Beyond Centralized Decision-Making: Bilevel Optimization in Supply Chain and Logistics

Speaker: José-Fernando Camacho-Vallejo Abstract: Supply chain and logistics problems are often modeled under the assumption of centralized decision-making. However, many real-world systems involve multiple actors with different objectives, responsibilities, and levels of authority, naturally giving rise to hierarchical decision structures. This talk explores how bilevel optimization can capture these interactions and discusses the additional challenges that emerge when realistic features are incorporated. Particular attention is given to multiobjective settings and combinatorial lower-level problems, where evaluating a leader’s decision may require repeatedly solving computationally difficult optimization problems. Through selected applications in supply chain and logistics, the talk discusses modeling and solution approaches for these problems, as well as emerging opportunities for learning-assisted optimization to reduce the computational burden of lower-level evaluations. Bio: José-Fernando Camacho-Vallejo is an Associate Research Professor at the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department in Tecnológico de Monterrey. Fernando is a Level II member of the Mexican System of Researchers and a regular member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences. Additionally, he served as the president of the Mexican Society of Operations Research from 2020 to 2022. He is chair of the Latin-Iberoamerican Association of Operations Research (ALIO) Working Group on Bilevel Optimization, co-chair of the IEEE Task Force on Bilevel Evolutionary Optimization, the current Vice President of ALIO, and member of the Administrative Committee of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies (IFORS). He is Area Editor for “Operations Research: Deterministic Models” at the prestigious journal Computers \& Industrial Engineering. He has supervised 7 PhD dissertations, 13 master’s theses, and 4 postdoctoral research stays.