The CIE (Computational Industrial Engineering) group is a successor to a research initiative taken in 2002 at the Fibre Science and Communications Network (FSCN), then labeled as the “FSCN Systems Analysis Group”. Later, the group was concentrated to the ITM department of MIUN and re-labeled as the “Risk and Decision Analysis Laboratory”, since the primary focus then was on theories, algorithms, and applications for and of computer-based decision analysis methods. Over the years and due to exchange of senior staff which broadened the scope of the group, new research directions emerged including the specific application areas of logistics management and systems engineering (although with an operational research and systems analysis approach). Therefore, the focus of the CIE group is on design and development of systems analysis and operational research methods facilitated in management real world systems, enabling utilization of more advanced analytical methods in business decision support. Our main concern is the development of applicable, computationally meaningful, and interactive methods for industrial management considering reasonable and equitable requirements on user inputs with respect to different business objectives (such as reducing costs, increasing revenues, reducing environmental impact and lowering of risks) expressed in various formats for business units or project appraisals. The research also aims to take into account the inherent uncertainty and imprecision in such appraisals. Methodologically, the group focuses on development and industrial applications of:
- Linear, dynamic, integer and mixed integer programming
- Stochastic programming and real options
- Queuing theory and discrete Event Simulation
- Multi-objective optimization
- Multi-criteria decision analysis
- Quantitative risk analysis
- Data Envelopment Analyses
- Systems modelling and a mix of the approaches above in integrated modeling efforts.
Current projects
- Several PhD projects within the forest industrial research colleague. More information is available on the FORIC homepage http://www.miun.se/foric
- Cooperation with University of Guilan in stochastic models for the forestry supply chain
- Pre study with the Sundsvall Logistikpark on the value of flexibility in publicly owned firms
- SOS Alarm: PhD project based on a former bachelor student project, industrial engineering and management, connected to the risk and crisis research center (RCR) and in cooperation with researchers in computer engineering at MIUN.
- Swedish Energy Agency: Preference modelling for aggregation of stakeholder priorities in the case of power shortage
Finalized projects
- Intermodal logistics (decision support for matching of freight transportation considering cost, emission, and time conflicts) – Necl II, Interbaltic and Necl, EU Baltic sea programme. Necl II homepage www.midnordictc.net
- Cooperation in forest management with University of Guilan (STINT financed part ended although cooperation are ongoing)
- Urban and traffic planning (portfolio decision analysis with conflicting objectives and multiple stakeholders)
- International mining industry action (decision support for categorization of contaminated land and for quality management purposes)
- Environmental and emergency management (multi-criteria decision analysis of flood risk management strategies and evaluation of actions for improving water quality in city stream)
- District heating (modeling of risk premiums for evaluation of new pricing strategies)
- Optimization of Video memory allocation (Several articles in cooperation with electrical engineering at STC)
- Optimization of forest road investments and the forestry supply chain (Leifs PhD project at FSCN)
Associate professors
Senior lecturer
PhD students
FSCN, Foric
Magnus Larsson, Skogforsk (Leif Olsson, main supervisor)
Jonas Johansson, SCA Timber (Leif Olsson, main supervisor)
Alexander Hedlund, Frontway (Olof, Björkqvist, Leif Olsson and Aron Larsson, assistant supervisors)
Anna Karin Stengaard, Sundsvall Energy (Olof Björkqvist, Leif Olsson and Aron Larsson, assistant supervisors)
Information of these projects are available here: Link to projects
PhD students within FORIC have financing from the KK foundation and from the companies and all started their projects in January 2015.
RCR
Klas Gustafsson, SOS Alarm (Leif Olsson, main supervisor), financed by SOS Alarm, cooperation with computer engineering
Information Systems, RCR
Leif Sundberg, (Aron Larsson, assistant supervisor), faculty financed
International cooperation, PhD
Majid Zadmiraei Soleimandarabi, Forestry department, University of Guilan
(Leif Olsson, assistant supervisor)- visit until april 2016, finance by the Iranian Government
Zohreh Mohammadi, Forestry department, University of Guilan
(Leif Olsson, assistant supervisor)
Connection to study programmes and courses
The group has teaching within the master programme in industrial engineering and management. Link in Swedish below:
https://www.miun.se/utbildning/program/teknik/civilingenjor-i-industriell-ekonomi/om-programmet
The teaching is mainly within the area of operations research and management sciences at later years of this study programme and for PhD students using these methods.
Cooperation within MIUN
The CIE group has cooperation mainly with the research centers FSCN and RCR and is subject wise part of the information systems research area. However, cooperation has been frequent with researchers in computer- and electrical engineering connected to STC (Sensible Things that Communicate) over the years.