REPORT ON HEURISTICS SOLUTION
FOR COMPLEX CHEMICAL CARGOES

Contents

CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION 5 1.1 Background 5
CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW 7 2.1 Classification Scheme 7 2.2 Modes of shipping 7
CHAPTER 3 - APPLICATION AND MODEL 9 3.1 Description of the project 9 3.2 Objective of this project 10 3.3 Model Formulation 11 3.4 Mixed-integer Linear Programming Formulation 14
CHAPTER 4 - SOLUTION ALGORITHM 15 4.1 Problem complexity 15 4.2 Heuristic Algorithm 15 4.3 Test case 18
CHAPTER 5 - COMPUTATIONAL RESULT 21
CHAPTER 6 - CONCLUSION 24 6.1 Conclusion and Recommendation 24 6.2 Future Research 24
REFERENCES 26
APPENDIX B – Various ship routing and scheduling problem 29
APPENDIX C – Basic notation for this project 33

CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Logistics plays an integral role in companies dealing with tangible goods, both finished and semi-finished products. This ranges from electronic products to computer software and even liquid chemicals. Companies need to ensure their products reach their customers in the right quantity, at the right time and the lowest cost to maximize their profits. Logistics component of a company’s operation can be kept in house, if it is considered a key function; otherwise can be out sourced to an established logistics company, such as Federal Express (FedEx).

Goods can be delivered via air, sea or land freight. Long distance deliveries use mainly air or sea fright, with land fright deployed when distance is relatively short or as a transfer of cargoes to and from sea ports or airports to the pick-up points or delivery points.

Sea freight is the most common mode for transportation for long distance as compared to air freight, mainly due to cost. However, in the case of transporting of liquids, sea freight is perhaps the only mode for long distance. Tanker is the