Are you interested in adapting techniques from artificial intelligence to support people who make supply chain plans in practice? Do you like the idea of working with techniques like data mining, process mining, planning heuristics and reinforcement learning? We are looking for a PhD student in Information Systems and Operations Management with a focus on those topics.

Job description
Supply chain planning involves planning the production of finished products and the procurement of the materials needed to produce them, in the most efficient, customer friendly and environmentally friendly way possible. One of the challenges of supply chain planning is that, during the execution of the plan, it must often be adapted. For example, because parts are delivered late or because production is delayed. This leads to changes to the plan that are often ad-hoc and suboptimal, and cause planning 'nervousness', i.e. frequent planning changes. Consequently, supply chain planning can benefit from planning techniques that assist with the day-to-day adaptations of the supply chain plan.

To address this challenge, this project works on combining techniques from the area of data mining and process mining and the area of planning and optimization. On the one hand, those techniques are used to mine the complex dependencies between the different production and procurement activities. On the other hand, the mined relations are used to determine real-time solutions for ad-hoc planning problems.

You, as a successful applicant, will perform research on the project outlined above in an international research team. You will report research findings at international conferences and workshops, and in high-quality scientific journals.  The research will be concluded with a PhD thesis. A small teaching load (on average about 10%) is part of the job description.

The project will be supervised by Remco Dijkman and Willem van Jaarsveld. You will be based in the Information Systems group in the faculty of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences. The PhD position is funded by EAISI (Eindhoven Institute of Artificial Intelligence Systems) and the ESCF (European Supply Chain Forum), so that collaboration will also involve AI researchers from other disciplines and people from the practice of supply chain management.

This PhD project is part of the AI PLANNER OF THE FUTURE program. This ambitious research program is hosted by the TU/e-based Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences and is supported by the European Supply Chain Forum, Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences, the Eindhoven Artificial Intelligence Systems Institute, and the Logistics Community Brabant. The program connects to the different communities, moonshots strategic agendas and the themes of each of these supporting partners. It combines 25 researchers, 10 PhD students and over 50 Bachelor and Master students, for the coming five years (2021-2026). This AI PLANNER OF THE FUTURE program considers the explicit intertwining of technical and human elements in the context of AI planning for supply chains and logistics, considering all relevant performance indicators (people, profit, and the planet).

The AI PLANNER OF THE FUTURE program
This ambitious research program is hosted by the TU/e-based Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences and is supported by the European Supply Chain Forum, Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences, the Eindhoven Artificial Intelligence Systems Institute, and the Logistics Community Brabant. The program connects to the different communities, moonshots strategic agendas and the themes of each of these supporting partners. It combines 25 researchers, 10 PhD students and over 50 Bachelor and Master students, for the coming five years (2021-2026). This AI PLANNER OF THE FUTURE program considers the explicit intertwining of technical and human elements in the context of
AI planning for supply chains and logistics, considering all relevant performance indicators
(people, profit, and the planet).

The following 10 individual PhD projects are embedded in this program. We are looking for
PhD candidates from a broad range of disciplines ranging from operations research and management, supply chain management, statistics, ethics, cognivite psychology, artificial intelligence, etc.

Project 1: Learning about Customers: Demand Implications of Logistics-Related Decision-Making in B2B, Gelper, Mutlu, Langerak  https://jobs.tue.nl/en/vacancy/phd-on-marketingoperations-interface-878156.html

Project 2: Context matters: optimizing shared decision making in real-world forecasting and inventory management, Le Blanc, van de Calseyde, Ulfert  https://jobs.tue.nl/en/vacancy/phd-on-humanai-collaboration-at-work-878192.html

Project 3: AI-Based Replenishment and Order Fulfillment Strategies for Omnichannel Supply Chains, Atan , Schrotenboer, Van Woensel  https://jobs.tue.nl/en/vacancy/phd-on-aibased-replenishment-order-fulfillment-strategies-for-supply-chains-878193.html

Project 4: Robust data-driven sustainable food supply chain, Marandi, Rohmer,
Van Woensel  https://jobs.tue.nl/en/vacancy/phd-in-%E2%80%98datadriven-approaches-towards-robust-and-sustainable-cold-chains%E2%80%99-878195.html

Project 5: Digital Twins: An ingenious AI companion or an evil twin?, Raassens, Schepers, Van Woensel https://jobs.tue.nl/en/vacancy/phd-in-ai-and-digital-twinning-878197.html

Project 6: AI for sustainable last-mile delivery by micromobility: a socio-technical perspective, Behrendt, Alkemade  https://jobs.tue.nl/en/vacancy/ai-for-sustainable-lastmile-delivery-by-micromobility-878198.html

Project 7 (Extra: 0.5 EAISI startup package + 0.5 ESCF): Data-driven Optimization using Digital Twins for Sustainable Last-Mile Delivery, Zhang, Bliek, Van Woensel
https://jobs.tue.nl/en/vacancy/phd-on-datadriven-optimization-for-sustainable-lastmile-delivery-878199.html

Project 8: Online Supply Chain Planning, Dijkman, Van Jaarsveld
PhD in Information Systems/Business Intelligence

Project 9: From feared competitor to trusted companion: understanding and enhancing trust in AI over time, Snijder, Rooks, Willemsen  https://jobs.tue.nl/en/vacancy/phd-on-humanai-collaboration-in-the-workplace-trust-in-ai-over-time-878201.html

Project 10: Widening the frame: Rational choice beyond a given utility function, Müller 
https://jobs.tue.nl/en/vacancy/phd-on-%E2%80%9Cimproving-automated-rational-choice-through-metacognition%E2%80%9D-878202.html

• You have a Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, AI, Information Systems, Industrial Engineering, or a similar field of study.
• You have a strong affinity with interdisciplinary research.
• You can work on a challenging topic that has both fundamental and applied research aspects.
• You can implement ideas in software prototypes.
• Your communication skills are excellent as is your proficiency in English and your ability to collaborate in an international setting.

• A meaningful job in a dynamic and ambitious university with the possibility to present your work at international conferences.
• A full-time employment for four years, with an intermediate evaluation (go/no-go) after nine months.
• To develop your teaching skills, you will spend 10% of your employment on teaching tasks.
• To support you during your PhD and to prepare you for the rest of your career, you will make a Training and Supervision plan and you will have free access to a personal development program for PhD students (PROOF program).
• A gross monthly salary and benefits (such as a pension scheme, pregnancy and maternity leave, partially paid parental leave) in accordance with the Collective Labor Agreement for Dutch Universities.
• Additionally, an annual holiday allowance of 8% of the yearly salary, plus a year-end allowance of 8.3% of the annual salary.
• Should you come from abroad and comply with certain conditions, you can make use of the so-called '30% facility', which permits you not to pay tax on 30% of your salary.
• A broad package of fringe benefits, including an excellent technical infrastructure, moving expenses, and savings schemes.
• Family-friendly initiatives are in place, such as an international spouse program, and excellent on-campus children day care and sports facilities.