Careers Students Article - A Master’s Thesis on Parcel Network Optimization

Working with students is important and rewarding for us, as innovation and insights are born at the interfaces where different talents meet. In practice, this means, for example, active project cooperation and offering internships and thesis work to students. Thesis work can lead to new opportunities for cooperation, as was the case for Juuso Leskinen, who graduated in May 2021 from Aalto University with a degree in engineering. He did his thesis for Posti and was then able to continue his studies in an internship working on new optimization challenges.

Juuso Leskinen studied in Aalto University's Master's Program in Automation and Electrical Engineering, majoring in Control, Robotics and Autonomous Systems. In 2020, Juuso took part in the Seminar on Case Studies in Operations Research, a project course based on business cooperation, where he was assigned to solve a project for Posti related to optimization of the parcel network. "After the project, I got the opportunity to write my thesis for Posti, and the topic was the further development of the optimization model developed in the project. The exact research questions were defined in the early stages of the collaboration with Posti's experts," Juuso explains the background to his work.

Juuso's thesis was about optimizing the parcel network of a logistics service provider. As a result of his work, he created a new model to optimize the sorting and transport of parcels in Posti's parcel network. The new optimization model plans the sorting and transport of parcels taking into account the origin and destination of the products, the delivery time promises of the product and the costs of the process. The thesis modelled the variation of the costs of the parcel network under different scenarios where the delivery reliability is increased, or the number of parcels increases.

Thanks to the highly successful project, Juuso was able to continue working on the same topic at Posti after completing his thesis. He is currently working as an intern in Posti's analytics team and feels that the experience gained in his thesis will be useful in his current tasks. "While working on my diploma thesis, I also got to know the working environment. It was a good introduction to working at Posti. In addition, the subject of the thesis supports my current work, as I have also been able to develop another optimization model at Posti", Juuso describes the benefits of the thesis.

According to Juuso, the thesis process taught him, among other things, scientific research skills, accuracy in writing and project management skills. The independent management of a large project gave him a lot of useful experience in planning and implementing the project. "The work was very independent. I was supported whenever I needed and asked for it, but I also had to be able to critically evaluate the work myself, as I did not receive constant feedback. However, I think this is a normal part of doing a thesis. It's where you learn to work independently," says the newly graduated engineer, shedding light on the lessons learned from the process.

What advice would Juuso give to those interested in doing their thesis for Posti?

"My experience of working on my thesis at Posti was positive. I was given enough time to do the work and received support from my colleagues whenever I needed it. The thesis was a good introduction to working at Posti. So, if you would like to work at Posti in the future, doing a thesis can be a good route to that." Juuso recommends.

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