Integrating engineering knowledge in logistical optimisation

Integrating engineering knowledge in logistical optimisation: development of a concept evaluation tool

den Uijl, Joris (TU Delft Civil Engineering and Geosciences; TU Delft Hydraulic Engineering)

Wang, Zhengbing (mentor)
Morales Napoles, Oswaldo (mentor)
van Koningsveld, Mark (mentor)

Delft University of Technology

2018-01-22

A strategy for completing a dredging project is called a working method. The goal of a tender study is to find an optimal working method for a specific project. To find the optimal working method, the full range of possible solutions should be investigated. However, the available resources during a tender study are often limited and trends in the market place a further strain on the available resources.

An optimal working method is often the strategy with minimal project cost and project duration. A large share of the project cost is determined by the time that dredging equipment has to be available on site and therefore the assessment of working methods is often focused on the achievable production rates. Therefore the objective of this thesis is to decrease the required time to assess one working method. An analysis of the achievable production rates is typically done in a linear fashion. It is expected that by integrating engineering knowledge and planning by means of a concept evaluation tool the number of working methods that can be assessed, within the same amount of time and with a high(er) level of detail, increases. Development of this concept evaluation tool consisted of three steps:

First, the functional requirements of the tool were determined based on interviews with a number of specialists. Theoretical concepts that could serve as a framework for the concept evaluation tool were analysed based on these functional requirements and the choice was made for discrete event simulation.

Second, the concept evaluation tool has been developed based on test-driven development. A large database with unit-tests has been created for which the output of each test could be checked analytically, this enabled continuous development and validation. This methodology is very transparent and has not only helped to identify and solve numerous bugs, it has also increased trust into the reliability of the concept evaluation tool.

Third, to see if the anticipated improvement could be achieved by applying the concept evaluation tool to a large variety of cases. Cases that resemble realistic problems that Van Oord faces, but also a comparison is made with a tool that Van Oord previously developed for the Fehmarnbelt project.

Using the concept evaluation tool shows promising results and Van Oord is continuing the development. For both dredging and offshore wind projects.

Dredging
Optimisation
Discrete Event Simulation
Operations Research

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:8d82b44c-59e3-4307-a0af-03a20f1a931e

2021-01-22

Student theses

master thesis

© 2018 Joris den Uijl