Speaker: Dr. Goutam Dutta

Title of the Talk: Optimization Based Decision Support System for Strategic Planning for Process Industries

Abstract: We introduce how a multi period optimization based Decision Support System (DSS) can used for Strategic planning in different process Industries. The DSS is made of five fundamental elements: Materials, Facilities, Activities, Storage Areas and Times. The DSS can be used with little or know knowledge of optimization technology. The model has been tested with the data of four process industries: An Integrated Steel Plant in the USA, An aluminum plant, a pharmaceuticals company and a polymer company in India. The results indicate that with a simple deterministic linear programming approach, complex technologies like steel, aluminum etc can be modeled with this DSS. It also demonstrates that improvement in overall contribution to profit as well as profit per unit in all four industries. Work done jointly with Robert Fourer, Northwestern University, Evanston, USA and Narain Gupta, IIM, Ahmedabad, India.