| Article ID: | iaor1997600 |
| Country: | United States |
| Volume: | 26 |
| Issue: | 4 |
| Start Page Number: | 1 |
| End Page Number: | 12 |
| Publication Date: | Jul 1996 |
| Journal: | Interfaces |
| Authors: | Epstein Rafael, Weintraub Andres, Morales Ramiro, Seron Jorge, Traverso Pier |
| Keywords: | simulation: applications, transportation: road, Transportation: Road, scheduling, vehicle routing & scheduling |
Timber transport plays an important part in the overall operational costs of forest industries. Depending on their size, typical large forest firms move between 500,000 and 3,000,000 cubic meters a year, with transportation budgets ranging from US$5 to 20 million. The authors developed an operative and computerized system, ASICAM, based on a simulation process with heuristic rules, to support daily truck scheduling decisions. It can be used on any personal computer and runs for about three minutes on a PC 486 for larger problems. ASICAM has been implemented in eight of the largest forest firms in Chile, reducing costs and improving overall operation and work efficiency.