Prof. Dr.
Asvin Goel

Professor of Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Prof. Dr.
Asvin Goel

Professor of Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Asvin Goel is Professor of Supply Chain Management and Logistics at Kühne Logistics University and Adjunct Professor of Supply Chain Management at the Zaragoza Logistics Center in Spain. He holds academic degrees from the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Göttingen (Dipl.-Math.), from the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Leipzig (Dr. rer. nat.), and from the Faculty of Law, Economics, and Business at the University of Halle-Wittenberg (Dr. rer. pol. habil.).

He has several years of working experience as an independent consultant and software developer for the logistics industry. From 2006 to 2008, Goel was Visiting Associate Research Professor within the MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics Program and served as principle investigator of the research project "In-Transit Visibility" which was jointly conducted by DHL Exel Supply Chain, Deutsche Post World Net, the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, and the Zaragoza Logistics Center. Furthermore, Goel was Visiting Researcher at renowned research institutes such as the National ICT Australia (NICTA) in Sydney and the Centre Interuniversitaire de Recherche sur les Réseaux d’Entreprise, la Logistique et le Transport (CIRRELT) in Montréal.

In his research Goel is mainly interested in developing quantitative and model-based approaches for optimising logistics systems. He published articles in leading journals such as Transportation Science, Journal of Scheduling, Computers & Operations Research, and European Journal of Operational Research. Goel won the 2014 INFORMS best paper award in Transportation Science & Logistics and was finalist for the Science Award for Supply Chain Management 2014. In the Handelsblatt BWL Ranking (a ranking based on the publication output of all German-speaking researchers in business studies) he is repeatedly listed among the researchers with the highest scoring research achievement. Goel serves the scientific community as frequent reviewer for prestigious international journals and conferences and review committee member for funding organisations.

Selected Publications

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2016.0678 

Abstract: In most developed countries working hours of truck drivers are constrained by hours of service regulations. When optimizing vehicle routes, trucking companies must consider these constraints to assure that drivers can comply with the regulations. This paper studies the combined vehicle routing and truck driver scheduling problem (VRTDSP), which generalizes the well-known vehicle routing problem with time windows by considering working hour constraints. A branch-and-price algorithm for solving the VRTDSP is presented. This is the first algorithm that solves the VRTDSP to proven optimality.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2015.07.001 

Abstract: This paper considers a single machine scheduling problem in which each job to be scheduled belongs to a family and setups are required between jobs belonging to different families. Each job requires a certain amount of resource that is supplied through upstream processes. Therefore, schedules must be generated in such a way that the total resource demand does not exceed the resource supply up to any point in time. The goal is to find a schedule minimising total tardiness with respect to the given due dates of the jobs. A mathematical formulation and a heuristic solution approach for two variants of the problem are presented. Computational experiments show that the proposed heuristic outperforms a state-of-the-art commercial mixed integer programming solver both in terms of solution quality and computation time.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2013.0477 

Abstract: Driver fatigue is internationally recognized as a significant factor in approximately 15%–20% of commercial road transport crashes. In their efforts to increase road safety and improve working conditions of truck drivers, governments worldwide are enforcing stricter limits on the amount of working and driving time without rest. This paper describes an effective optimization algorithm for minimizing transportation costs for a fleet of vehicles considering business hours of customers and hours of service regulations. The algorithm combines the exploration capacities of population-based metaheuristics, the quick improvement abilities of local search, with forward labeling procedures for checking compliance with complex hours of service regulations. Several speed-up techniques are proposed to achieve an overall efficient approach. The proposed approach is used to assess the impact of different hours of service regulations from a carrier-centric point of view. Extensive computational experiments for various sets of regulations in the United States, Canada, the European Union, and Australia are conducted to provide an international assessment of the impact of different rules on transportation costs and accident risks. Our experiments demonstrate that European Union rules lead to the highest safety, whereas Canadian regulations are the most competitive in terms of economic efficiency. Australian regulations appear to have unnecessarily high risk rates with respect to operating costs. The recent rule change in the United States reduces accident risk rates with a moderate increase in operating costs.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13675567.2010.482522 

Abstract: This study seeks to quantify the value of visibility over assets moving through an multi-modal transportation network. It presents a transportation model combining shipment and route choice and shows how in-transit visibility can be used to adjust the transportation plan with respect to the known state of the transportation system. By simulating the decision making process with different levels of visibility the gradual benefits of in-transit visibility are quantified. Computational experiments show that on-time delivery performance can be significantly improved by increasing the level of visibility.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-75105-4 

