11: Computerised Decision Support System for the Operational Management of the Transportation of Sugar Cane

Transporting cane from the field to the sugar mills is an expensive process. Cane transport is the largest cost unit in the manufacturing of raw sugar accounting for about one third of the total manufacturing costs. The cane harvesting-transport-processing system is very complex, comprising an integrated chain of activities that stretch from the grower through to transport and mill processing. This combination of a complex logistics network generates an extremely large number of alternative scenarios to be evaluated.

The objective of the study is to determine the optimal truck fleet in order to guarantee an uninterrupted supply of sugar cane at the mill, and then to determine the optimal organization of running the haulage system, i.e. especially select the optimal dispatching strategy in order to ensure maximal utilization of the available trucks.