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Cargo assembly planning

  • Research Paper
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EURO Journal on Transportation and Logistics

Abstract

A critical component in a coal export supply chain is the stockyard at a terminal, as this is where coal from different mines is “mixed” in a stockpile before being loaded onto vessels. We develop a tree search algorithm for managing the stockyard aimed at maximizing the throughput. The algorithm relies on the analysis and use of geometric properties of a coal assembly plan when represented in a space–time diagram. A computational study establishes the efficacy of the algorithm and analyzes the merit of commonly used stockyard management rules.

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Acknowledgments

We want to express our thanks to the cargo assembly planners and the members of the strategic planning team at HVCCC who shared their knowledge of the practices and challenges of stockyard management and who provided feedback and suggestions during the course of our research and development efforts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia

    Martin Savelsbergh

  2. IBM Research, Melbourne, VIC, 3053, Australia

    Olivia Smith

Authors
  1. Martin Savelsbergh
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  2. Olivia Smith
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Correspondence to Martin Savelsbergh.

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Savelsbergh, M., Smith, O. Cargo assembly planning. EURO J Transp Logist 4, 321–354 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13676-014-0048-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13676-014-0048-2

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