MAS-based evaluation method of production performance for coal export terminals

Abstract

ABSTRACT Determining how to reasonably evaluate the production performance of bulk cargo terminals has always been a concern of the terminal managers. Aiming at the problem of production performance evaluation of the coal export terminals, this paper presents an evaluation method of production performance based on MAS (multi-agent system). A global simulation model of a typical export coal terminal is built in the paper, and the changes of production performance indicators under different conditions are discussed in detail. For the terminal studied, the experimental results show that the terminal production efficiency can be improved based on a series of measures, such as reducing the coal storage time, reducing the ship inter-arrival time, increasing ship loading capacity within a certain range. This method is helpful for the coal terminal managers to better understand the relationship between the terminal production performance indicators and related input factors.