Track: Undergraduate Research Competition

Abstract

This project analyzed a proposed installation of a loading dock to increase the efficiency of the unloading facility of a building materials distributor while ensuring the employees’ safety. The facility deals with the unloading and organization of doors from the suppliers. This two-man operation begins with unloading the doors onto a rack that is lifted in the air by a forklift operator. After unloading the doors, they are carried into a shed, and the rack is placed where there is free space. If there is none, the doors are unloaded from the rack and placed in a row against the wall. The installation of a loading dock is proposed on the east wall of the shed. With the installation of the loading dock, the supplier will be allowed to back into the loading dock at ground level and provide a safer and more efficient method of unloading doors while keeping them organized afterward. To justify the construction of the loading dock, a time study was conducted over 10 weeks to determine the average standard time it takes to unload one door. Simio software was then used to create what-if scenarios that showed the loading dock would cut unloading time almost in half. By comparing the observed times to simulated times and researching injury costs, the Payback Period, Internal Rate of Return, Benefit-Cost Ratio, and Net Present Value of the loading dock were determined to justify the construction from an economical perspective.