Dr Andrew Higgins

Andrew is a Senior Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO, based in Brisbane with core skills in operations research and transport optimisation. He joined CSIRO in 1996, after receiving a PhD from Queensland University of Technology, with a passion in developing novel methods to optimise agriculture logistics to increase profitability across the supply chains. Andrew worked closely with various Australian agriculture industries (including sugar, beef) for over 15 years, improving seasonal and operational planning across all segments between farming and marketing. From 1997 to 2007, Andrew’s team developed computer based tools for the Australian sugar industry to: optimise harvest schedules to maximise sugar production; optimise the logistics between harvesting and transport to improve efficiencies; and improve the distribution of refined sugar between mills, port storage and shipping.

Since 2012, he recently led the development of Transport Network Strategic Investment Tool (TraNSIT), which is a spatial model for simulating transport cost benefits from infrastructure investments (road upgrades, use of rail versus road, processing and storage facilities) and policy interventions in agriculture logistics. It holistically estimates the transport benefits across the freight network, by analysing every possible vehicle and rail trip, and optimising routes between all enterprises in the supply network. His application to all Australia livestock transport has shown significant cost savings at some locations. Further information can be found on www.csiro.au/TraNSIT.

His broader science interests include:
• Modelling and optimising complex industry and infrastructure systems, particularly with transport planning and logistics, agriculture supply chains, water grids, river flow control infrastructure and intermodal transport.
• Extending the concepts in value chains and its associated analysis methodologies to address broader sustainability and resilience issues.
• Developing innovative decision support tools for land use planning, energy and water resource management, accommodating the spatial and stochastic nature of the problem.
• Developing pathways leading to implementation of models and optimal/ alternative solutions so that the benefits are delivered to industry and the community.
• Developing new solution techniques for very large scale and complex industry/logistics planning problems not previously solved.