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Optimization of container process at seaport terminals

  • Theoretical Paper
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Journal of the Operational Research Society

Abstract

Seaport container terminals are an important part of the logistics systems in international trades. This paper investigates the relationship between quay cranes, yard machines and container storage locations in a multi-berth and multi-ship environment. The aims are to develop a model for improving the operation efficiency of the seaports and to develop an analytical tool for yard operation planning. Due to the fact that the container transfer times are sequence-dependent and with the large number of variables involved, the proposed model cannot be solved in a reasonable time interval for realistically sized problems. For this reason, List Scheduling and Tabu Search algorithms have been developed to solve this formidable and NP-hard scheduling problem. Numerical implementations have been analysed and promising results have been achieved.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Queensland University of Technology, Queensland, Australia

    A Wong & E Kozan

Authors
  1. A Wong
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  2. E Kozan
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Appendix. List Scheduling Approach (LIS-2)

Appendix. List Scheduling Approach (LIS-2)

To illustrate the List Scheduling approach, consider the following example. Three inbound containers j 1,j 2,j 3 are unloaded from a ship by two QCs and there are two YMs m 1 and m 2 in the yard. Table A1 shows the unloading time and processing time for each container; and Table A2 shows the setup time according to the processing sequence (j 0 is the dummy starting job).

Table 2 Unloading and processing time of containers.
Full size table
Table 3 Sequence dependent setup time.
Full size table

Using the list {j 1,j 2,j 3} as an example, j 1 is first container in the list sequence. Since there is no difference in assigning m 1 or m 2 to j 1, m 1 is selected: illustration Now consider the second import container j 2. If m 1 is assigned to j 2, it must return from the storage yard first. In comparison, m 2 has the earliest complete time and is assigned to j 2: illustrationSimilarly, m 2 is assigned to j 3 because it has the earliest complete time: illustration

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Wong, A., Kozan, E. Optimization of container process at seaport terminals. J Oper Res Soc 61, 658–665 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1057/jors.2009.18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/jors.2009.18

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