Abstract: We introduce a new optimization model to maximize the total profit of a harbor logistic company on a given time horizon. The company has some local providers who supply it by scrap-metal materials of different qualities. The materials are manufactured into the high quality product and exported to abroad by heterogeneous fleet of ships. Company can send at most one ship per day. The total demand for the product is known in advance according to a contract. The company has to pay to providers according to piecewise linear prices, transportation cost to deliver all materials to depot in harbor by vehicles (own or rented), keeping cost in depot, manufacturing cost, the shipping cost, and payment for international declarations. The goal is to find the best strategy for the company to maximize the total profit to perform the contract. We present a mixed integer nonlinear programming formulation for the model. The CPLEX software can find near optimal solutions with small relative error (at most 1%) or optimal solution for small horizon only. We conduct computational experiments on real test instances and discuss how to use the model to modify own fleet of vehicles, capacity of the depot, and price strategy for the company.

Cite: Kochetova N. , Shamray N.B.
Profit Maximization and Vehicle Fleet Planning for a Harbor Logistics Company
Проблемы оптимизации и их приложения Optimization Problems and Their Applications 08-14 Jul 2018