Abstract
Ports are key factors in international trade, and new port terminals are quite costly and time consuming to build. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize existing infrastructure to achieve sustainability in logistics. This problem is more complex in multi-client port terminals, where quay infrastructure is shared among terminal operators who often have conflicting interests. Moreover, the berth allocation problem in liquid bulk terminals implies demanding restrictions due to the reduced flexibility in berth allocation for these types of goods. In this context, this paper presents HADES, a multi-agent platform, and the experience of its pilot use in the Port of Cartagena. HADES is a software platform where agents involved in vessel arrivals share meaningful but limited information. This is done to alleviate potential congestion in multi-client liquid bulk terminals, promoting a consensus where overall congestion anchoring is reduced. A study is presented using a mixed integer linear program (MILP) optimization model to analyze the maximum theoretical reduction in congestion anchoring, depending on the flexibility of vessel arrival time changes. Results show that 6 h of flexibility is enough to reduce congestion anchoring by half, and 24 h reduces it to negligible values. This confirms the utility of HADES, which is also briefly described.
Highlights
HADES adds to the literature about Berth Allocation Problem (BAP) problems by focusing on multi-client liquid bulk terminals, making coordination among the different port agents easier to achieve and providing improvements to the value chain associated with trade, which results in more efficient, sustainable, and competitive logistic chains
HADES is the first version of a web-based multi-client coordination system to be used by terminal operators, shipping agents, and port authorities that optimizes berth occupancy
The strategy of HADES is to incentivize voluntary time coordination among vessel arrivals to multi-client terminals in order to reduce congestion delays. This is of special interest in liquid bulk terminals, which often do not have the flexibility to allocate arriving vessels into more than one position and quay, in contrast to container-based terminals
Summary
The existing ones are all costly and have been developed for container terminals, sometimes even for specific terminals, such as Posidonia Operation [3], Dropboard [4], and Marine Enterprise Suite [5] All these tools share opacity in terms of the optimization or heuristic models used for berth assignment, and they allow for little improvement from the user interface. HADES adds to the literature about BAP problems by focusing on multi-client liquid bulk terminals, making coordination among the different port agents easier to achieve and providing improvements to the value chain associated with trade, which results in more efficient, sustainable, and competitive logistic chains. HADES is a software tool for the optimal operation of liquid bulk terminal management developed by E-lighthouse This tool is based on an optimization model for the allocation of liquid bulk berths to reduce congestion and vessel waiting time.
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