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SIMULATION AND MODELLING OF LOADING AND UN-LOADING SYSTEMS IN

A WAREHOUSE OF DETERGENT FACTORY

Article · June 2015

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 Aliyu et al.
Dutse Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences 1(1) June 2015 pp 72 - 78

SIMULATION AND MODELLING OF LOADING AND UN-LOADING SYSTEMS IN A

WAREHOUSE OF DETERGENT FACTORY
Aliyu Isah Aliyu1, Farouk Lawan Gambo2,
Muhammad A Alhassan 3, Abdullah Yusuf4 and Isa Inuwa Dutse5
1,4
Department of Mathematics, Federal University Dutse.
2,3,5
Department of Computer science, Federal University Dutse.
PO Box 7156,Kiyawa Road, Jigawa state, Nigeria..
1
aliyu.isa@fud.edu.ng

ABSTRACT
In a factory warehouse, all the processes of loading and unloading are done simultaneously.
The aim of this study is to find a strategy that will minimize the time of any van or truck
within the warehouse. The warehouses considered in this research are those that deal
with products that are already packed and needs to be sealed. That is, in particular
detergent factory. A simulation model of the existing system is developed and run in
ARENA simulation software. Animated arena simulation software for the loading and
unloading processes is designed and implemented. The average waiting times as well as
the workers utilizations at various processes were analyzed and discussed to identify the
system performance. The result from ARENA is then used to study the entire system and
recommendations are made from the results obtained. The simulation experiments were
used to evaluate the alternative strategies in order to minimize the waiting times and
residence times of any truck or van in the warehouse, as well as minimizing the
operational cost involved in production.
Keywords: Arena, loading, unloading, input analyzer.
INTRODUCTION unloading. In the factory, the van/truck
The process of receiving and delivering drivers have to queue for a long time to
are the interface between incoming and carry out the loading process. Where,
outgoing material flow in a factory on average, they have to wait for about
warehouse. Incoming products are 3 hours 2 minutes to be served. These
brought to the factory warehouse; they long waiting and service times means
are unloaded at the receiving centre, that the drivers take quite a long time
and then stored. While orders of to deliver the goods to the customers.
products are picked from the storage, The factory management also aim to
prepared, and shipped to customers by minimize the total expenditure of the
using van, lorry or trucks. In this factory. Hence, a simulation was
research, the processes of loading and proposed to model the loading and
unloading are carried out unloading systems in order to find a
simultaneously within the factory strategy that will minimize waiting
warehouse. A simulation study is widely times of the drivers and utilization of
employed in solving industrial problems. the resources or workers at the
A simulation study has not only helped warehouse to overcome the problem of
in the understanding of the detailed overtime.
processes, but the graphical modeling RELATED WORK
tools like that in ARENA also ease the Warehouse stores factory product or
factories or agencies in decision goods from suppliers and then distribute
making. to wholesalers or customers. According
In this study, a simulation studies was to Van den Berg (1996), topics such as
conducted in order to overcome some planning and controlling in warehouse
problems at a warehouse in a detergent management have been studied by
factory, especially the waiting times at re-searchers in both the arts and the
the various processes of loading and sciences.
72
Aliyu et al. 2015
Dutse Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences 1(1) June 2015 pp 5 - 10

