Logistics of LHC cryodipoles: from simulation to storage management

The main families of LHC superconducting cryomagnets consist of approximately 1240 cryodipoles and 480 Short Straight Sections (SSS). The different contracts, which are constraining the production and installation of these cryomagnets, have been initially rated according to the baseline schedule, based on a "just in time" scheme. However the complexity of the construction and the time required to fully test the cryomagnets require that each contract is decoupled as much as possible from the others' evolutions and impose temporary storage between different assembly and test activities. Therefore, a tool simulating the logistics over the whole duration of the project was created in order to determine the number of cryomagnets to be stored at the various stages of their production. In this paper the organization of cryomagnet flow and the main challenges of logistics are analyzed on the basis of the planning of each main step before installation in the LHC. Finally, the solutions implemented for storage, handling and transportation are presented and discussed.