Key Performance Indicator Development for Ship-to-Shore Crane Performance Assessment in Container Terminal Operations

Abstract

Since the introduction of containerization in 1956, its growth has led to a corresponding growth in the role of container seaborne traffic in world trade. To respond to such growth, requirements for setting up the common standards in various kinds of container harbor equipment, and identifying performance indicators to assess container handling equipment performance have increased. Although the operating systems in ship-to-shore cranes may be different at each container terminal, the four main movements are the same: hoist, trolley, gantry, and boom. By determining in this work the hour metrics for each movement, it was possible to define the key performance indicators to be adopted and assess ship-to-shore crane performance. The research results identified that the mean time between failures is decreasing because of the accumulation of long-lasting heavyweight operations, while the number of maintenance of machine parts incidents and man-hours is steadily increasing. The key performance indicators offer a management tool to guide future ship-to-shore container crane inspection and the results provide useful insights for future container crane equipment operation improvements.