and controlling in warehouse (2000) use ARENA to model and simulate

management have been studied by the seaport operations at the Malaysian
re-searchers in both the arts and the Kelang port. (Deshpande et al. 2000)
sciences. Nevertheless, a good basic use ARENA to model and analyze
theory for design methodology of truckload terminal operations in order
warehouse is still lacking. In order to to experiment with alternative dock
provide a characterization of the assignment scenarios. ARENA has also
warehouse, three different angles from been used to simulate the congestions
which a warehouse may be viewed have of visitors at the Shanghai Expo by Tahar
to be considered: processes, resources, and Hussain (2000) use ARENA to model
and organization (Rouwenhorst et al and simulate the seaport operations at
2000). Products arriving at a warehouse the Malaysian Kelang port in the context
will go through a number of steps called of commercial activities. The main aim
processes. Resources refer to all tools, of the work is improving the logistics
equipment and personnel needed to processes at the port. (Aliyu et.al 2015)
operate a warehouse. Finally, deigned a health care appointment
organization includes all aspects of system for clinics using Arena. The
planning and the control procedures simulation model had been carried out
used to run the warehouse sys-tem. A using the ARENA package because of its
product is defined as a type of goods, edibility in modeling many scheduling
for example shampoo of a certain brand and planning problems and its
in the study. An individual bottle is user-friendly modeling environment.
called an item and the combination of Fitting of inter arrival times of ships was
several items of several products done using the ARENA input tool which
requested by a customer is called a fits probability distributions to the real
customer order. (Kelton et al, 2011) is a data collected. The models also involve
simulation and automation software the assignments of berth, crane and
from Rockwell Automation Inc. It uses prime movers in the port operation.
the SIMAN simulation language as the In this study, the main aim is to model
underlying building block and the and analyze the loading and un-loading
current version is version 12.0 Arena systems in the warehouse. The
Simulation Kelton et al, 2011). In ARENA, simulation experiments were used to
a simulation model can be built by evaluate the alternative strategies in
putting together predefined modules, order to minimize the waiting times and
which represents processes or logic. residence times of any lorry or van in
Connector lines are used to connect the warehouse, as well as minimizing
modules and designate the flow of the operational cost involved.
entities. Statistical data, such as cycle METHODOLOGY
time and waiting time are recorded and The entire framework of this research is
displayed automatically as reports by designed by performing a simulation and
ARENA. ARENA has been widely used in modeling studies. The research
simulating business processes and framework is conducted at the
various kinds of discrete event warehouse of the detergent factory. The
operations. ARENA is used in focus is on the loading and unloading
(Rouwenhorst et al 2000) to model and systems. The framework of the
simulate the terminal operation simulation process is described in the
processes which involve ship arrival, table 3.1 below. The model is designed
loading, unloading and other related and simulated using the Arena simulation
discrete events. Tahar and Hussain software.
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Aliyu et al. 2015
Dutse Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences 1(1) June 2015 pp 5 - 10

The probability distributions of the waiting
and service times for the processes of
loading and unloading were obtained from
the Arena input analyzer. The data collected
from the factory warehouse includes, the
waiting time, service time and total time of
all the entities in the system. The number of
trucks and vans that enter and leave the
warehouse was also collected. The data
collection was for a period of six working
days (Monday to Friday). Table 3.2 shows the
summary of the input distributions obtained
from the Arena input analyzer.

Table 3.1: Framework of the simulation process

Main phases Steps

Pre- assessment Problem formulation and study plan

Research Data collection, model definition and validation

Devolvement of simulation Build up computer program and run the model.

Do the pilot run in
ARENA

Discussion and analysis Output data analysis

Suggestion, documentation and model

Conclusion and recommendations implementation
Table 3.2: Input distributions obtained from Arena input analyzer

NAME DISTRIBUTION EXPRESSION

Inter arrival times for customer

truck Exponential EXPO(40.4)

Delivery order Triangular TRIA(30,16.2,100)

Order picking, sealing and

loading Triangular TRIA(28,46.2,100)

Checking Exponential EXPO(55.4)

Inter arrival times for suppliers

van Poisson POIS(55.6)

Unloading Triangular TRIA(30,16.2,100)

Sealing and storage Poisson EXPO(30.4)

storage Triangular TRIA(30,16.2,100)

74
Aliyu et al. 2015
Dutse Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences 1(1) June 2015
ARENA
Arena (Kelton et al, 2011) is simulation
software that can be used to model and
simulate any given system by mimicking the
behaviour of the real system, usually on
computer. In this section, we discuss how to
use the arena software in simulating the
warehouse system. The flowchart modules
in Arena to describe the arrival process of
customer truck and supplier's van is used.
How they are been processed and disposed
after finishing the process. In the design,
two create modules were used, one for the
arrival of the customer truck, and the other
for the arrival of the supplier's van. The
Figure 3.1: The designed arena model for the problem.
Figure 3.2: The designed problem sub model
75
pp 5 - 10
decide module is used to decide the loading
and unloading processes. Seven process
modules were used; namely, delivery order,
order picking, loading, checking, unloading,
sealing and the storage. The average
waiting time, average service time, and
utilization at each process module is
recorded. However, one departure module
is used for the exit of customer trucks.
The model was run for 100 numbers of
replications and time duration for six days
which is equivalent to 6,640 minutes. The
figures 3.1 and 3.2 below shows the
designed model of the system as it runs to
completion.
Aliyu et al. 2015
Dutse Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences 1(1) June 2015 pp 5 - 10
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS time in minutes and the simulation runs
The results of the simulation model for for 100 number of replications. The
the detergent factory were collected in result is shown in table 4.1 and 4.2.
the format of SIMAN report. The unit of

