Evaluation of operational plans in container terminal yards using Discrete-Event Simulation

Abstract

As the world container volumes are soaring, container terminals form a very important chain in the global transportation network. It is a generally accepted view that the modelling of the dynamic and stochastic nature of the container terminal systems using analytical or closed form models is a complicated process and the use of such models is very limited. Hence, this paper presents a simulation model for complete terminal operations which is developed and implemented with the view to validate/evaluate the operational results obtained from a new optimization model of the combined container assignment and yard crane deployment problem. The various aspects of the container terminal operations are modelled using discrete-event simulation. Computational results from the simulation model are reported for a UK container terminal using operational data.