Webinar: The Physical Internet

Dr. Benoit Montreuil of Georgia Tech presented his vision for the Physical Internet on February 25, 2015 in the Chao Auditorium at UofL.

Speaker: Dr. Benoit Montreuil, Coca-Cola Chair of Material Handling & Distribution, Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Georgia Tech

Title: The Physical Internet: Towards a New Interconnected Era of Smart, Efficient and Sustainable Logistics

AbstractThis presentation introduces the Physical Internet as a means for addressing the Global Logistics Sustainability Grand Challenge. It presents the key constituents of the Physical Internet, then proceeds to introduce how it transforms the way physical goods are moved, stored, realized, supplied and used. It depicts how logistics, transportation and supply chains have the potential to evolve to a new smart, interconnected era and to achieve much better economic, environmental and societal efficiency and sustainability. It reports results from international research and innovation projects showing more than 30% cost reduction, 30-60% greenhouse gas emissions, more than 50% reduction in trucker turnover, with better prices for the consumers. It provides various examples for applications, related to consumer goods logistics, third-party logistics and transportation, city logistics and last-mile delivery. It finally highlights the cultural, technological, infrastructural, legislative and business model innovation induced by the Physical Internet.

Bio: Benoit Montreuil is the Coca-Cola Material Handling & Distribution Chair in the Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. Dr. Montreuil is leading Georgia Tech’s initiatives to develop the cutting edge knowledge required to design and operate the globally emerging Physical Internet. His main research interests lie in developing concepts, methodologies and technologies for creating, optimizing, transforming and enabling businesses, supply chains and value creation networks to thrive in a fast evolving interconnected world.

From 2000 to 2014, Dr. Montreuil has held the Canada Research Chair in Business Engineering. He is a founding member of the CIRRELT Interuniversity Research Centre on Enterprise Networks, Logistics and Transportation. He is also past president of the College-Industry Council on Material Handling Education.

Dr. Montreuil graduated in 1978 from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR). He earned a master’s and a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech in 1980 and 1982 respectively. After serving on the industrial engineering facul- ty of UQTR and Purdue University, from 1988 to 2014, he was a Professor of operations and decisions systems in the faculty of Business Administration at Université Laval in Quebec City, Canada.

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