Simulation Model for Outbound Logistics in Quarry Business

Abstract

The study of outbound logistics is part of quarrying process where final products are being served to customers. It includes all activities begins from when a truck entering weight station to when the truck leaves the system after a final weighing. An increasing of customer demands within limited serving space and limited resources cause a higher total flow time customer spent in the system which also leads to longer queues. The study aims to simulate a current outbound logistics for a quarry business using ARENA simulation model and analyze truck queueing and loader scheduling policy that help reduce total flow time of truck and loader’s travel time. The right policy also allows the system to be able to serve higher number of incoming customers using the same available resources. The results found that the Combined policy of Shortest Processing Time (SPT) policy and Shortest Travelling Time (STT) policy is recommended since it helps reduce 32.33% of the total flow time and reduce 7.53% of the loader’s monthly traveling time. After the suggestion on implementing the Combined policy, the study further investigates different scenarios in the case of increasing number of customers to help the quarry with a future production planning. The result shows that 540 minutes is the maximum daily production run time and 50% increase in number of customers is a maximum number of customers for the current system could handle after the implementation of Combined policy.