Optimization of Oil Supply Chains Using SC Navigator

Question

Dear all,thank you very much for allowing me to be a member of this community. I am very impressed by the tool and find it very interesting.I am studying logistics. At the moment, I am writing my bachelor’s thesis about optimizing the supply chain from refineries to tank terminals using rail and inland waterways.On your website, I saw that oil companies are already using the SC Navigator tool. I have completed the online training on the fundamentals, which was very well structured and clearly explained. However, I am still wondering how I can apply this knowledge in practice.Are there any example courses or case studies for SC Navigator that show how to optimize the supply chain for oil products, for example from a refinery to tank terminals?In this context, several factors are important, such as:	Are freight costs (€/ton) specified in the Cost Per UOM column?			Is it possible to model a supply chain where suppliers are defined as supply nodes and warehouses or storage terminals are defined as customers (demand nodes), or do warehouses always have to be defined as warehouses rather than customers?			different freight rates and contract types such as FOB and CPT.	With FOB, all transport routes are possible, while with CPT usually only one or two are allowed.	Is it possible to model a small example supply chain by yourself, or does this already require advanced programming skills for such cases?I would be very grateful if you could answer my questions.Thank you very much in advance and kind regards,

Facundo.Olivero · Answer

Dear Ali,Welcome to the community, and thanks for your kind words about SC Navigator — great to hear you’re considering it for your bachelor’s thesis.Although there are no public, step-by-step case studies specifically about refinery-to-tank-terminal supply chains (mostly due to confidentiality), your use case is actually very close to how SC Navigator is used in practice, especially in oil and chemicals.To briefly address your questions:Freight costs are typically modeled as €/ton (or similar) in the Cost per UOM field and can differ by mode, lane, or contract.Refineries are usually modeled as supply nodes, while tank terminals can be modeled either as warehouses or as demand nodes — both are valid, depending on what you want to analyze. For a thesis, using tank terminals as demand nodes is often simplest.Different contract types like FOB and CPT can be represented by allowing or restricting certain transport lanes and assigning different costs.You can definitely build a small example model yourself using the standard SC Navigator interface. No advanced programming is required for a realistic academic case.A good approach for your thesis would be to create a simplified but realistic network (a few refineries, tank terminals, rail and barge routes, and different contracts) and then analyze different scenarios.If you have more detailed questions while modeling, feel free to ask — this is exactly the kind of problem SC Navigator is designed to handle.If you would like to request an academic license for your thesis, you can send a request to support@aimms.comKind regards,Facundo

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