EURO 2024 Copenhagen
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4345. Renault Group Packaging Return Logistics in Europe

Invited abstract in session MC-2: EEPA, stream EURO Excellence in Practice Award.

Monday, 12:30-14:00
Room: Glassalen (building: 101)

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Louis Bouvier
CERMICS, Ecole des Ponts ParisTech
2. Thaddeus Leonard
Renault Group
3. Guillaume Dalle
IdePHICS, INDY & SPOC labs, EPFL
4. Axel Parmentier
CERMICS, Ecole des Ponts ParisTech

Abstract

This project emerged from a collaboration between the CERMICS laboratory and Renault Group. Their challenge: optimizing reverse empty-packaging logistics for car parts transportation from suppliers to plants. Spanning an entire continent, this multi-attribute inventory routing problem (IRP) involves 30 commodities, 16 depots, and 600 customers—far surpassing existing literature instances. Traditional IRP algorithms do not scale, so we propose a large neighborhood search (LNS). Our approach involves three key steps: (1) generalizing split delivery vehicle routing and IRP neighborhoods, (2) adapting a matheuristic for medium-scale IRP into a large neighborhood, and (3) introducing novel perturbations like customer and commodity reinsertion. Additionally, we establish a new lower bound based on flow relaxation. To foster large-scale IRP research, we release an industrial instance library and open-source our code. Rigorous numerical experiments validate the effectiveness of each LNS component.
The industrialization of our LNS, coupled with robust change management, has yielded substantial benefits. At Renault, we have achieved a 4−5% reduction in packaging logistics costs per vehicle produced, a 50% decrease in packaging shortages at suppliers, and a 10% reduction in CO2 equivalent transport emissions for 2023. These gains translate to millions of euros saved and kilotons of emissions reduced annually.

Keywords

Status: accepted

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