South Africa Conference & Workshop
Sandton Sun Hotel 1 – 4 March 2011
Presenter Biographies
FACILITATORS:
Prof. Carel Bezuidenhout – University of Kwazulu Natal
Resume:
Professor Carel Bezuidenhout is a Research Fellow of the South African Sugarcane Research Institute employed in the School of Bioresources Engineering and Environmental Hydrology at the University of KwaZulu Natal. His main research interests involve a complex systems approach in the diagnostics and improvement of the logistics, transport and overall sugarcane supply chain. Has also works in the timber industry. Over the past decade he has supervised at least 16 MSc and 7 PhD students in these fields.
Prof. Bezuidenhout has enjoyed the following successes:
- Our research initiatives lead to the later development of a large scale commercial vehicle scheduling system. This system has been implemented in the sugar and coal industries.
- Several infrastructure changes (such as new roads and loading zones) have been made in cane production areas to improve system efficiencies.
- Currently more than 20 abnormal PBS vehicles operate in the forestry industry.
- A national scale climate-based production forecasting system was developed and has been operational in the sugar industry since 2001.
- Research concerning a sugarcane brush cutter lead to the development of the commercialised cane thumper harvesting machine.
Projects Prof Bezuidenhout and the UKZN have been involved in:
- Integrated sugarcane supply and production systems improvement (2010-2011/ SASRI/ NRF-THRIP).
- Sugarcane vehicle loading improvement guidelines (2010-2011/DoT, SASRI).
- Sugarcane supply chain decision support systems (2007-2011/CSIR).
- Development of performance based standard (PBS) transport vehicles (2008-2011/CSIR,SASRI,DoT).
- Sugarcane supply chain diagnostics project (2008-2009/SASRI).
- Development of a sugarcane brush cutter (2006-2007/SASRI/Illovo/Okapi).
- Sugarcane harvest schedule optimisation (2008-2010/Univ of Borås/Univ of Stellenbosch).
- Transport vehicle schedule optimisation and agent-based simulations (2006-2010/DoT, SASRI).
- Transport infrastructure routing and planning (2005-2009/DoT, SASRI).
- Development of a sugarcane production atlas (2007-2008/SASRI/NRF-THRIP).
- Coupled models of sugarcane supply planning and logistics (2006-2007/CIRAD/NRF/DoT/SASRI).