PI-Container Flow Optimization in a Physical Internet Network

Traditional supply chain models, although once effective, are now confronted with significant challenges that span economic, environmental, and societal aspects. Addressing these challenges needs innovative solutions, and the Physical Internet (PI) emerges as a promising paradigm. This article develops a model for integrating Physical Internet (PI, <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\pi$</tex>) principles to optimize the routing in a Physical Internet network. This study focuses on Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) and the encapsulation of PI-containers for their flow optimization. The model is formulated as a multi-objective approach in order to optimize both of transportation costs and the free space left inside the PIcontainers. The proposed model is tested using different solvers for both mono and multi-objective cases.