SIMULATION–OPTIMIZATION TRUCK DISPATCH PROBLEM USING LOOK – AHEAD ALGORITHM IN OPEN PIT MINES

Abstract

Material transportation in open-pit mines area contributes to 50% of the operating costs.
Therefore, efficiency on the material transportation, specifically in truck dispatching problem needs to be
done in order to get the best dispatching rules for the allocation of trucks and loaders. This research uses
look-ahead algorithm approach as a new method to solve truck dispatch problem in open-pit mines area. The
proposed approach was developed by simulation and optimization model in solving the truck dispatch
problem using real data-situation. The dispatching result aims to answer the question where and when should
a truck go so that could maximize the number of production and provide significant operating cost savings to
the mining industry. This study uses a discrete event simulation to test several scenarios methods of truck
dispatch, including LP-Gap, the percentage of LP-Gap, multi-stage algorithm and look-ahead algorithm. The
results of the research shows that the look-ahead algorithm scenario gives the highest result with the number
of production, productivity of loaders, productivity of trucks with block and without block; 43,533 ton,
64.44%, 80.53% and 63.47%.