Designing efficient and contemporary ship recycling yards through discrete event simulation

Ship recycling, similar to any other recycling industry, can be considered as the most environmentally friendly option for end-of-life ships than the other alternatives. However, lack of safety, lack of environmental awareness as well as lack of a global and local regulatory framework resulted in ships being dismantled in undesirable conditions which forced international regulators to focus on developing international regulations and standards.;The International Maritime Organization's (IMO) Hong Kong Convention and the European Union's Ship Recycling Regulation are examples of the aforementioned new regulations. Both regulations require ship recycling yards to improve existing HSE standards to stay compliant. These HSE measures will negatively impact on running costs, therefore, ship recycling yards will need to increase their production efficiency to remain competitive.;Even though the industry requires support during this transition, there is no study within the current body of literature that focuses on increasing the productivity of the ship recycling facilities. Hence, there is a need to develop a framework to design contemporary and efficient ship recycling yards. Increasing production efficiency in ship recycling yards will not only decrease the costs, but it will also increase the throughput of the yards which will generate more income and positively impact on overall profitability.;Therefore, this PhD study addresses this gap through the development of a simulation framework for ship recycling industry to design and optimise the ship recycling yards. The study adopts a case-based approach where numerous design alternatives will be studied through the proposed framework. The main aim of this study is to increase the productivity of ship recycling yards and optimise their procedures towards achieving cost-efficient facilities.;Overall research conducted in this study will be significant contribution to the maritime literature as a novel framework for ship recycling yard design and optimisation is developed. The process models of this framework are developed based on real ship recycling procedures, therefore, the framework can be considered ready for practical implementation.Ship recycling, similar to any other recycling industry, can be considered as the most environmentally friendly option for end-of-life ships than the other alternatives. However, lack of safety, lack of environmental awareness as well as lack of a global and local regulatory framework resulted in ships being dismantled in undesirable conditions which forced international regulators to focus on developing international regulations and standards.;The International Maritime Organization's (IMO) Hong Kong Convention and the European Union's Ship Recycling Regulation are examples of the aforementioned new regulations. Both regulations require ship recycling yards to improve existing HSE standards to stay compliant. These HSE measures will negatively impact on running costs, therefore, ship recycling yards will need to increase their production efficiency to remain competitive.;Even though the industry requires support during this transition, there is no study within the current body of literature that focuses on increasing the productivity of the ship recycling facilities. Hence, there is a need to develop a framework to design contemporary and efficient ship recycling yards. Increasing production efficiency in ship recycling yards will not only decrease the costs, but it will also increase the throughput of the yards which will generate more income and positively impact on overall profitability.;Therefore, this PhD study addresses this gap through the development of a simulation framework for ship recycling industry to design and optimise the ship recycling yards. The study adopts a case-based approach where numerous design alternatives will be studied through the proposed framework. The main aim of this study is to increase the productivity of ship recycling yards and optimise their procedures towards achieving cost-efficient facilities.;Overall research conducted in this study will be significant contribution to the maritime literature as a novel framework for ship recycling yard design and optimisation is developed. The process models of this framework are developed based on real ship recycling procedures, therefore, the framework can be considered ready for practical implementation