Satisfying war-time fuel requirements with a minimal tanker complement

Abstract

The United States Transportation Command (USTC) must ensure that sufficient assets are available to transport the war-time requirements of Petroleum, Oil and Lubrication (POL) for the military. To be confident that sufficient assets exist to transport POL, USTC must know the number of tankers required. The Mobility Division of the Logistics Directorate of the Joint Staff (J4-MOB) uses a simulation model, the Model for Intertheater Deployment by Air and Sea (MIDAS), to determine the required number of tankers. MIDAS' use is problematic since many runs may be needed, each run is manpower-intensive, and results do not necessarily define the minimum number of tankers. This thesis couples a schedule generator and an integer linear programming (ILP) model to determine the minimum number of tankers to satisfy war-time POL requirements. Solving a realistic scenario provided by J4-MOB (spanning 75 days with 92 available tankers), the ILP selects 19 tankers, one-third the number initially chosen by MIDAS. Using the ILP's recommended schedules, MIDAS confirms the ILP's solution. These results show that the schedule generator and the ILP can assist J4-MOB.