The Biscayan firm, together with Tecnalia, is developing three challenges to optimise container transport, delivery of goods and warehouse management.

Can quantum technology provide solutions to combinatorial optimisation problems in the logistics sector?

Erhardt Serikat, the technology company of the Erhardt group, has opted for this and has just presented innovative solutions to optimise transport, delivery and storage. Thus, together with the Tecnalia technology centre, it has set itself three challenges to apply new quantum technologies to solve problems raised in the logistics sector.

The first challenge is known as the 3D 'bin packing' problem. The objective is to minimise the number of containers or trucks to transport a number of packages of different dimensions, weights, fragility...

The objective of the second challenge is to minimise the cost of carrying out a road delivery at different points.

Optimising storage space and subsequent handling time in a warehouse is the third challenge.

To work on these problems, the Basque firm has had to go beyond current cutting-edge technology and formulate these problems mathematically, considering that each of them has a set of restrictions to meet.

To date, they have developed the first two use cases and are carrying out tests with real data, taking advantage of historical data from Erhardt Ertransit operations, a freight forwarding company belonging to the Erhardt Logistics division, the company representative acknowledges.

They are developing a Service (SaaS) that centralises control management, automates the collection of evidence, integrates tools and offers agile and simple implementation and adaptability; guaranteeing efficiency, security and compliance for organisations.

In addition, they have a ‘Venture Client’ service that allows them to tackle very complex challenges in a short time, by applying a methodology and permanent contact with an ecosystem of startups at an international level.

The Basque firm works for sectors such as energy, renewable energy, industry, public administration, finance, agri-food, fashion, logistics and tourism.