Operational excellence of a football stadium evacuation scenario in the context of the industry 4.0

Purpose The need to evacuate a public area in the event of natural and/or human disasters, with the purpose of ensuring the safety of all the occupants, implies that an evacuation plan is in place. Several possibilities can be studied using computer simulation, thus ascertaining which of these is best for the situation under analysis. This study aims to analyse and improve the evacuation process of the Dragon Stadium using simulation, a key tool in the context of the industry 4.0. Design/methodology/approach This stadium belongs to Porto Football Club and is located in Portugal. PathFinder simulation software was implemented to study and examine ten different evacuation scenarios. Findings Based on this paper, it has been concluded that the time required for the total evacuation of the Dragon Stadium, with a seating capacity of 50,033 spectators, ranges from 1,004 s to 1,158.3 s (between 16.7 min and 19.3 min) for speeds of 1.6 m/s and 1.2 m/s, respectively. The visitors’ area in the Dragon Stadium, in the context of maximum capacity, can be evacuated within a time period ranging from 991.5 s to 1,117 s (between 16.5 min and 18.6 min) for speeds of 1.6 m/s and 1.2 m/s, respectively. Research limitations/implications The main limitation to the present work on what concerns the analysis of the performance of different evacuation scenarios is that it is suited for the Dragon Stadium only, as it was built accordingly to its design, layout and capacity. Furthermore, the simulation model may not totally depict the complexity of the spectators’ behaviour in a stadium during the process in emergencies situations. Originality/value Being simulation a key technology for developing planning and exploratory models, to optimise decision-making, its use for designing and proposing evacuation scenarios, such as those in a football stadium, becomes a clear contribution for the organisation’s operational excellency, because of its possibility to improve occupants’ safety. Although there are some case studies that study the evacuation of sports venues, carrying out this particular case study with the PathFinder software and the combination of variables such as the speed of the fans, the location of the doors and the combination of the number of doors makes this study different from the others in the literature. This contributes to this paper’s distinction within the field.