| Popis: |
Planning country-wide sustainable logistics for grain exports at a tactical level assumes flexibility to deal with uncertainties. Despite the dynamics of the operations, the solutions approach focuses mainly on optimisation, leaving queuing aspects aside. This paper presents a simulation-optimisation approach to plan the Brazilian inter-modal grain export chain, integrating trucks, railways and port terminals. We evaluate a base scenario, aiming to minimise CO2 emissions in rail transport, meeting demand requirements, and three alternative planning scenarios concerning demand retraction, trend, and expansion. The sustainable grain transportation plan of the base scenario shows the possibility of reducing 66.8 kt CO2/year emissions while increasing 2.51% the exported volume (approximately 146 kt grains/year) and a contribution to profit in $ 43.82 million in the short-term. Scenario analyses open discussions about sustainable investments in inter-modal transport for the medium and long term. The proposed approach is suitable for other commodity chains, representing a step towards consistently applying environmentally oriented supply chain planning. |
