Hybrid modeling for vineyard harvesting operations

Mohammed Mesabbah, Amr Mahfouz, Mohamed Ragab, Amr Arisha

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Hiring workers under seasonal recruiting contracts causes significant variation of workers skills in the vineyards. This leads to inconsistent workers performance, reduction in harvesting efficiency, and increasing in grape losses rates. The objective of this research is to investigate how the variation in workers experience could impact vineyard harvesting productivity and operational cost. The complexity of the problem means that it is difficult to analyze the system parameters and their relationships using individual analytical model. Hence, a hybrid model integrating discrete event simulation (DES) and agent based modeling (ABM) is developed and applied on a vineyard to achieve research objective. DES models harvesting operation and simulates process performance, while ABM addresses the seasonal workers heterogeneous characteristics, particularly experience variations and disparity of working days in the vineyard. The model is used to evaluate two seasonal recruiting policies against vineyard productivity, grape losses quantities, and total operational cost.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2016 Winter Simulation Conference
Subtitle of host publicationSimulating Complex Service Systems, WSC 2016
EditorsTheresa M. Roeder, Peter I. Frazier, Robert Szechtman, Enlu Zhou
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages1642-1653
Number of pages12
ISBN (Electronic)9781509044863
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Jul 2016
Event2016 Winter Simulation Conference, WSC 2016 - Arlington, United States
Duration: 11 Dec 201614 Dec 2016

Publication series

NameProceedings - Winter Simulation Conference
Volume0
ISSN (Print)0891-7736

Conference

Conference2016 Winter Simulation Conference, WSC 2016
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityArlington
Period11/12/1614/12/16

Keywords

  • seasonal recruiting contracts
  • workers skills
  • harvesting efficiency
  • grape losses rates
  • vineyard harvesting productivity
  • operational cost
  • discrete event simulation (DES)
  • agent based modeling (ABM)
  • seasonal workers
  • experience variations
  • recruiting policies

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