Optimizing the Stowage Planning and Block Relocation Problem in Inland Container Shipping

Jun Li,Xiaolei Liang,Zhixiong Liu,Yu Zhang

doi:10.1109/access.2020.3037675

Jun Li, Xiaolei Liang + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.3037675

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Abstract

The stowage planning and block relocation problem (SPBRP) consider the relations between stowage planning and block relocation comprehensively, in which the retrieval sequence of containers in yard and the stowage plan of a ship are concerned. In this paper, an integer programming formulation called SPBRP-I is presented for the proposed problem in inland container liner shipping to minimize the total number of relocations in yard and re-handles in ship. To deal with the utilization preference in inland shipping, the minimization of ship stack occupancy number is introduced into SPBRP-I to develop a new model called SPBRP-II. In view of the complexity of problem-solving, a heuristic algorithm (HA) based on priority sorting, retrieval and local search strategies is proposed to achieve the efficient optimization. The algorithm consists of three parts including the yard container retrieving, yard container relocation and ship stowage planning. Finally, the container liner shipping on the Yangtze River is chosen with some typical ships for the case study. Numerical results show that SPBRP-II performs better than the original SPBRP-I, and it's more suitable for solving the small-sized cases. Compared with the models, the algorithm with retrieval strategy RS1 (HA_RS1) can achieve the efficient problem solving with high-quantity solutions and very short computational time.

Highlights

The national strategy of building China’s strength in transportation highlights the status of inland waterway transportation system in the country
In Li et al [1], the multi-port stowage planning problem along the Yangtze River is formulated as a stochastic programming model considering the weight of the containers to be uncertain
Different from the work in Ji et al [40] and Tanaka and Voß [41], this paper focuses on the stowage planning problem with block relocations which needs to determine the retrieval sequence of containers in yard and the stowage plan of a ship simultaneously

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The national strategy of building China’s strength in transportation highlights the status of inland waterway transportation system in the country. In Li et al [1], the multi-port stowage planning problem along the Yangtze River is formulated as a stochastic programming model considering the weight of the containers to be uncertain They propose three solution methods including two exact approaches and a hybrid neighborhood search algorithm based on heuristics. Different from the work in Ji et al [40] and Tanaka and Voß [41], this paper focuses on the stowage planning problem with block relocations which needs to determine the retrieval sequence of containers in yard and the stowage plan of a ship simultaneously This problem is referred as SPBRP, and it’s more complex and suitable for the practical operations in inland shipping.

MATHEMATICAL MODELS

SPBRP-II

MODEL SOLVING METHOD

HEURISTIC ALGORITHM

5: Update the container k with smallest qk as the target container

VIII. CONCLUSION