Inaugural Address “Are we connected?”

On November 13, 2015, I formally accepted the Trust Fund Endowed chair “Ports in Global Networks” at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. On this occasion, I gave an inaugural address with slide presentation.

The slides are published via slide share here.

The booklet with an extended version of the address can be found here.

Sustainable Supply Chains

Recent work focuses on the coordination of efforts in supply chains to environmental performance under voluntary or regulated programs. One journal paper studies the role of double-counting in supply chain carbon footprinting (Caro et al. 2013). Ph.D. student Xishu Li has started to work with me on Green Port Tools and studies the effectiveness of policy measures aimed at enhancing environmental performance.

Container Logistics

We are interested in the design, planning, and execution of container logistics networks. Many organizations are involved in container logistics, so the question arises to what extent planning and execution need to be coordinated. One journal paper compares on-line optimization and the use of intelligent agents in planning and execution of container transport (Mahr et al. 2010). Another journal paper considers the value of information in variants of the Traveling Salesman Problem (Srour and Zuidwijk 2010). This work was done when Ph.D. student Jordan Srour wrote her Ph.D. thesis with me on Dissecting (Container) Drayage (Srour 2010).

More recent work focuses on the role of information and new business models in container logistics. An example new business model is the Extended Gate concept (Veenstra and Zuidwijk 2012). The value of information in container logistics is studied in (Zuidwijk and Veenstra 2013).

Ph.D. student Panagiotis Ypsilantis is currently working on joint pricing and design of container logistics networks (Panagiotis and Zuidwijk 2013).

There are interesting similarities  between intermodal container transport and public transportation where in both cases, high capacity transport means need to coordinate demand of multiple customers, and where connections and transfers between modes need to be planned. I have been involved in some work on public transportation in this respect (Kroon et al. 2013).

Inter-organizational Information Systems in Logistics

We are interested in the use of inter-organizational information systems to support logistics processes in and around the port and in particular, intermodal transport. We did several case studies in the port (Nunen et al. 2005; Hillegersberg et al. 2006), and we edited a book (Baalen et al. 2008) that deals with port inter-organizational information systems and that contains a lot of case materials. Ph.D. student Irina Romochkina is currently working on the evaluation of IT services for logistics that are offered on port community platforms.

The role of intelligent agents representing distributed decision making in the allocation of resources to patients in the youth health care sector is being developed and presented in the conference papers (Giessen et al. 2009).

Early Mathematical Work

As a Ph.D. student, I worked on the topic of simultaneous similarity of matrices and linear operators, which is embedded in linear algebra and operator theory. From my Ph.D. thesis  (Zuidwijk 1994), two book chapters (Zuidwijk 1995; Zuidwijk 1997) and three journal papers (Zuidwijk 1997; Bart et al. 1998; Bart and Zuidwijk 1998) were distilled, some co-authored by my Ph.D. advisor Harm Bart. Related to the topic of my Ph.D. thesis, a book chapter (Bart and Zuidwijk 2001) was published. Further work related to my thesis, based on collaboration with Mark Malamud, resulted in two journal papers (Zuidwijk 1995; Malamud and Zuidwijk 2003).

The journal paper (Bart et al. 1998) also involved Leo Kroon as co-author, and the paper established a connection between the topic of my Ph.D. thesis and scheduling theory. In this manner, I got connected with the research group at the business school presently known as the Rotterdam School of Management (RSM). A more recent connection between the topic of my Ph.D. thesis and Operations Research can be found in the working paper (Zuidwijk 2005). Leo Kroon and I also wrote a book chapter on mathematical methods in planning (Kroon and Zuidwijk 2006).

A major part of the work of my Ph.D. thesis has been incorporated in the monograph on Factorization of Matrix and Operator Functions: The State Space Method by Harm Bart et al. (Bart et al., 2008).

Wavelets

As a post-doctoral researcher, I worked on the application of wavelets in seismic imaging, resulting in the journal publication (Zuidwijk 2000). The work inspired by research problems encountered in wavelet theory and applications, resulted in collaboration with Peter Zizler and Shigeru Arimoto, and in the publication of two journal papers (Zizler et al. 2002; Arimoto et al. 2004). This work has also been incorporated in the monograph by Albert Boettcher and Bernd Silbermann on the analysis of Toeplitz Operators (Boettcher and Silbermann, 2006).

Value of Information in Product Life Cycle Management

An important research stream at the Rotterdam School of Management concerns reverse logistics or closed loop supply chains, initiated by Luk Van Wassenhove and Jo van Nunen in the beginning of the 90’s. With several co-authors, I worked on the use of information systems in closed-loop supply chains resulting in two book chapters (Kokkinaki et al. 2004; Krikke et al. 2004) and a journal paper (Hillegersberg et al. 2001). We also developed a case study on reverse logistics in a book chapter (Zuidwijk et al. 2004).

I also considered the value of information in life cycle management with on emphasis on information retrieval in supply chains in collaboration with Jo van Nunen, Harold Krikke, and Ph.D. student Muhammad Jalil (Jalil et al. 2011). This line of work has resulted in a book chapter (Jalil et al. 2008) and four journal publications (Nunen and Zuidwijk 2004; Zuidwijk and Krikke 2008; Jalil et al. 2010; Dekker et al. 2013). Related work with Michael Ketzenberg has resulted in a journal paper on return policies (Ketzenberg and Zuidwijk 2009).