Abstract
Detailed data on regional goods production and consumption are traditionally the starting point to model freight transport on a nationwide scale. The conversation of those goods afterwards into various vehicle load types and the different logistics operations needed to deliver the requested goods type and quantity, follow from that starting point in the modeling process. In this paper, a demand driven micro-simulated supply chain model is presented. The model shall be a first step towards calculating realistic production and consumption matrices. So far, government provided data has been used as the base to model freight transport for Flanders. The methodology used and accuracy level of this data is not clear. Modeling demand and production relations shall constitute a starting point towards an agent based freight model under development. The presented model is a microsimulation model incorporating the main firms (firms) of a traditional supply chain. It is a demand driven model using quantity of goods requested at the consumer side as a starting point. The model distinguishes also between shipping and carrying firms and takes into account raw material suppliers able to supply all or some subcomponents needed by production firms. Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) relations are used with modifications to include transportation and labour costs. The model is based on an optimized universal cost function and different initial conditions can be used to mimic real life firm to firm interactions. A certain good demand scenario is simulated and results are shown. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.