Stress testing the Nautical Chain: A Discrete Event Simulation to Improve The Resilience of The Nautical Chain

Abstract

Maritime logistics is important for the international volume of trade. Ports are critical in cargo transhipment and provide services to vessels like traffic management, piloting, towage and mooring, which together are called the Nautical Chain since these services are dependent on each other. Due to the importance of maritime logistics, it is important that the supply chain functions resiliently and thus ports function resiliently. For ports to function resiliently, the Nautical Chain should function resiliently. Currently there is no knowledge on the resilience of the Nautical Chain, which is the gap this research addresses. The aim of this research is to gain insight in the current state of resilience of the Nautical Chain, and gain insight in the effect different mitigation strategies have on improving this resilience. A literature review is performed and a discrete event simulation model is built to gain insight in the resilience of the Nautical Chain. The results show that the largest improvement to the resilience of the Nautical Chain can be achieved by a simultaneous increase in pilots and tugs.