Table 4.1: The Designed simulation model result

Table 4.2: Summary of waiting and service times from table 4.1
Number
Entity AVRG WT AVRG ST AVRG TT Number in out

Customer lorry 180.479 102.31 282.789 144 120

Supplier's van 0.1693 26.605 26.622 96 96

Order picking sealing and

loading 187.88 101.31 289.19 114 90

Unloading 0 0.7559 6.7552 96 96

Table 4.2 shows the average waiting
time, average service time and the
average total time spent by the entities
in the warehouse. It also shows the
number of trucks and vans that enter
and leave the warehouse for six days
after completing service. The average
waiting time of customer's truck, the
order picking, sealing and loading were
high, namely; 180.479 and 187.88
76
minutes. Customer truck drivers waited
for a long period of time due to slow and
congested service process. The average
service times of the processes are high.
For the simulation period, it was
observed that there were 144
customer's truck which entered the
warehouse, but only 120 left. In other
words, the service periods are
insufficient to serve all the trucks.
Aliyu et al. 2015
Dutse Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences 1(1) June 2015
The problem is traceable, and a check
clearly showed that 119 customer trucks
enter the order picking, sealing and
loading process, but only 90 completed
their service.
Table 4.3: Summary of waiting and service times from table 4.1
Worker
Loading driver 1
Loading driver 2
Unloading driver
Clerk
Store staffs
Table 4.3 shows the average value of
man power utilization for all the
workers in the loading and unloading
system for the period of six days. In the
loading system, there are 2 drivers. And
the utilization of these drivers is high as
0.9689 for driver 1 and 0.9485 for the
second driver. This means that the
drivers are working almost throughout
the simulation period. The clerk who is
responsible for providing service at the
order picking, sealing and loading
process also work for about 0.98075
utilization. This is high. But the factory
unloading process is generally okay as
the staffs carrying out the unloading
process are not over stressed.
Based on the observed problems in the
original simulation model, several
recommendations have been proposed
for a better system. The factors
considered are;
1. Arrival time of customer’s trucks: In
order to reduce the waiting time of
a customer, the arrival time of
customer’s truck should be
scheduled first. Warehouse
management can schedule arrival
pp 5 - 10
In the processes involved in the
unloading system, the average waiting
and service times are zero. This shows
that the unloading system is operating
in satisfactory level.
Utilization
0.9689
0.9485
0.6600
0.98075
0.52322
time for each lorry. We recommend
that the inter arrival time of
customers Lorries should be set to
20 or 30 minutes.
2. Number of workers: Additional
worker is needed in the (Order
picking, sealing and loading)
process since the average value of
man power utilization of the loading
drivers is very high. The suggestion
is to employ an additional worker
and to acquire one more clerk.
CONCLUSIONS
In this study, simulation and modeling of
the loading and the unloading systems in
a warehouse that involves ready packed
as well as products that need sealing has
been conducted using ARENA. The
unloading system involving the use of the
company’s own van which is well
scheduled is functioning satisfactorily.
On the other hand, the loading system
has been identified to have the long
waiting times for the (Order picking,
sealing and loading) OPSL, an additional
clerk is needed in this process to reduce
the long waiting times and utilization of
the workers.
77
 Aliyu et al. 2015
Dutse Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences 1(1) June 2015 pp 5 - 10

Therefore, some recommendations from and profit, it is worth considering this

the research were provided to find a
strategy that will minimize the residence
time of any customers truck without
affecting the other processes. However,
since this work does not consider cost
issue in further investigation. The
factory can therefore consider the
recommendations given to achieve their
profit target.

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