Flexible yard management in container terminals for uncertain retrieving sequence

Abstract

With the booming traffic of global container transport, the container port throughput keeps increasing too. As the key node of the maritime network, the handling efficiency of container terminal always determine the efficiency of the whole container transport. In order to improve the handling efficiency of the container terminal, the optimization of yard space is still a challenge for terminal manager. Generally, the whole export block is used to be separated into several clusters to store export containers for different loading liners. In former studies, the unit of template generated is always fixed clusters like subblock, and the concept of flexible loading cluster is seldom touched. The application of flexible loading cluster, where the number of bays, rows and tiers can be changed based on service requirement, is discussed in this research. Thus this study wants to find out the optimal choice of flexible loading clusters and better solutions for export container allocation. A bi-objectives model which considers both the transportation distance and the handling congestions is built. A heuristic approach is developed to solve the real-life cases. We emphasize the possible rehandles during loading process and it is concluded that the application of flexible loading clusters is efficient for uncertain retrieving sequence.