Productivity assessment of rock transportation trucks using simulation technology

Abstract

A new container terminal is currently constructed in South Korea in order to handle ever increasing goods transported. The proposed terminal site is partially occupied by a rock mountain that should be removed to provide necessary aggregates and eventually a flat land. A total of 23 million cubic meters of rocks are to be excavated from this mountain, and the port authority wants to get it done within 30 months. As many as 100 dump trucks are expected to be hired every day to transport rocks to be blasted at least 10 different locations on the mountain. Anticipating the congestion that might be caused by many trucks running on the mountain roads at the same time, the stochastic simulation technique was utilized to figure out whether it would affect the rock production. This paper shares lessons learned from the process of creating a simulation model and implementing it in the visual framework.