| Abstract: | The supplier of wood fuels has a large number of interrelated activities to coordinate on the way from raw material source to consumer. Transports, storing and intermediate processing should be decided on for a number of assortments. Storing is a prominent feature of this network flow problem since consumer demand is high when small amounts of raw material become available and vice versa. Storing may, however, change the energy content of the material. This paper presents the effects of these changes on operational planning, procurement and storing policies for a wood fuel supplier. Under the assumptions of the application, it is shown that if these changes are taken fully into account, the efficiency of fuel production can be increased by about seven percent. |
