URBAN SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT BY PROCESS MAPPING AND SIMULATION

Adequate management of urban solid waste (USW) is beneficial to the environment, cities and people who depend on the income generated from collecting this waste material to survive. Due to the level of complexity of these processes involved in recyclable USW sorting, management tools which enable systemic studies become valuable assets by evaluating the effects changes may cause on the organization. This paper presents a modeling study, which used process mapping and discrete event simulation, in which a USW collection process was evaluated. The study was conducted in conjunction with the USW trash gatherers association of Itajubá, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The lack of standardized processes presented difficulties for developing the simulation model. To diminish this problem, three conceptual modelingtechniques were used (SIPOC, flowcharts and IDEF-SIM). Data were collected via observation, interviews and questionnaires. The validated conceptual model, obtained in this study, will be able to be used to better understand the process. Finally, the model was used to evaluate process improvement scenarios.

Urban Solid Waste (USW); discrete event simulation; process mapping; decision making model