Operational Design of the Ferry Transportation System based on Simulation

Abstract

This paper addresses on the development of a simulation model of a ferry transportation system. The system under study is Merak-Bakauheni ferry route, one of ferry routes in Indonesia. This route links Java and Sumatra islands. Merak is located in the western of Java and Bakauheni in the southern of Sumatra. This route crosses the Sunda Street and has a distance of fifteen miles. There are two kinds of ships - high-speed and ro-ro ships - serving this route. The focus of this study is the ferry system of ro-ro ships that are used to carry both passengers and various kinds of cars. The main inputs of the simulation model consists of a timetable, patterns of passenger and car arrivals, and ship capacities. In addition to initial experiment, two other types of experiments are carried out. The first is performed to determine a better timetable. The alternative timetables are generated and each is evaluated in terms of waiting times. The second one is carried out to determine the most suitable ship type (passenger and car capacities). By using the simulation model, each ship type is evaluated based on its total cost consisting of waiting time cost and ship running cost. The simulation model is developed by using a commercial simulation software, ProModel.