COST ANALYSIS OF CONTAINER TERMINAL OPERATION USING DISCRETE EVENT SIMULATION: A CASE OF MODJO DRY PORT

Abstract

A container terminal operation in MDP is a system with several subsystems and a large number of decisions for each subsystem. Due to the interactions of these subsystems, there is a lot of stochastic influence and interdependencies within the decisions which make an optimized operation of a whole container terminal very hard and without technical and methodical support hard to handle. One optimal operated subsystem influences all other subsystems and therefore does not result in optimality for the whole system. The research thesis focuses on analyzing the containers terminal operations at a terminal truck gate system, train side operations and yard side operations. To analyze the operations in an overall system with all its stochastic influence and interactions the method of simulation is used in this thesis, which provides the opportunity to create an experimental model and identify the best recommended course of action .The method in the data collection was a time measurement, simulations and document extraction was done. The developed simulation model which permits the modeling and simulation of container flows in a container terminal by truck and train. The new configuration of resources has brought 12% reduction of the total cost. The thesis found that MDP should work18 hours a day for overall optimality than 12 hours a day as proved in scenarios. The optimal cost of system was found to be ETB 1,426,646.55 given that each resource assigned per respective position in September 2021. If it cannot optimize the total cost of the system MDP CTO in higher depth and details, the competiveness and logistics hub of MDP will incur a lot of cost and time. More research and innovation are needed to keep CTO running at minimal cost while still providing required services for both trucks and trains.