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A computer simulation model of wheat flour storage and transportation systems. Y. S. KIM (1), D. S.
Chung (1), and R. A. Flores (2). (1) Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering; (2)
Department of Grain Science and Industry, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506.
Flour storage and transportation systems in a wheat flour mill were
modeled in order to evaluate facility specifications and transportation rules. The specifications included the
capacity of a flour mill, numbers of flour silos, bulk trucks, and products, and production/transportation
schedules. Combined discrete-continuous simulation was carried out based on a stochastic approach written
in Arena simulation language. The initial facility specification was a 240 ton/24 hr flour mill (about 4,000
cwt/ 24 hr) with 9 flour silos and 5 bulk trucks (10 tons each) and producing 5 different products running 6
days a week. Based on the initial configuration, several different scenarios were created and each scenario
was run for one-year flour mill operation. The results show the effect of different scenarios in various
aspects including amounts of flour produced, shipped, and stored in silos. Based on the results, minimum
configuration of facilities and proper transportation rules could be determined for optimal processing.
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