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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Marin Marinov
When discrepancies between planning and operations occur, the final product of the service provided easily becomes of poor quality. Motivated by a similar situation, over the last 5 years, we have studied transportation services with freight trains by the Portuguese Rail Freight Operator – “CP Carga”. We have unveiled a problematic cycle caused by multiple inadequacies involving tactical management and operation. At the bottom of this problem lies the incomplete methodology for fulfilment of both annual and weekly planning processes seen in disregarding the maximum processing capabilities of the yards. We believe that one possible way to break the problematic cycle is to provide reliable tools for evaluation of yard performances that could be used at both annual and weekly planning. More specifically, a two steps approach for evaluating yard performances at tactical management level is discussed. The suggested approach involves analytical modelling with G/G/m queues and Event-based simulations with SIMUL 8 and is implemented for the purposes of “CP Carga”. The main concept employed is that in planning the yard operation, one should consider these facilities as Pull Production Systems that explicitly control the “Work in Process”, i.e., the amount of trains to be processed by the yard in question. Thus, seamless operations with freight trains are experienced.
Author(s): Marinov M, Viegas J
Publication type: Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstract)
Publication status: Published
Conference Name: RailZurich2009 : 3rd International Seminar on Railway Operations Modelling and Analysis ; Engineering and Optimisation Approaches
Year of Conference: 2009
Date deposited: 29/11/2009
Publisher: International Association of Railway Operations Research (IAROR)
URL: http://www.ivt.ethz.ch/news/railzurich2009/Presentations/d2_marinov.pdf
