Document control simulation for customs clearance in a sea port

摘要

A simulation study is undertaken to analyze document-processing time in a seaport of a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country and recommend restructuring of staffing at the customs department. The document processing time is constrained by the number of employees in different departments and the type of documents requiring clearance. The distribution times of the documents processed are identified by a system study. A discrete event simulation model is developed to study the effect of a number of document dispatch and processing rules. The study identifies the optimal number of staffing and it results in a 33.68% reduction in document processing time. It also suggests a 7.8% reduction in labor at the customs department is required.