LogisticsLab: An academic software for decision-making in logistics

Abstract

Logistical decision problems are a part of many courses in the field of logistics, management and operations research. It makes sense to illustrate these optimisation problems using case studies, which can be reproduced by students using suitable software. Often, solver add-ins in spreadsheets programs or general optimisation software are used, which on the one hand requires a high level of knowledge in Operations Research and on the other hand does not always allow an intuitive approach. This article describes the academic software LogisticsLab with which the distributors tie in with the idea of interactive decision support systems to systematically combine the experiences and intuitions of human decision-makers with the possibilities of computer-assisted modelling and optimisation of a wide range of logistical decisions.