose a realistic coverage location model and a framework to analyze the location of schools. Our approach considers the existing schools and their resizing, the best locations of the new schools that may have different capacities, population coverage, walking distances and budget provisions for building and updating schools. As a case study, we assess the current primary school network in Ciudad Benito Juarez to provide managerial insights. Through the proposed framework, we analyze the current locations of schools and decisions to be made by considering future scenarios in different time periods. The proposed model is quite flexible and easy to adapt to new considerations, allowing it to be applied to regions in developing countries under similar conditions.

  • De Armas J., Ramalhinho H. and Reynal-Querol M. (2022), Improving the accessibility to public schools in urban areas of developing countries through a location model and an analytical framework, PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0262520

Door-to-door Transportation Services for Reduced Mobility Population: A Descriptive Analytics of the city of Barcelona

A central issue in modern cities is providing inclusive transportation services for people with reduced mobility. In particular, Barcelona is offering a public door-to-door pickup transportation service complementary to the adapted regular public transport. In this work, we apply descriptive analytics to provide a detailed picture of the service by introducing and analyzing a new dataset related to this transportation service. We highlight some of the main problems of the service by processing the data associated with the users and the trips. We also suggest ideas for improving the service. Finally, we propose a trip assignment system based on priorities related to the user or trip characteristics that could improve the quality of the service.

  • Portell L., Morera S., Ramalhinho H. (2022), Door-to-door Transportation Services for Reduced Mobility Population: A Descriptive Analytics of the city of Barcelona. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19084536;

Logistics Optimization of the Home Health Care and Social Services

The Business Analytics Research Group got funded to work on the project “Logistics Optimization of the Home Health Care and Social Services”.

The main objectives of the project are to extend mathematical models and algorithms from Operations Research and Analytics, successfully applied to different industries, to the Healthcare Logistics area by incorporating the particularities of this sector: the human factor, the risk and variability. The main goal is to help the healthcare manager to make better decisions and generate a positive impact in the patients, citizens, medical personal and the society in general.

This project is supported by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of the Government of Spain (Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MCIU), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI), Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER))(RTI2018-095197-B-I00).

Read next the summary of the project…

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PhD defense of Marcelus Fabri

MARCELUS FABRI LIMA presents if PhD thesis with title “Internal Logistics Optimization in the Automotive Industry”. Helena Ramalhinho (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) and Dr. Miquel Oliver (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) were their PhD advisors. Juan Carlos Muñoz (SEAT) was his advisor at the Seat. 

The examination committee were:   President: Dr. Mauricio Resende (Amazon.com), Dra. Jesica de Armas (UPF) and Dr. Tolga Bektas (University of Liverpool). 

TesisMarcelusFabriThis thesis was done under Doctorats Industrials program,  Generalitat de Catalunya.  

Abstract: This thesis focus on internal logistics flows (ILF), which is defined as the flows of materials inside the same business or the same plant. Precisely, this work approaches the ILF of SEAT, a company in the Volkswagen group. So, a set of Operational Research or Business Analytics based methods is presented. These methods contribute both to enrich the literature and provide useful techniques to the industry. Those methods refer to new mathematical formulations, Iterated Local Search metaheuristics, simulation models appli- cations as well as data sets. So, the main purpose of this work is providing suitable methods to face internal logistics routing problems in car-assembling companies. Moreover, these methods were developed and applied consider- ing the SEAT’s workshop and data. The results expose several opportunities that can improve the company’s logistics operations as well as reducing some operational costs. The study was presented to the company’s employees that found it interesting and appropriate. Check the thesis in the TDX.