A Multi-Period Robust Optimization Model for Integrated Planning of Decisions in the Petrochemical Products’ Supply Chain

Optimal management and planning in the petrochemical industry will bring about many economic benefits, including depended industries. In this research we examine technical and operational planning in the petrochemical supply chain network to assess how to optimize periodic decisions such as inventory of raw materials and products, pricing, transportation and flow of materials and products. In the proposed mode we take into account the uncertainty of various parameters, in order to propose a low risk and robust planning approach. The objective function of the proposed model is to maximize the annual profit of petrochemical complexes, within the capacity constraints of production and transportation facilities. The proposed model is continuous and convertible into a quadratic convex problem, in order to allow the use of commercial programs such as CPLEX to find the optimal solution. In order to demonstrate the applicability of the model, we present a numerical study in the final section of the paper, which includes some sensitivity analysis, numerical results and managerial insights.