Distribution planning at OKQ8

Abstract: OKQ8 produces and sells petroleum products and is one of the largest companies on the Swedish market. The goal of this thesis is to analyze if the transportation of the lubricant oil, which today is considered very costly, can be carried out more efficient. Simultaneously, we  would like to investigate what effect a downsizing in transport capacity would have for the´present customers. Today OKQ8 don't use any computer support when planning their lubricant transports studied in the thesis. In the thesis the transports will be analyzed with a route planning model.  A major part of the thesis consists of describing the creation of a mathematical model of the OKQ8 transport problem. A model which is comparable to today's transport solution at OKQ8 has been implemented. To generate data in the format of transport routes, which the model requires, a Java program has been developed. From the description of these routes, an optimization model has been created. The result from this model is an optimal use of the routes. The created model makes it possible to analyze how the transports should be carried out and that would happen if for example OKQ8 decided to downsize their transport capacity with one truck and one trailer. Shortcomings in the model, both in how large data sets the Java program can handle and factors that we have left out in the model, makes it difficult to transfer the results from the model back to real problem of OKQ8. These shortcomings make it necessary to further develop the model to be able to answer the initial question of OKQ8.