Abstract
Uncertainty is an inevitable aspect of seaside operations in container terminals. Operators therefore need to find robust plans that can resist the impact of uncertainties. Instead of solving a stochastic berth allocation problem, this paper proposes an efficient procedure for inserting buffers into baseline berth plans to strengthen the schedule stability. Such a method is highly versatile and compatible with various solutions to berth allocation problem with different objectives. Numerical results obtained by using simulation on a representative set of instances of the problem are reported; these indicate that the proposed procedure not only increases the flexibility of operations with minor loss of resource utilization but also addresses the impact of service priority. Hence, the contribution in this paper will provide a short path that bridges the gap between berth allocation problem in deterministic and stochastic circumstances.
Highlights
Nowadays, average container terminal utilization levels have risen markedly across almost all regions of the world
Despite the spiral trade protectionism effect created by US-China trade tensions and Brexit, a milestone with total seaborne trade volumes amounting to 11 billion tons was reached in 2018, and an estimated 793.26 million TEUs were handled in container terminals worldwide
Combining the production practices and a literature review, we see a need for a more efficient way of inserting buffers. erefore, unlike the aforementioned studies, the present study focuses on improving the robustness of predefined berth plans by proposing a novel float factor model for berth plan adjustments [28]. e main contribution is twofold: an efficient procedure for inserting buffers is developed to generate robust baseline schedules with acceptable economic performances and solution stability in the presence of stochastic operation times, and the impact of critical attributes of berth allocation problem (BAP), such as service priority, and the choices of scheduling strategies are thoroughly analyzed
Summary
Average container terminal utilization levels have risen markedly across almost all regions of the world. The deviation of actual operation starting time sri from the assigned value si for vessel i is adopted as the indicator of robustness. E first step of the proposed procedure is to obtain the latest allowable operation starting time sli of each vessel i, i.e., moving the rectangles in the time-space diagram to their right-most positions without exceeding the required departure times.
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