Abstract
This study establishes a discrete process-interaction simulation model to solve cold chain home delivery peak-demand problem at operation center. We simulate its ceiling capacity and use it to evaluate alternatives to over-capacity. A Penghu case study shows that current capacity is around 360 packages under five members/vehicle assignments. However, capacity can be increased to 435 once staff’s operation efficiency was increased by 20% (i.e., decreased by 20% operation time for each job-item). In case of over-capacity or trucking delay, dropping out unnecessary job-items such as cargo number and weight recording is a workable option to save operation time. In addition, depending on package amount, truck’s arrival delay at operation center is acceptable for fleet control. For example, a late arrival truck with 30% (of 361 units) packages carried, a delay of thirty minutes is allowable. At 79%, only five minutes is allowable.
