Research

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

An important strategic level decision in the industrial gas industry involves allocating bulk gas tanks to customer sites. For a set of customers having specified demands, the bulk tank allocation problem determines the preferred size of bulk tanks to assign to customer sites in order to minimize tank investment costs and gas distribution costs for the industrial gas distributor. The problem is modeled as a mixed- integer program and then solved using a decomposition approach. A heuristic method for clustering customers and developing routes is proposed based on a sweep algorithm. These potential routes serve as input for the bulk tank allocation problem, which selects routes and assigns tanks to customer sites. The resulting BTA tool thus analyzes strategic level decisions while incorporating operational level characteristics. This leads to improved distribution efficiency and reduced costs.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)56-57
Number of pages2
JournalIndustrial Engineer
Volume46
Issue number5
StatePublished - 2014

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Computer Science Applications

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