Visualisation of a stockyard layout simulator “SimStock”: a case study in precast concrete products industry

The demand for the concrete products is seasonal and huge stock is built in winter for dispatch in summer. As 1000–2000 products with different sizes, weights, handling and stacking requirements are involved, the process of deciding appropriate locations to stock the products and track them while loading into lorries for dispatch becomes complex. Stockyards in the precast concrete products industry are experiencing space congestion, and long vehicle waiting times for both the storage and retrieval of concrete products due to lack of a proper methodology to manage stockyard layouts and their operations. This paper describes an ongoing research that addresses the stockyard layout management problem through the development of an integrated simulation and visualisation model. The paper focuses on the development of the visualisation and simulation element of the stockyard management system “SimStock”. The simulation model has been developed using ARENA/SIMAN, a general-purpose simulation language. The simulation model integrates production and forecast schedules, evaluates “what-if” scenarios with different layouts, products allocation to storage locations and order picking policies. The output of the simulation model is recorded in a database (Ms Access). The visualisation model was developed through integrating AutoCAD2000 with the database of the simulation model such that the simulated layouts can be studied in greater details and validated in a simpler manner. The visualisation module is used to assist managers in designing stock layouts (one of the major inputs to the simulation model) and visualise the simulation process in 2D (and 3D) perspectives, and manage real time implementation of proposed stockyard solutions.