INESC TEC starts another project with Brazilian university

INESC TEC’s Industrial Management and Engineering Unit (UGEI) has recently started a project with the University of São Paulo, Brazil, in the area of industrial production and sustainability.

Entitled “Industrial Production and Sustainability: an approach to optimisation models”, this project is the result of an R&D cooperation agreement between the University of Porto, through UGEI, and the University of São Paulo.

Production systems are under a lot of pressure as a result of two goals that are critical for businesses to survive: cost reduction and sustainability. The aim with this project is to model and solve practical problems in this context using the experience of both Portuguese and Brazilian working teams.

The reasoning behind this project is to increase the quality of the production planning that can be obtained through mathematical models/optimisation, using more practical requirements in abstract planning models and algorithms (including risk and perishability), and integrating various problems and objectives, usually treated separately, such as sustainability, whose importance has been growing. The selected problems were sizing production lots and minimising wastes when using raw materials (Nesting). This choice is justified by the history of cooperation between the research teams, and the scientific and practical importance of the problems addressed here.

The UGEI team includes Bernardo Almada-Lobo (Manager), José Fernando Oliveira, Maria Antónia Carravilla, Pedro Amorim and Luís Guimarães.

The INESC TEC researchers mentioned in this article are associated with the following partner institution: FEUP.