2023 - 2027 OLOCAP : Short Food Supply Chain Logistic

Among consumers, food choices are increasingly shifting towards products of "local" origin. This enthusiasm has a strong impact on small producers who are faced with an increased and very diversified demand, and who - very often - have to ensure all the logistics by their own means, including delivery. This project deals with the problem of the logistics of short and local food circuits, with a multidisciplinary perspective. Management sciences will help to understand the logic of the actors (producers, customers, consumers), to define the needs of the producers and from field studies, to design the platform and to define sustainable economic models. A PhD thesis, co-supervised in two laboratories (Tours and Grenoble) will deal with these questions. Data sciences will help to build the platform and design the algorithms allowing the pooling of routes and the definition of the positioning of intermediate stocks or collective points of sale, in order to minimize the costs of routes, the time spent in distribution, consumption energy, the GHG emissions. A PhD thesis, co-supervised by two laboratories (Tours and Troyes) will design the optimization algorithms. The development of local food logistic, sometimes seen as an alternative to mass distribution industries, requires innovations to meet the challenges of sustainable development, and to reduce energy consumption and GHG emissions as much as possible. This project is part of this challenge.

More Information Here.