Apz-earth: a Simulation Based System for the Estimating And) Planning of Earth Moving Operations

Simulation studies are well suited for the analysis of earth moving operations for many reasons. First, projects generally involve some form of resource interactions where certain equipment must obtain certain resources before proceeding. Second, task durations are highly empirical and are thus suited for stochastic modeling. And third, projects are affected by external processes such as breakdowns and external traffic. Simulation can take all of those elements into account and help estimators gain greater insight into the interactions and productions of earth moving projects. This papers overviews and discusses the features AP2Earth, a computer tool for the simulation, analysis and estimation of large earth moving projects. Data for the model can be imported from an equipment management module and exported to a reporting or estimating module. AP2-Earth allows users to experiment with a number of variables such as the equipment combinations or the road layouts and examine the effect on production.