Multi-Origin GIS Routing for Supply Chains and Logistics in Public Agencies, Municipalities, and Construction 4.0

A Multi-Origin GIS Routing Web Tool is presented with the goal of facilitating GIS analytics for supply chain and logistics decision support for built assets. The tool routes multiple origins to a given destination, plots routes, and calculates travel distances. The tool is easy to use for non-experts, and it is free to use within limits and open source. The tool comes in two forms, including a highly portable web application with a GIS interface and a programmable API that can be integrated into existing programming, analytics, and optimization environments. The Multi-Origin GIS routing tool is built on existing open-source technologies in web-app mapping and GIS analysis, and makes them accessible for non-expert users who do not have the required software development or GIS domain knowledge. The tool provides a higher level of spatial analytics than other web-based tools such as Google Maps, MapQuest, or Bing Maps, without any of the complexity and domain knowledge required to use GIS software such as ArcGIS or QGIS. The tool allows public agencies and municipalities to use GIS analytics to resolve supply chain and logistics challenges while conserving public funds and remaining market-impartial. A case study is presented to show how cost vs. distance traveled analytics can be used for decision support in an AEC project using this tool. The case study results showed optimal supplier choices in terms of both distance and cost, with the trade-offs being clearly visible should a balanced solution be desired. The resulting routing is identical to routing that can be obtained through GIS software; however, the degree of difficulty is much lower, the approach does not require layer data preparation, and the results are summarily presented in an intuitive and easy-to-interpret manner that does not require in-depth examination. In addition, the tool is free for general use cases, which, compared to commercial logistics or research-oriented software, makes it highly attractive to organizations and projects where digitization is at low levels and budgets are limited. This tool represents an important first step in BIM-GIS integration in the low digitization environment of North American AEC and public asset management. Further development will be required to achieve bidirectional information exchange between BIM and GIS, IoT integration, and digital twin functionality. IoT sensor data incorporation, in particular, will enable full two-way data exchange between digital models and physical assets and enable digital twin functionality for logistics operations.