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Two decision models for berth allocation problem under uncertainty considering service level

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Abstract

This paper examines the berth allocation problem, which is to assign a quay space and a service time to the vessels that have to be loaded and unloaded at a container terminal within a given planning horizon, with consideration of uncertain factors, mainly including the arrival and operation time of the calling vessels. Based on the concept of conflict, two kinds of service level are proposed and two decision models are constructed to minimize the total operational cost, which includes delay cost and non-optimal berthing location cost. The first model satisfies the service level of a specific scenario and the second one considers the service level across all scenarios. Due to the NP-hardness of the constructed model, a two-stage heuristics algorithm is employed to solve the problem. Finally, extensive numerical experiments are conducted to test the performances of the two proposed models and algorithm and help the port planners make decisions.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant number 51705282, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant number 71472108, the Shenzhen Municipal Science and Technology Innovation Committee under grant number JCYJ20160531195231085, the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (No. 2014IM010100). The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Jing Ma’s help during the revision process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Changchun Liu, Xi Xiang & Li Zheng

  2. Logistics Engineering and Simulation Laboratory, Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Xi Xiang

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  1. Changchun Liu
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  2. Xi Xiang
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  3. Li Zheng
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Correspondence to Changchun Liu.

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Liu, C., Xiang, X. & Zheng, L. Two decision models for berth allocation problem under uncertainty considering service level. Flex Serv Manuf J 29, 312–344 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10696-017-9295-5

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