Abstract: Due to globalisation and liberalisation of markets more goods are transported world wide than ever before. Inland transportation within the European Union has almost doubled between 1970 and 2000 and is expected to further increase by about 25% until 2010 and by almost 90% until 2030. It appears that this considerable growth is almost entirely realised by road transport. As a result, road pricing systems are increasingly deployed to reduce congestion of the road network and to finance infrastructural development. The deregulation in the European road transport market, in particular, the allowance of cabotage operations, increases competition and motor carriers from emerging countries more and more challenge motor carriers from developed countries by comparably lower wages. Global competition forces manufacturing companies to improve the quality of their products and to reduce their manufacturing costs. As a result, manufacturing companies increasingly apply just-in-time practices in order to cut down inventory costs. Obviously, just-in-time practices necessitate punctual, reliable, and flexible transportation, as with reduced inventory buffers any mismatch between supply and demand can result into significant disturbances of manufacturing processes. To face these challenges motor carriers have to increase the quality of service and reduce costs. Fleet Telematics - Real-Time Management and Planning of Commercial Vehicle Operations shows how motor carriers can increase punctuality, reliability, flexibility, and transparency of transportation services, and, at the same time, reduce empty mileage and low vehicle utilisation. The book presents a telematics-enabled information system alleviating a major obstacle for computer-based real-time decision support: the lack of timely and reliable information. A real-time decision support system is presented which achieves its strength from several specialised actors who collaboratively and concurrently modify problem data and solution, using different problem knowledge and solution techniques: dispatchers, a Messaging & Fleet Monitoring System, and a Dynamic Planning System. Several heuristic planning methods are presented which can be used to dynamically solve transportation problems incorporating a variety of real-life constraints that are not considered by the classical models found in the literature. Among those are the new regulations for drivers’ working hours in the European Union which entered into force in April 2007. With the improved availability of timely and reliable information provided by the Messaging & Fleet Monitoring System, and the real-time decision support provided by the Dynamic Planning System, this book gives an important contribution to increasing the efficiency of commercial vehicle operations.

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Academic Positions

since 2017Professor of Logistics & Supply Chain Management at Kühne Logistics University, Hamburg, Germany
since 2015

Associate Professor of Logistics & Supply Chain Management at Kühne Logistics University, Hamburg, Germany

since 2006

Adjunct Professor of Supply Chain Management at Zaragoza Logistics Center, Zaragoza, Spain

2015

Visiting Researcher at Pontifcia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro, Departamento de Informatica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2012-2015

Associate Professor of International Logistics at Jacobs University, School of Engineering & Science, Bremen, Germany

2012

Guest Lecturer at Jacobs University, School of Engineering & Science, Bremen, Germany

2012

Research Associate at University of Duisburg-Essen, Paluno - The Ruhr Institute for Software Technology, Essen, Germany

2011

Guest Lecturer at Jacobs University, School of Engineering & Science, Bremen, Germany

2010

Visiting Researcher, Centre Interuniversitaire de Recherche sur les Reseaux d'Entreprise, la Logistique et le Transport (CIRRELT), Montreal, Canada

2009

Visiting Researcher at National ICT Australia (NICTA), Sydney, Australia

2009-2011

Research Associate at University of Leipzig, Institute of Computer Science, Chair of Applied Telematics/e-Business, Leipzig, Germany

2005-2006

Research Assistant at University of Leipzig, Institute of Computer Science, Chair of Applied Telematics/e-Business, Leipzig, Germany

2001-2003

Research Assistant at University of Cologne, Department of Computer Sciences and Operations Research, Cologne, Germany

2000-2001

Research Assistant at University of Cologne, Regional Computing Center Cologne, Department for Scientific Applications, Cologne, Germany

1995-1998

Teaching Assistant at University of Göttingen, Institute for Mathematics, Göttingen, Germany

1992-1993

Teaching Assistant at University of Karlsruhe, Institute for Applied Mathematics, Karlsruhe, Germany

Education

2013

Habilitation (Dr. rer. pol. habil.), Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Faculty of Law, Economics and Business, Germany
Title of thesis: "Lenk- und Ruhezeitenregelungen im Straßengütertransport" (Hours of service regulations in road freight transport)

2007

Doctorate degree (Dr. rer. nat.), University of Leipzig, Institute of Computer Science, Chair of Applied Telematics/e-Business, Leipzig, Germany
Title of thesis: "Fleet telematics - Real-time management and planning of commercial vehicle operations" (magna cum laude)

1998

Diploma (Mathematics), University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

1994

Prediploma (Business-Mathematics), University of Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany

2014 - Best Paper Award in Transportation Science & Logistics INFORMS Transportation Science & Logistics Section

Asvin Goel received the best paper award of INFORMS 2014 Transportation Science & Logistics Section for his article (together with T. Vidal) "Hours of service regulations in road freight transport: An optimization-based international assessment."

2014 - Science Award for Supply Chain Management (Finalist) German Logistics Association (BVL)

Asvin Goel was nominated to present his work in the final round of the Science Award for Supply Chain Management at the 31st International Supply Chain Conference in Berlin.