A Simulation Model Analysis in the US-Mexico Border

Supply Chain (SC) is the flow of goods or services between supply and demand points. New or innovative strategies in SC have been researched and developed to deal with disruptive events, such as COVID-19, hurricanes, geopolitical, and even climate change. These challenges create supply imbalances, logistical challenges, and policy restrictions for transborder commerce. The DHS has implemented the Free and Secure Trade (FAST) program in both the US-Mexico and US-Canada border. These lanes are dedicated queues for commercial vehicles. In 2022, the government of Nuevo León, México, opened a dedicated lane just for Tesla s northbound commercial traffic. There has been no prior knowledge of a dedicated lane for a single company at a US Port of Entry (POE). Dedicated lanes in queueing systems are novel methods of improving performance measures by allocating resources to prioritize the needs of a set of companies. This paper builds on previous research of a cost-comparison model developed to analyze the benefits of this innovative strategy. The thesis is to test whether the innovation on the cross-border dedicated lanes queuing system saves time, saves money and benefits the SC. A simulation model will be validated using POE data from Mexican and U.S. Customs. It will analyze different scenarios for the traffic flow of the dedicated lane compared to the regular lanes in the Colombia-Solidarity Port of Entry. This model will also compute other measures to compare the system in different scenarios with different congestion situations. The analysis will show if the reduction in the wait time improves the supply chain's resilience or if different strategies should be considered.