A Mathematical Model for Vehicle Routing of Used-oil Collection in Bio-diesel Production Using Visual Basic Interface: Village Bank and Bio-diesel Project

Abstract

Village Bank and Bio-diesel Project: Project initiated by His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej hasconducted a project named Used-oil donating and purchasing for bio-diesel production project. The purposeof this project was to obtain used-oil by donating or purchasing from the members in Bangkok area andneighbourhood to produce bio-diesel in the Village Bank and Bio-diesel Project bio-diesel plant in Pranakornsri-ayutthaya province. Since there have been an increasing numbers of members all over the pilot district,Thaweewattana district, logistics management has been brought into account. An efficient logistics systemwould be able to reduce fuel cost as well as labour cost. This study presented a method and a computer-aidtool to help solving vehicle routing problem of used-oil collection for bio-diesel production at the plant ofVillage Bank and Bio-diesel Project. A mathematical model, Binary Integer programming, were developed byusing LINGO software solver. The objective was to find optimal routes of shortest distance in order to minimizelogistics or transportation cost. Visual Basic was used to create user interface for both input and output partsto assist users.