Chapter 2: Project Plan

Objective
BPCL transports a Furnace Oil(FO) and Low Diesel Oil(LDO) to other location. The objective was to
find various optimization techniques for ocean carrying vessels carrying the fuel. Optimization include
finding an optimal path based on demand of different fuel at various port location. Working on
increasing operational efficiency of BPCL fuel container with time, cost and capacity as constraints.
The various fuel carried by vessel are Furnace Oil (FO) of 2 grades FO180 and FO380 and LDO. The
vessel used has a capacity of 30KT which comprises of 25KT FO and 5KT LDO and is fixed for a
journey.

Project Team
1. Chinmayi Tidke
2017PGPM016
pm17chinmayip@iimidr.ac.in
9619479362

2. Chintan Atodaria
2017PGPM015
pm17chintann@iimidr.ac.in
7777954344

3. Deepak Yadav
2017PGPM016
pm17deepaky@iimidr.ac.in
8447902064

4. Gaurav Shinde
2017PGPM021
pm17gauravs@iimidr.ac.in
9869209893

5. Goruvanthula Saikumar
2017PGPM022
pm17goruvanthulas@iimidr.ac.in
8962269353

6. Meenal Kohad
2017PGPM036
pm17meenalk@iimidr.ac.in
9422805702

Faculty Mentor
Prof. Sanjay C. Chaudhari
Assistant Professor, IIM Indore
sanjayc@iimidr.ac.in
9819801733
Industry Mentor

Methodology
The proposed methodology was to prepare a linear program in excel sheet based on the data of previous
years. The demand of all ports need to be fulfilled and the number of visits need to be optimized, so for
minimum visit in a year the demand is fulfilled. Also, various costs are involved during travel, berthing
the ship at port, loading and unloading of fuel, etc were to be kept low and the overall cost of the journey
need to be minimized. Various methods like demand analysis, spreadsheet modelling, quantitative
analysis and cost minimization were recommended.

Data Collection
 Firstly, all the port that were covered in the journey were listed and the various fuel that were
required by the port.
 The tankage details of each port were collected and an average demand from previous voyages
were taken.
 The time taken to travel to each port was provided. Also, the cost involved at various stages of
voyage were being provided.
 The data of how frequently the port needs to be visited to fulfil the demand of fuel was collected.
 The sales of fuel at each port to determine the level of fuel at a point of time was collected. All
the data were provided by the industry mentor and a brief overview regarding data was given.
 A data was collected on how the fuel were filled in the tank in container depending on the grade
of oil.

Timeline
Below are the activities and the timelines of the respective activities as part of the project plan:

Activity Timeline/Planned timeline

Industrial Visit 1– Understanding the agenda of the project in detail

11th Oct 2017
Understanding the project problem statement and variables involved
by brainstorming within team 12th Oct 2017
Preparing a draft from the inputs obtained in the industrial visit
meeting 15th Oct – 16th Oct 2017
Analyzing the organization’s structure and functioning - internal and
external outlook 16th Oct – 31st Oct 2017
Preparing Organization Analysis 1st Nov – 4th Nov 2017

Obtaining detailed inputs such as the fuels and quantity of fuel

unloaded, unloading charges, port charges etc. at each port
24th Oct – 24th Nov 2017
 Meeting – Team discussion with faculty guide on different variables,
constraints and outputs involved depending on the inputs obtained
from industry focal in the formulation of solution to the project
8th Nov 2017

Working on the draft for formulation of the problem

9th Nov – 17th Jan 2018

Meeting with the faculty guide to further discuss on the formulation

17th Jan 2018

Making necessary amendments in the formulation of the problem

17th Jan - 7th Feb 2018
Industrial visit 2 to get further clarifications and inputs, if required and
7th Feb 2018
discuss on the formulation

Working on the solution 8th Feb – 20th Feb 2018

Meeting with faculty guide to discuss on the solution worked out 21th Feb 2018

Finalizing the solution 21th - 24st Feb 2018

Preparing the project summary report 24st Feb - 28th Feb 2018

Procedure
The data was collected according to the requirement and after data collection the data was arranged and
various problem were discovered-:
 Waiting time fluctuation – When the container reaches the port, the ship needs to wait for some
time before unloading. This depend on the traffic ongoing on the port and may vary time to
time. This fluctuation was out of control and unpredictable. So, to minimize the effect of
waiting time, average of previous waiting time was taken and then the various scenarios were
evaluated.
 Demand Fluctuation - The demand at each port varied during each month. The demand of fuel
depended on various factor so to overcome this an average demand was calculated for the
voyage purpose.
 Tankage capacity – The amount of tankage at each port defined and cannot be more than the
demand. Also, some port had high tankage capacity but due to draft at port only a limited
amount of fuel could be carried. The amount of fuel to be loaded was calculated keeping in
mind the tankage and demand.

After evaluating the problem various scenarios were formulated according to the demand of port and
keeping in mind the cost constraints. The scenarios were evaluated using solver in excel sheets as well
as they were calculated manually and the solution to each scenario were calculated. We had 4 possible
scenarios and accordingly using method we derived the final cost of the voyage in a month and year.
The final proposed solution will be based on the one which has least cost during the year and that will
be recommended to BPCL.