Simulation of freight traffic in the Seville inland port

The Port of Seville is an inland port located in the Guadalquivir River in the south of Spain and it is the unique Spanish inland port. Our research is focused on the simulation of the freight transport process beginning with the movement through the whole estuary of the river and finishing with the vessels arriving to the port dependencies, where the logistic operators’ load and unload processes take place. The simulation presented in the paper is carried out with Arena software and considers all the types of cargo existing in the Seville Port: containers, cereals, cements, scrap, iron and steel and fertilizers. We have simulated the navigation through the Guadalquivir estuary, the lock, the basins and the docks of the port, as well as the logistic activities in the berths. After testing several scenarios, we can state that the facilities of the Port of Seville allow to deal with the incoming logistic flows, except for momentary difficulties in the container traffic. So the improvement measures for the logistic activity must come from other alternative key actions

Efficiency Improvement Using Simulation Technique in Hard Disk Drive Arm Cleaning Process

The final process of hard disk drive arm manufacturing is the hard disk drive arm cleaning process. Currently, the product demand is rapidly growing and exceeding the process capacity. Hence, the aim of this paper is to reduce a cycle time of the process to support the higher demand in the future while the product quality is not affected. The study is focusing on the simulation model of the cleaning machine. The simulation model was developed to determine the line balancing of this process with 2k factorial design experiment by finding sub-processes which relate to cycle time of the process. According to the simulation model, the line balancing condition creates the reduction to a process time, which is related to the cycle time of process and minimizing the cycle time from 306 seconds to 257 seconds without quality changing.特集 : Special Section for the Papers Presented at the Symposium on Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, and Robotics held at Noboribetsu, Hokkaido, Japan on 11 - 12 January 201

Operativa de transferencia y programación de grúas en la terminal de contenedores del puerto de Sevilla.

En éste trabajo se realiza el análisis de la operativa de transferencia y la programación de grúas en la terminal de contenedores Batan del Puerto de Sevilla. Para esto es propuesto un modelo de simulación discreta utilizando el software ARENA 11.0. El objetivo es identificar los principales cuellos de botella en la terminal de contenedores teniendo en cuenta datos de tráfico actuales. De acuerdo con los resultados obtenidos en las diferentes simulaciones se realiza un diagnostico de la situación actual del puerto y se proponen posibles mejoras

Berth allocation planning in Seville inland port by simulation and optimisation

We study the problems associated with allocating berths for containerships in the port of Seville. It is the only inland port in Spain and it is located on the Guadalquivir River. This paper addresses the berth allocation planning problems using simulation and optimisation with Arena software. We propose a mathematical model and develop a heuristic procedure based on genetic algorithm to solve non-linear problems. Allocation planning aims to minimise the total service time for each ship and considers a first-come-first-served allocation strategy. We conduct a large amount of computational experiments which show that the proposed model improves the current berth management strategy

Systematic Review of Literature on Dry Port Concept Evolution

Dry port plays an important role in supply chain management and mitigates seaport problems. The aim of this paper is to review the dry port concept over the different phases. Today there are different types of dry ports, different interpretations on the dry port life cycle, and different relations with seaport. We will provide a clear vision on the concept development and the advantages that can be added to the seaport and transportation flow. Then, the study will show the evolution of the research community interest on the concept. In the first step, we will briefly present all the challenges faced by seaports today. Next, we will undertake a systematic literature review in order to provide a global vision able to answer questions concerning dry port concept, types, research evolution. Finally, we will present some research topics that open for us at the dry port seaport system

Prediction of Emergency Preparedness Level On-Board Ships Using Discrete Event Simulation: the Case of Firefighting Drill

This paper proposes a hybrid approach, including Fuzzy Dematel (FD) integrated with Discrete Event Simulation (DES), to predict emergency preparedness levels on-board ships. The FD used critical factors that affect emergency preparedness to conduct a DES based on real firefighting drill records collected from 45 merchant ships. The simulation results showed the average duration of on-board drills in ideal conditions (27.47 min.), in the worst-case scenario (51.49 min.), for Ship A (29.99 min.), and Ship B (28.12 min.). Based on the findings, recovery actions linked to the factors have been recommended to promote on-board implementation. The proposed model is of great importance to shore-based managers, allowing them to monitor the emergency preparedness level of the fleet continuously, even during pandemics. Further studies are planned to develop a remote monitoring system that would digitalize the existing response procedures in emergency situations

Simulation-optimization models for the dynamic berth allocation problem

Container terminals are designed to provide support for the continuous changes in container ships. The most common schemes used for dock management are based on discrete and continuous locations. In view of the steadily growing trend in increasing container ship size, more flexible berth allocation planning is mandatory. The consideration of continuous location in the container terminal is a good option. This paper addresses the berth allocation problem with continuous dock, which is called dynamic berth allocation problem (DBAP). We propose a mathematical model and develop a heuristic procedure, based on a genetic algorithm, to solve the corresponding mixed integer problem. Allocation planning aims to minimise distances travelled by the forklifts and the quay crane, for container loading and unloading operations for each ship, according to the quay crane scheduling. Simulations are undertaken using Arena software, and experimental analysis is carried out for the most important container terminal in Spain

A Large Scale Simulation of Satellites Tracking Vessels and Other Targets

This research outlines the design of a large scale simulation of satellites tracking large amounts of dynamic targets. The use of such a simulation is presented and current solutions available are presented. The research sets out a list of objectives to meet by creating an application programming interface (API) that have the requirements of being efficient, scalable, flexible, and easy to use for the implementer. Methods of creating sections of the simulation such as the attitude motion of a satellite based on the physical characteristics of nanosatellites is explored and developed. The creation of targets that are contained only on certain land features are also developed and tested. The objectives set out are tested by creating a simulation using the API developed and the results are presented

Sequence-Based Simulation-Optimization Framework With Application to Port Operations at Multimodal Container Terminals

It is evident in previous works that operations research and mathematical algorithms can provide optimal or near-optimal solutions, whereas simulation models can aid in predicting and studying the behavior of systems over time and monitor performance under stochastic and uncertain circumstances. Given the intensive computational effort that simulation optimization methods impose, especially for large and complex systems like container terminals, a favorable approach is to reduce the search space to decrease the amount of computation. A maritime port can consist of multiple terminals with specific functionalities and specialized equipment. A container terminal is one of several facilities in a port that involves numerous resources and entities. It is also where containers are stored and transported, making the container terminal a complex system. Problems such as berth allocation, quay and yard crane scheduling and assignment, storage yard layout configuration, container re-handling, customs and security, and risk analysis become particularly challenging. Discrete-event simulation (DES) models are typically developed for complex and stochastic systems such as container terminals to study their behavior under different scenarios and circumstances. Simulation-optimization methods have emerged as an approach to find optimal values for input variables that maximize certain output metric(s) of the simulation. Various traditional and nontraditional approaches of simulation-optimization continue to be used to aid in decision making. In this dissertation, a novel framework for simulation-optimization is developed, implemented, and validated to study the influence of using a sequence (ordering) of decision variables (resource levels) for simulation-based optimization in resource allocation problems. This approach aims to reduce the computational effort of optimizing large simulations by breaking the simulation-optimization problem into stages. Since container terminals are complex stochastic systems consisting of different areas with detailed and critical functions that may affect the output, a platform that accurately simulates such a system can be of significant analytical benefit. To implement and validate the developed framework, a large-scale complex container terminal discrete-event simulation model was developed and validated based on a real system and then used as a testing platform for various hypothesized algorithms studied in this work