A Study on the Optimization of Fleet Operation for Industrial Carriers

인더스트리얼 캐리어를 위한 선대운영의 최적화에 관한 연구

There are three basic modes of operation of ships: liner, tramp and industrial operations. Industrial operations, where the owner of the cargo, i.e. the industrial carrier controls the ships, abound in the shipment of bulk commodities, such as oil, chemicals and ores. Industrial carriers strive to minimize the shipping cost of their cargoes. This paper is concerned with the operational optimization problem of a fleet owned by major international oil company. The major oil company is a holding corporation for a group of oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing companies located in various countries throughout the world. The operational optimization problem of the fleet is divided into two-phases. The front end corresponds to the optimization of transporting crude oil, product mix, and the distribution of product oil to meet market demand. The back end tackles the operational optimization problem of the fleet to meet the transportation demand derived from the front end. A case study is carried out with the H major oil company problem composed by reflecting the practices of an international major oil company. The results are summarized and examined in the point of optimization for the total operation of the H major oil company and the operational optimization problem of the fleet. The paper concludes with the remark that the results of the study might be useful and applicable in practices of these related decision problems.