CONTSIM–Container Terminal Management with Simulation

Abstract

A container terminal is a complex system with many subsystems, e.g. stacking area, cranes and vehicles, and a large number of decisions for each subsystem. Due to the interactions of these subsystems, there is a lot of stochastic influence and interdependencies within the decisions which make an optimized operation of a whole container terminal very complex and without technical and methodical support hard to handle. One optimal operated subsystem influences all other subsystems and therefore does not result in an optimality for the whole system. To optimize the operations in an overall system with all its stochastic influence and interactions the method of simulation is used in this paper, which provides the opportunity to create an experimental model and identify the best recommended course of action. The Institute of Transport Logistics developed the simulation suite ContSim in close collaboration with the Mindener Hafen GmbH which permits the modelling and simulation of material and information flows in an container terminal. ContSim provides the possibility to model a terminal on a microscopical layer. All handling and controlling processes of the terminal can be modeled and parameterized. Thus, it enables to optimize the operating strategies of a terminal with simulation. The aim is to optimize the terminal by determining the best mix of operating strategies for crane control, stacking area, handling area and resource management for every system load that can be handled by the terminal. Failures in the material flow can be identified and new strategies can be tested in a virtual model, without cost-intensive real time tests. ContSim can also be used as a daily control panel to plan the deployment and the operating strategy mix for the upcoming day.