ANALYZING THE RECEIVING OPERATION OF DIFFERENT GRAIN TYPES IN A SINGLE–PIT COUNTRY ELEVATOR

Abstract

With the rise of valueadded grains and oilseeds, many elevators need to segregate their incoming products intobatches of different enduse quality (for example, high oil corn, genetically modified soybeans, high protein wheat), but oftenthey are not designed to handle this task efficiently. The primary challenge is to segregate multiple grain streams during thereceiving operation without increasing waiting times for all customers.This study utilized a system simulation model to investigate how queue management could help to improve the performanceof a country elevator receiving multiple grain streams with a single unloading pit. In order to maintain the speed of theunloading operation, two queuing methods were investigated: the segregated BATCH versus the traditional FIFO (firstin,firstout) queue service method. A discrete event system simulation model was developed and validated utilizing datacollected at a country elevator facility in Indiana. The simulation results showed that the BATCH queue management strategyreduced average waiting times per customer by up to 27% compared to the traditional FIFO queue management strategy whenthe daily grain receipt was near the maximum receiving capacity of the facility. For receiving rates below 72% capacity, thetraditional FIFO service had shorter average waiting times per customer.