Discrete event simulation tool for earthmoving fleet selection

Earthmoving operations represent a sizable work in heavy civil engineering projects. Selecting optimum fleet configuration for an earthmoving operation is a very difficult process, especially when dealing with a multi loader type and multi truck type configurations. This paper presents a framework that can be used for the selection of optimum fleet for earthmoving operations. It enables the user to input the available loading and hauling equipment, then, it calculates the cost and total project time of each possible fleet combination, and finally it provides a list of the top-ten best fleet configurations. The direct cost and total project time are calculated for each fleet combination and the top-ten fleets are provided by the framework. The framework is developed in Microsoft environment. A numerical example is worked out to illustrate the practical features of the model. © 2010 EUROSIS-ETI.