Who's behind it

Principal Engineer 1 - PS

BSc(Eng), University of Pretoria
BSc(Eng)(Hons), Potchefstroom University

Capability Statement: Development of VRP-Related Software

PS’s career has focused on using software, mathematical modelling and optimisation to solve real-world engineering and business problems, particularly in the fields of process control and optimisation.

Over several decades, he has developed and implemented a large number of software solutions for industrial applications. An exact count would be difficult to establish, but the number is probably in the thousands.

One of the highlights of his software development career was the development, from first principles, of an industrial-strength Model Predictive Controller (MPC). The software was subsequently applied to more than 100 industrial applications. Two of the most successful applications each contributed more than R500 million per year to the customer’s bottom-line profitability.

Following the successful commercialisation of the MPC technology, PS received an unsolicited offer for the software and associated intellectual property. The technology was subsequently sold.

PS later led the Intelligent Routing venture, which focused on vehicle routing and optimisation. This provided substantial practical experience in Vehicle Routing Problems (VRP) and, in particular, in the open-source Java-based jsprit VRP framework.

During this period, PS developed significant modifications and enhancements to the standard jsprit algorithms. This gave him practical experience not only in using VRP optimisation software, but in understanding and modifying the underlying optimisation mechanisms.

Since then, the Python-based pyVRP library has developed considerably and is now a strong modern alternative to the jsprit implementation. PS’s focus, however, is not on ownership of a particular VRP solver. His strength lies in applying optimisation technology to real-world problems and in developing the surrounding modelling, constraints, algorithms, data handling and software integration required to turn an optimisation engine into a practical solution.

Principal Engineer 2 DP

Vaal University of Technology (VUT) Higher National Diploma in Engineering (HNDE), Electrical Engineering

Global leadership experience. Held positions in Honeywell Process Solutions as:

1. Project Operations Director for Europe, Middle East, Africa, Hungary, Poland, Turkey and Russia. Annual revenue US$900M+.
2. Global Engineering Director responsible for engineers in approximately 50 countries and the technical execution of automation projects globally.
3. General Manager/VP for Asia Pacific, including China, India, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Australia. Responsible for an annual P&L of US$330M+.

Operational experience. Project Lead Engineer, responsible for moving all automation work to the cloud so that engineers across the world could collaboratively build large automation solutions in an integrated manner. Moved on to project management.

Software experience. Started with punch cards on the Sasol Secunda Factory Monitoring System, later using Process Assembler and then Fortran. Built the first dynamic Operator Training Simulator at Sasol using an HP computer, Unix and Pascal. Later created process control solutions in C and C++, and has now returned to Python after many years in management.

Other. In 1990 DP co-founded Industrial Control Solutions with a total of four employees. Through organic growth and amalgamations, the company grew to 104 engineers with offices in South Africa and the UK. Flagship customers were Unilever, SAPREF, Sappi, Yokogawa Marex and British Cable and Wireless.