Coordination scheme analysis for unloading processes, in large stores, based in discrete events models

Abstract

In Bogota (Colombia) an issue related with the use of public infrastructure for goods loading and unloading activities is presented. It is frequently seen on the streets, even in large avenues, long queues of trucks waiting to be attended by department stores. These queues have a negative impact on the corridors where those trucks are parked, in terms of bottle necks and the increase of circulation time in these streets. This issue is attributable among many factors, to the lack of infrastructure to respond to the number of vehicles, mismanagement by the stores that receive or generates goods, as well as the lack of implementation of management alternatives by control agencies. The following paper presents the assessment of coordination scheme as a management alternative for the loading and unloading activities in Bogota city. For this a discrete events simulation model was developed in all the different stores for loading and unloading for two proposed scenarios. The study made allows to conclude that coordination between actors has a positive impact in mobility as well as in in incurred costs by the carriers, diminishing the average time in queue and also the size, as well as the total time in the system. On the other hand it is shown how the time in queue has economic impacts when carriers’ opportunity cost is taken into account.