A Simulation Approach to the Optimized Design of Cross-border Operations

Simulations of transport operations have been widely used for scenario analysis and the investigation of competing strategies to optimize traffic flows and logistics operations. This paper applies a simulation approach to the optimized design of cross-border operations within the context of end-to-end trade corridor management. The high levels of inefficiency that currently characterize most African border posts is presented as use case, long cross-border delays are shown to result from conflicting objective of different stakeholders and lack of integration between the systems and processes of independent participants. The results of empirical studies were used to identify the most important contributing factors to cross-border delays. A state flow diagram that represents the critical cross-border processes was constructed to capture the logical interactions between participants, systems and processes. This was converted into a Simio-based discrete process simulator that accurately describes the reality of typical African cross-border processes. The simulator was applied to determine the beneficial impact of various potential remedies to cross-border inefficiencies, including the use of RFID to support a Green Lanes concept and the interchange of information to allow the dynamic scheduling of customs processing capacity. The results of the simulations show that cross-border delays can be reduced by more than 80% through the implementation of a combination of the proposed system and operational changes.