Ameha, Mulugeta (PhD)Shimelis, Tilahun (Mr.) Co-advisorSisay, Moges2020-11-272023-11-182020-11-272023-11-182020-11http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/12345678/23679Terminal operations consist of the motion of full and empty containers between gateways of the terminals. In this study the problem focus on loading/unloading operations, driver‟s waits due to customs clearance and other related processes, lack of technical and technological capacity as a result loading/unloading operation becomes tardy and causes labor productivity issues, operators‟ schedule reliability, and various types of equipment utilization decreases the service quality and customer satisfaction. The objective of this paper is to identify the current practices and challenges in the warehouse and to set strategies that optimize and improve warehouse operation performance using ARENA simulation. The scope of study is focusing on Kality dry port and terminal at Addis Ababa. The procedures include data gathering, model building, simulation, verification, and validation and performance analysis. Then the model is simulated using the actual container and warehouse operation through collecting data which include the daily empty and full in/out containers, service requirement, parameters, operation schedule and port machine breakdown. The output of the simulation is generated in a form of report. The results show that the percentage error of ARENA model is less than 5% as targeted. This research propose three major decision options(scenarios) to improve the system. The first scenario is changing level of resource at port operation with higher number of waiting. The second one is avoiding unnecessary duplication resource from processes with low capacity utilization to increase the operation output and capacity utilization. Lastly, third scenario focused on merge similar operations through reduced resource to 12 from existing 25 and percentage of productivity per operator for full-in: full-out operation and empty-in: empty- out operation is improved to 84.72% and 63.19% from existing 48.36% and 41.11% respectively. Finally, the research has recommended the enterprise use from creating different opportunities and overcome the challenges as well as the optimization of the dry port warehouse operation system.en-USArenaContainersDry portLoadingOperationPerformanceSimulationUnloadingThesis