Energy-Aware Intralogistics for Sustainable Supply Chain

The project will develop methods, models, and decision-support tools that enable energy consumption in intralogistics processes to be incorporated as a new performance dimension and KPI framework for sustainable supply chain design and management.

The proposed approach will integrate intralogistics energy modelling with supply chain network design, allowing energy performance to be considered alongside cost, emissions, capacity utilisation, inventory allocation, and transport mode selection.

Main objectives and activities include:

• mapping the structure of selected types of supply chains in order to analyse cargo flows across the entire logistics system;

• identifying the processes and key factors determining energy consumption in logistics and intralogistics operations, including the volume and structure of flows, facility layout and spatial configuration, internal transport and storage technologies, and the level of automation;

• developing parametric models of energy consumption in intralogistics processes, enabling energy demand to be estimated as a function of operational scale, flow characteristics, technology, infrastructure configuration, and the utilisation patterns of handling, transport, and storage equipment;

• analysing the carbon footprint and emissions generated by intralogistics processes as a function of their energy intensity and energy sources;

• assessing the impact of operational scale and capacity utilisation of logistics facilities on their unit energy consumption, including the identification of economies and diseconomies of scale resulting from the concentration or dispersion of cargo flows across warehouses, distribution centres, and intermodal terminals;

• modelling the energy consequences of routing cargo flows through alternative warehouses, distribution centres, logistics hubs, and intermodal terminals, thereby assessing how logistics network configuration and routing decisions affect the overall energy performance of the supply chain;

• integrating intralogistics energy models with supply chain design models so that the energy performance of warehouses, distribution centres, and intermodal terminals can be explicitly considered already at the supply chain design stage;

• developing energy-aware intralogistics models for supply chain design supporting the simultaneous selection of facility locations and types, allocation of cargo flows and inventories, and selection of transport modes;

• analysing the impact of logistics network centralisation and decentralisation, as well as freight consolidation strategies, on total energy consumption, costs, emissions, utilisation of warehouses and terminals, and the modal split of freight transport;

• developing a set of decision-support tools for energy-aware intralogistics and sustainable supply chain design, enabling stakeholders to evaluate alternative logistics network configurations and operational strategies from energy, environmental, and economic perspectives.