Performance Analysis of a Southern Mediterranean Seaport via Discrete-Event Simulation

Francesco Longo,Aida Huerta,Letizia Nicoletti

doi:10.5545/sv-jme.2013.963

Francesco Longo, Aida Huerta + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5545/sv-jme.2013.963

Copy DOI

Abstract

Modeling & Simulation (M&S) has proved to be a day-to-day highly indispensable tool for complex systems design, management and monitoring. Therefore, the proposed research study aims to develop a simulation model to recreate the complexity of a medium-sized Mediterranean seaport and analyse the performance evolution of such system with particular reference to the ship turnaround time. After the input data analysis, simulation model development, verification and validation, a design of experiments (according to a 24 factorial experimental design) was carried out in order to evaluate how some critical factors (i.e. inter-arrival times, loading/unloading times, number of cars and trucks to be unloaded/loaded) may affect the seaport’s performance. To this end an analysis of variance is performed and an analytical input-output meta-model was created to evaluate the system’s performance.

Highlights

Despite the economic and financial crisis, statistics show that merchant fleets are growing: more than 138,000 seagoing commercial ships are currently in service [1]
Since two levels of each input factor have been taken into account, it is interesting to compare how changes in these levels impact the turnaround time using an analysis of variance (ANOVA)
Column P is the probability of accepting as true the hypothesis that a factor has no impact on the response considered

Summary

Introduction

Despite the economic and financial crisis, statistics show that merchant fleets are growing: more than 138,000 seagoing commercial ships are currently in service [1]. These data prove the crucial role of seaports for both national and international trade. Decision making in seaports requires the support of powerful tools allowing performance measurement and analysis. To this end, the main goal of this research work is to propose a simulation-based tool of a mediumsize Mediterranean seaport that could be used by the main port administrators (i.e. port managers, the port authority, etc.) to support decision making and process management. All port stakeholders need to monitor their performance taking into account quantitative and qualitative aspects, determining whether their strategies produce the desired outcomes, and correcting any misallocations and malfunctions [3]

Methods

Results

Conclusion