A Simulation Study for Supporting Maritime Coal Supply Chain Design

The purpose of this study is undertake a review of the seaborne coal supply chains for two important Power Stations in the Mediterranean Sea. We are considered four different scenarios. An important aspect of this study has been the consultation with the coal supply chain participants, involving interviews, site visits and workshops, to share present information, medium term plans, objectives and expectations. The design of experiment (DOE) approach has been employed. DOE is important as a formal way of maximizing information gained by available resources. It has more to offer than “one change at a time” experimental methods because it allows a judgment on the significance to the output of input variables acting alone, as well as input variables acting in combination with one another. Using the results of the simulations, a regression analysis has been performed, providing multi-dimensional response surfaces expressing the dependency of throughput and demurrage days on the independent variables considered. The results of simulations are described at paragraph at the end of paper.