An Experimental Evaluation of the Economic Feasibility of Automated Quayside Cranes

Abstract

The majority of the studies on Quayside Cranes (QSCs) focus on optimising the automatic capabilities of the cranes and very few have studied their economic implications. This paper examines the economic feasibility of reducing QSCs' cycle-times resulting from automated features installed on existing post-Panamax cranes. It demonstrates that a considerable increase in productivity of QSCs is related directly or indirectly to an expected reduction of crane cycle-times. The study sets up the need for the proposed improvements through automation and explains the concepts of the systems involved. The concept offered by the proposed improvements distinguishes between the traditional system of loading and discharging of the containers and the automated methods. The evaluations and analyses in this study demonstrate that optimisation of the quayside operation enables the terminal operators to reduce turnaround time and port stays of containerships. The study illustrates that the expected economic benefits achieved from the improvement of the QSCs' performance, with regard to adoption of automated devices in this experiment, far exceeds the cost of adopting the various automatic devices.