An empirical simulation study of a salmon production line in southern Chile

Abstract Feeding the expected global population of 9 billion by 2050 is a daunting challenge, which engages researchers, technical experts, and leaders across the globe. Particularly, fish consumption in 2030 is projected to be 20 % higher than in 2016 (30 million tons live weight). Salmon farming is one of the main industries that may help in covering the projected world fish demand. Specifically, the largest worldwide salmon exporters are Norway and Chile, representing around 80 % of the market. Therefore, this study aims to analyze strategies to enhance the cold production performance of a typical Chilean salmon company, by developing a simulation model to analyze different improvement strategies for the productive processes in the plant. For three real scenarios, the cold production line throughput was increased between 6.65%–22.95%, where the best case represented an increase of about 330 tons per month. Additionally, we provide relevant significant insights for both practitioners and researchers, based on implementing our methodology.