Application of microscopic discrete event-based simulation in the modelling of the city logistics systems of concentrated sets of delivery locations

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, city logistics issues are getting more and more attention. Within this, our City Logistics Research Group is currently focusing on the urban concentrated sets of delivery locations. MS Excel- and AnyLogic-based simulation models were developed in the last years to analyze them, but still, problems were encountered above a certain model size in both cases. For this reason, we started looking for a new tool that is flexible, fast, and available for everyone. The use of Python Programming Language was selected, with the primary goal of eliminating the previous technical problems and obtaining detailed information about the examined processes. In this paper, we are going to present the problems of the previous models, the development, operation, and main advantages of the new, Python-based DES model, the design and parameterization of the pilot models, the results of the tests, and the next steps of the research.

KEYWORDS:

• City logistics
• shopping mall
• simulation
• Python
• LabVIEW
• DES

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).