Conception d'un outil d'aide a la decision pour l'entrepot Montrealais d'Air Canada Cargo a partir d'un modele de simulation

The domain of goods transportation is full of challenges that carriers must daily face. Given the increasing number of transported goods, companies must ensure that their systems can meet demands while respecting current standards. It is in this context that fits the project of designing a decision tool support for Air Canada Cargo. The company provides freight services for export and import. Goods that go through the warehouse are classified into eight categories (solutions) and can be shipped in two service levels (Standard and Priority 1). The aim of the project is to provide a tool which will help in making decisions for the Montreal's warehouse of Air Canada Cargo. The challenge lies in developing a flexible tool that takes into account operational constraints related to the goods processed.;The method used for this study is in three steps. The first one is to represent the business processes of the warehouse at export and at import. The second step is to build the simulation model of the warehouse with ARENA software. The challenge at this step is the aggregation of characterization parameters of goods input with probability laws taking into account all the particularities of the data. The simulation results are used to generate values for the predetermined performance indicators. Thus, the user can modify the data input for the scenario and view the results in Excel files. A scenario analysis is performed at the last step. The baseline scenario corresponds to the situation of the warehouse at the time of data collection. The new scenario corresponds to the situation of the warehouse due to the addition of new operations in the export process. Indeed, currently all shipments are inspected (X-ray or manually) before being loaded on an aircraft. Customers holding a certification from Transport Canada are exempt from this inspection.;Performance indicators considered in the scenario analysis are divided into two categories: operating time for customers and for goods. Those two data are collected for both available service levels. The purpose of the scenario analysis is to determine the impact of the new process on operating time. Thus, it is possible to provide statistics on the capacity of the warehouse to meet the delivery times for each service level.;The simulation results obtained for the initial conditions are very close to reality. For export, 96 % of Priority 1 goods are transported to the airport before the flight departure time. Similarly, 90 % of Standard goods are available at the airport before the departure time of the flight. Similar results are obtained for import. The new process has a significant impact on the tender of goods. Maintaining the same arrival times for customers and the same hours of departure for the goods, less than 60 % of the goods are delivered to the airport on time.;Regarding the clients operating time, for export, a client shipping Priority 1 goods, spends an average of 10 min in the warehouse while a client shipping Standard goods, spends 30 min in the warehouse. At import, a client process time is 32 min for all services. The changes made for the new scenario, concern the export process only. After the simulation of the new scenario, the operating time of clients at export increased by 20 min for service Priority 1 and 50 min for the Standard service.;A logistics system is represented by two types of network : the network of goods flow and the network of information flows. The simulation model is designed for representing the flows of goods within the warehouse. Business processes are used to describe the other network. Understanding of both networks at the base of the logistics system of the warehouse of Air Canada Cargo at Montreal can make better decisions for its improvement. The originality of the approach taken in this study is to allow the user to have access to all information related to each network when making decisions.