Exxonmobil Research and Engineering Company

Philip H Warrick

Gary Robert Kocis

Kevin C Furman

Anantha Sundaram

Joseph W Evans

Jayanth Balasubramanian

Victor P DePaola

George E Friedrich

Eric A Winkler

Stephen R Bradshaw

Mark E Osmer

Thomas A Wheaton

Michael K McDonald

Nicholas J Booker

Jin-Hwa Song

Chad D Reimann

Ahmet B Keha

Marco A Duran

A decision support tool to assist decision-making in the operation of a facility. The decision support tool allows a user to perform operational programming of the facility so that the analysis of specific operational events is flexible and 'on-demand.' This is achieved by allowing the user to set scope and timeframe of the analysis according to business needs. As a result, the organization can make better-informed judgments whether to add operational activities and how to adjust the ones already formulated in the program. The decision support tool can also allow for the application of strategies to communicate intent behind the programming instructions and to improve the quality of business decisions.

Operational programming of a facility

A decision support tool to assist decision-making in the operation of a facility. The decision support tool allows a user to perform planning and scheduling of the events within a facility so that established economic goals do not collide with feasibility of a schedule. This is achieved by flexible time modeling, which introduces a 'look-ahead' planning and scheduling technique. This technique analyzes several time periods of the schedule in light of upcoming dominant events, in order for each segment of the schedule to remain as consistent with the planning objectives as possible.

Flexible time modeling of a facility

A modeling tool for determining the operation of a production facility. A variety of different activities can be modeled, including (a) feed material selection, including quantity and timing, (b) product sales, including quantity and timing, (c) process operations, including process conditions and timing, (d) blending operations, including process conditions and timing, and/or (e) inventory management. The modeling tool may represent time using continuous-time, discrete-time, asynchronous time periods, synchronous time periods, and combinations of these various approaches.

Modeling tool for planning the operation of refineries

A computer modeling application is disclosed for finding the optimal solution to maximize total net margin, for the assignment of vehicles (e.g., especially vessels) in an available fleet to perform a set of voyages to transport cargo comprising one or more bulk products during a planning period, as well as an apparatus and method employing the same. The fleet can include term vehicles and spot vehicles. The vehicles, voyages, and cargos can be heterogeneous. In one embodiment, the vehicles are crude carrier vessels and the bulk products are different grades of crude oil. To increase speed, the model is broken into linear programming and mixed integer (linear) programming problems. The model can be run on a real-time basis to support complex scheduling operations.

System for optimizing transportation scheduling

An optimization system for transportation scheduling and inventory management of a bulk product from supply locations to demand locations is provided. The system has a mathematical model containing mathematical programming equations. In one embodiment, the objective function of the mathematical model is to minimize a cost basis of the product transported. The system also has a database system for data input that interfaces with the mathematical model. The last component of the system is a mathematical optimization solver that solves the equations provided by the mathematical model after the mathematical model receives data from the database system. As a result, the optimization system provides optimized or simulated results for the input data.

System for optimizing transportation scheduling and inventory management of bulk product from supply locations to demand locations

A computer application loaded on a computer readable medium, a computer apparatus comprising the same, and process employing the same, is described herein. The computer application, when executed, causes a computer to optimize, for maximum net profit margin, the product allocation, transportation routing, transportation vehicle/route scheduling and, optionally, blending, of bulk products that are produced by and loaded from supply locations and delivered to and consumed by demand locations, using a heterogeneous fleet of transportation vehicles over a pre-defined period of time.

System for optimizing bulk product allocation, transportation and blending

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Oakton, VA, United States of America

Philip H Warrick