Benefits and Barriers using Operations Research based Decision Support Software in Dry Bulk Chartering

Abstract

The objective of this thesis is to address the benefits and barriers in using operations research (OR) based decision support software (DSS) in the evaluation of cargo and vessel fixtures within dry bulk chartering. The motivation for doing this research is the tramp ship routing and scheduling models and solution algorithms presented in courses at NTNU, combined with the impression that use of OR based DSS within dry bulk chartering is currently non-existing.The scope of this thesis is to describe the decisions processes in a dry bulk chartering department, to develop a set of prescriptive mathematical models of some of the decisions and apply the models on the scenarios through implementation in a commercially available optimization software. The scenarios are also implemented in the non-commercially available decision support software Turborouter. The final part of the thesis is a comparison of the mathematical models, Turborouter and the conventional decision support tools used in Torvald Klaness today. The main barrier identified in this thesis is that the existing OR based DSS is not adapted to the dynamic and uncertain nature of dry bulk chartering. The main benefit identified in this thesis, is the increased calculation capacity by applying knapsack and assignment models decision process of fixing cargo and vessels. The models need further improvement in terms of data input and output, but the scenario testing in this thesis strongly implies that it exists benefits from using OR based decision support models in the fixture process in dry bulk chartering.