Simulating Physical Internet Enabled Distribution Webs
Résumé
What if instead of packing products in pallets and boxes of different size, shapes and materials, they are packed in smart, standardized, and modular containers? What if these containers are the only unit loads dealt with by transportation systems and logistics facilities? What if the storage and distribution facilities, regardless of which company they belong to, are open to receive, handle, and store containers from any other company? The Physical Internet suggests that if such a context exists, it enables a Logistics Web that will contribute to address the problem of the economic, environmental, and social inefficiency and unsustainability resulting from the way physical entities are currently moved, handled, stored, supplied, realized and used across the world. In this paper, we report on research aiming to enable the exploration of the potential of such a Logistics Web through simulation based investigation. The research is anchored around a collaborative French-Canada-Switzerland project aiming to assess the potential of altering the French distribution system for fast-moving consumer goods from its cur-rent state towards a Physical Internet enabled France-wide open logistics web. This web is notably comprised of an open mobility web and an open distribution web. Specifically, we focus on the design challenges associated with architecting and developing a large-scale agent-based simulator enabling the French Logistics Web experiment.