About SOLA

UM6P Center for Sustainable Operations & Logistics in Africa

The UM6P Center for Sustainable Operations and Logistics in Africa (SOLA), within Africa Business School, focuses on analysis, modelling, and optimization of complex decision problems related to the design and planning of operations and logistics in a modern global economy, with the aim of supporting Africa’s public and private organizations in the achievement of their development and sustainability objectives.

A primary goal of SOLA is to develop innovative sustainability-driven solutions through practice-based research, directly impacting African economies and socio-ecological ecosystems. Research findings feed directly into executive learning programs that strengthen the skills of decision-makers to create sustainable value and transform their organizations in an ever-changing and uncertain environment. SOLA strives to train PhD students in Operations Research and Operations Management and expose them to projects from various manufacturing and service industries, such as mining, chemicals, energy, airline, healthcare, among others. SOLA’s researchers will be able to develop realistic models and tailored solution procedures and algorithms for complex problems in operations and logistics, as well as conduct sustainability, economical and operational analyses for better decision-making.

Faculty Members

Mohammed Kharbach
Affiliate professor

Mohammed Kharbach is a Professor of Practice in Energy Business & Sustainability. By training, he is a Mechanical Engineer with an MSc in Energy, Environmental and Mineral Economics and an MSc in Applied Statistics in along with a PhD in Management Sciences. He worked as a Gas Strategy Advisor with ADNOC, a Commercial Manager with Emirates LNG/Mubadala, Head of gas supply and logistics with Dolphin Energy and a Senior Economist with the power and water planner in Abu Dhabi. His main research interests are focused on applied energy, water and regulatory economics.

Nabil Absi
Affiliate professor

Nabil Absi is an Affiliate Professor at the Africa Business School, Mohammed IV Polytechnic University (Morocco), and a Full Professor serving as Head of the Department of Manufacturing Sciences and Logistics at the Ecole des Mines de Saint-Etienne (France). He holds a PhD in Operations Research from Université Pierre et Marie Curie and a Habilitation à Diriger des Recherche from Université Jean Monnet. His primary research area focuses on discrete optimization, with applications to supply chain planning and transportation. He has supervised twelve successfully defended PhD theses and is currently supervising five ongoing PhD theses. He serves as an associate editor for INFOR and 4OR Journals and holds the position of president of the French Operations Research Society (ROADEF). He is expert for several research agencies, including ANR, CNCS, CSF, FQRNT, and the European Commission. He has authored more than 50 papers in peer-reviewed international journals such as Transportation Science and European Journal of Operational Research, in addition to contributing hundreds of articles and communications to conferences. Nabil Absi has participated in numerous projects funded by ANR, FUI, ADEME, PREDIT, ANRT, CNRS and industrial partners.

Tarik Aouam
Director of SOLA center

Tarik Aouam is Director of SOLA center and Professor of Operations Research and Operations Management at Africa Business School, Mohammed IV Polytechnic University (Morocco) and Ghent University (Belgium). He received his PhD in Operations Research from Purdue University (USA) and holds a Master’s degree in Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Kansas State University (USA). His research interests are on the optimization of operations and supply chain systems. He relies on his Operations Research background to develop models and algorithms for coordinating production and logistics decisions within firms and across supply chains. Tarik has supervised several PhD and Post-Doctoral students on funded research projects related to production management and logistics. He has published more than 50 articles in leading operations journals, including Operations Research, European Journal of Operational Research, Omega, International Journal of Production Economics, and others. Tarik has taught various Operations Management, Operations Research, and Management Science courses at several universities in Europe, USA, and within the MENA region. He has also worked in the Airline and Semiconductor industries in the USA.

Ilyas Himmich
Affiliate professor

Ilyas Himmich is assistant professor at the National Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics (INSEA-Morocco) and an Affiliate Professor at the UM6P center for Sustainable Operations and Logistics in Africa (SOLA). He is a researcher in combinatorial optimization, dynamic programming and column generation. His academic education began at INSEA, where he obtained an engineering degree in operational research in 2012, followed by a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Polytechnique Montréal in 2018. Post-Ph.D., he broadened his expertise through postdoctoral positions at UM6P and the University of Montreal. Ilyas Himmich’s research has contributed to advancing transportation optimization, production planning and scheduling, and supply chain management. In 2021, he joined INSEA as an assistant professor, then became an Affiliate Professor at SOLA, focusing on the development of sustainable and efficient optimization solutions for real-world complex production and logistics problems.