scholarly journals Simulating Combined Self-Loading Truck and Semitrailer Truck Transport in the Wood Supply Chain

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 1245
Author(s):  
Christoph Kogler ◽  
Alexander Stenitzer ◽  
Peter Rauch
Keyword(s):  
Discrete Event ◽  
Transport Cost ◽  
Limiting Factor ◽  
Prime Mover ◽  
Delivery Time ◽  
Event Simulation ◽  
Gross Vehicle Weight ◽  
Truck Transport ◽  
Economic Analyses ◽  
Timber Transport

Forestry faces frequent and severe natural calamities causing high amounts of salvage wood. Especially under mountainous conditions, regional available self-loading truck capacity is often the main limiting factor causing transport capacity bottlenecks. Therefore, innovative logistics strategies are needed to ensure quick transport of high amounts of salvage wood. Consequently, a multi-echelon unimodal transport concept, where timber is synchronously transshipped at a truck terminal with four transshipment lots from self-loading trucks to semitrailers, was modeled by means of a discrete event simulation. The simulation model calculates key performance indicators such as transshipped volumes and costs and support estimations of optimal truck fleet configuration. The results provide cost-optimal truck fleet configurations in terms of the number of self-loading trucks, semitrailers and prime mover trucks for varying transshipment volumes, delivery time to terminal and legal truck payload scenarios. Applying the truck terminal concept considerably decreases the number of self-loading trucks needed to transport the same volume when compared to unimodal wood transport, which is most common under mountainous conditions in Europe. In the majority of delivery time to terminal and terminal transshipment volume scenarios, the number of self-loading trucks was reduced by more than 50%. Increasing the legal gross vehicle weight for timber transport from 44 t up to 50 t reduces the number of self-loading trucks needed by 20% to 38%, depending on the scenario setting. Additionally, less self-loading trucks arriving at the terminal also cuts queuing times and system efficiency increases as transport cost/t is reduced by 6% to 11% depending on the scenario setting. Expanding the truck terminal concept by adding storage capacity as well as varying the number of transshipping lots and also including costs for terminal construction and operations in the economic analyses are promising topics for future studies.

scholarly journals Discrete Event Simulation Applying Lean methodologies: Case study. Wooden Sector

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raiza Reyes Mejia ◽  
Blass Troncoso Mendoza ◽  
Alexander Troncoso Palacio
Keyword(s):  
Discrete Event Simulation ◽  
Discrete Event ◽  
Great Variability ◽  
Delivery Time ◽  
Discrete Events ◽  
Assembly Time ◽  
Event Simulation ◽  
New Time

In productive processes where parts are assembled, the assembly time is one of the most important problems that should be solved. Due to this, a case study was carried out in one company in the wooden sector, in which the Lean methodologies and the Discrete Events Simulation are integrated, to evaluate and improve the assembly processes of four-input wooden stowage. This study began by validating the process, then it was simulated in the Arena software, where great variability is observed in the assembly time of the four-input pallets, obtaining an average result of 25+/- 2 minutes. Due to this reason, the use of this methodology was proposed, applying the DMAIC cycle and carrying out controls in the process, it was possible to reduce it to 19 +/- 1 minute per stowage unit assembled, which meant a 24% reduction in the time spent manufacturing. All of this positively influenced the final delivery time of the product, so, with this new time, the company could satisfy the demand of its customers, and will be able to place its product on the market in less time.

Evaluating Different Railway Wagon Alternatives for Timber Transportation by Discrete Event Simulation

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tero Toikka ◽  
Olli-Pekka Hilmola ◽  
Juha P. Saranen
Keyword(s):  
Discrete Event ◽  
Transportation Cost ◽  
Road Transport ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Event Simulation ◽  
Material Sources ◽  
Cost Efficient ◽  
Fine Tune ◽  
Timber Transport

Finland with Sweden is one of the most important pulp producing countries in Europe, and in paper production these two countries are accompanied with Germany and France as being most important countries of production. For the production of pulp, most important parts are (1) the quality and scale of production process as well as (2) cost efficient and high quality raw material. In addition to using its own raw material sources, Finland purchases wood from various different regions, including Russia. In a frequent number of cases raw material transports is completed with rail transports, especially in the case of Russia where distances are relatively long for transports (several thousand kms). Until now Russian timber has had a cost advantage in comparison to Finnish raw material. The availability of a cheaper alternative has also kept the price of domestic raw material at a relatively low level. However, Russia has announced a schedule to increase tariffs for timber exports. As a consequence the exporters of Russian timber need to examine and fine tune their cost structure of timber procurement to correspond to this new demanding environment. In this paper we examine the transportation cost of forest industry raw material using different types of railway wagons. The case network consists of four Russian terminals and two mills located in Finland. The evaluation is based on a discrete event system simulation model concentrating on timber transport within the case network in question. To make this evaluation even more interesting, Russian railway deregulation has its own special feature: Railway customers are allowed to own railway wagons, but nationally owned RZD owns the locomotives and charges for traction. Our research results show that the traction charge of RZD and competing road transport prices are the most influential factors, when determining the most cost efficient wagon type and network structure for timber transportation.

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