Patent ID: 8374898
Filing Date: 2013-02-12
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method to plan and schedule bulk material distribution for the transportation of bulk materials from supply terminals to demand terminals, comprising: providing a computational system; executing, using the computational system, a plurality of computer-executable instructions, the executed instructions providing a method comprising: a) obtaining input data specifying a plurality of requirements to be satisfied for a marine transportation schedule of a plurality of ships to meet predetermined objectives represented by an objective function, b) determining a current feasible schedule from said input data, the current feasible schedule comprising a ship schedule for each of the plurality of ships, c) evaluating said current feasible schedule to determine a current objective function value based on the predetermined objectives, d) iteratively generating alternative feasible schedules, the iterative generation method comprising: e) generating, after said iterative generating of the alternative feasible schedules, an operational plan for ship scheduling based on the current feasible schedule, wherein the objective function comprises at least a first constraint for generation of bulk material at a supply terminal, a second constraint for a maximum amount of bulk material at a supply terminal, a third constraint for reduction of bulk material at a demand terminal, and a fourth constraint for a minimum amount of bulk material at a demand terminal.