Terminal Operations Research Articles

The Integrated Rescheduling Problem of Berth Allocation and Quay Crane Assignment with Uncertainty

The baseline plan of terminals will be impacted to a certain extent after being affected by uncertain events, such as vessel delay and unscheduled vessel arrival, resulting in disorderly terminal operations, wasted resources, and reduced loading and unloading efficiency, which further aggravates terminal congestion. To effectively cope with the disturbance of terminal operations by the above uncertain events and improve the operational efficiency of container terminals, this paper investigates the integrated rescheduling problem of berth allocation and quay crane assignment with vessel delay and unscheduled vessel arrival. Two steps are designed to deal with uncertainty shocks. The first step is to determine the rescheduling moment by using a rolling time-domain approach. The second step is to establish a rescheduling model and design an improved genetic algorithm(IGA) to obtain a rescheduling solution using various rescheduling strategies at the rescheduling moment. Moreover, through scenario experiments, comparisons with commercial solvers and other algorithms, it can be seen that the solution speed of IGA is better than that of commercial solvers and the average gap does not exceed 6%, which verifies the effectiveness and superiority of this algorithm.

Optimizing container terminal operations: a systematic review of operations research applications

Optimizing container terminal operations: a systematic review of operations research applications

Noise pollution of container handling: External and abatement costs and environmental efficiency

While previous studies have pointed to their economic significance, terminal operations are frequently ignored in transport appraisal and policy analysis. This paper develops a generic model framework for estimating noise emissions from container terminal operations to derive key metrics for port policy analysis. A novel microeconomic production model that accommodates basic acoustics is proposed. Based thereon, abatement costs are derived using optimization and marginal external costs and efficiency scores are estimated using panel data frontier estimation. The virtues of the modeling approach are illustrated using noise meter readouts combined with port activity and meteorological data from the port of Oslo, Norway.

Strategies on Visual Display Terminal Lighting in Office Space under Energy-Saving Environment

In this work, we have studied how the vertical illuminance of the human eye position, illuminance of the horizontal work surface, and the brightness of the computer screen in the office space lighting are correlated under an energy-saving environment. This investigation was conducted in a full-scale laboratory that simulates an office space with 20 adults. It was found that when the indoor ambient lighting illuminance changes, the vertical illuminance of the subject’s eye position is affected accordingly, and the two factors are strongly correlated. On the other hand, when the surrounding environment is brighter and the vertical illuminance increases, the illuminance of the horizontal working surface adjusted by the subject during the visual display terminal (VDT) operation is significantly reduced. The horizontal illuminance value can even be lower than the value frequently employed in various countries around the world, since the computer screen brightness will be adjusted accordingly. Therefore, in an energy-saving environment, the illuminance of the horizontal working surface and the brightness of the computer screen adjusted by the users will vary with the ambient lighting. Especially in the current mainstream VDT operating environment and within a certain range of conditions, the interior setting can be lower than the current horizontal illuminance benchmark for additional energy conservation.

Analysis of the Implementation of Standard Operating Procedures in the Implementation of Work for Terminal Operation Center Employees of PT. Angkasa Pura II at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport

Soekarno-Hatta International Airport is the largest and busiest airport which has 4 terminals under its supervision. PT.Angkasa Pura II formed a new unit, namely the Terminal Operatin Center unit, a new TOC unit which was established in mid-September 2018. This study aims to analyze the application of SOP Terminal Operation Center in implementing the work of its employees and what are the obstacles encountered in implementing the Terminal Operation Center SOP. This study uses qualitative research methods using data collection techniques including observation, interviews, and documentation using data analysis techniques in the form of data collection, data reduction, data presentation (data display), and drawing conclusions. The research was carried out at the Terminal Operation Center Unit at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. The results of the study found that the implementation of SOPs had not been implemented 100 percent, SOPs had not been implemented since the establishment of the TOC and there were also obstacles encountered in implementing the SOPs, namely the lack of human resources, both internal TOC and entities.

Solution for the Problem of Sustainable Staff Scheduling in Semi-Automated Dock Container Terminals in Ports

Port operations in container terminals are as important as container transportation itself. A port has a complex system in which a wide variety of operations take place, and a wide variety of resources are required to interact with each other. The aim of a port operator is to complete the service required in the shortest time and in the most efficient way. The quayside of the port, the equipment used such as cranes and field vehicles, and the operations officer and personnel are factors that directly affect the service provided at a port. The port management aims to maximize efficiency by reaching the maximum number of movements with the least possible cost. Increasing the efficiency and quality of the working personnel is extremely important in achieving this aim. This study provides efficient, fair, and balanced scheduling of field personnel and shift supervisors working in port operations using a real-life case of the semi-automated docks at an international port. A goal-programing model is constructed to manage the workforce needed by the port for a one-week working period and to assign the shift supervisors to the shifts in a balanced way. The personnel’s preferences and qualifications, which directly affect productivity, are also considered while planning. Results show an increase in productivity, quality of life, concentration, and employee job satisfaction. The results of the suggested mathematical model in the study show that the demands of the workers facing conflicting constraints were met with the least deviation from goals.

TÜBİTAK 1MV Accelerator Mass Spectrometer Designed For 14C, 10Be, 26Al, 41Ca, 129I

A 1 MV Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (AMS) was installed at TÜBİTAK, MRC Turkey in December 2015. The 1MV TÜBİTAK AMS system is based on a Pelletron tandem accelerator, operating up to 1.1MV. Built by National Electrostatics Corporation (NEC), its design was unique during production time. The TÜBİTAK 1MV AMS is based off the design of an XCAMS 0.5MV AMS also produced by NEC, but with a higher energy tandem accelerator. The higher energy accelerator features better precision (1% or less) for 10Be measurements. This new AMS also has larger magnets than the XCAMS. Larger magnets make it possible to measure 41Ca and 129I at the two-anode gas-ionization detector. In this article, the technical features; the parameters of ion source, terminal and other operations, and measurement quality are explained for accomplished performance of the five isotopic ratios, 14C/12C, 10Be/9Be, 26Al/27Al, 41Ca/40Ca, 129I/127I. The five years data for 14C/12C ratio measurement quality control are represented as well.

Correspondence: Debating China's Use of Overseas Ports

Correspondence: Debating China's Use of Overseas Ports

Comparative analysis of foreign and coastal trade cargo handling charges in SIFAX seaport terminals, Nigeria

The study was carried out to compare the cargo handling charges of SIFAX terminal in Lagos ports, Nigerian for coastal import and export trade between Nigeria and tropical West African countries handled via the port operator’s terminal; and foreign import and export trade between Nigeria and other countries other than tropical West African countries handled through the SIFAX port terminal. The objective of the study among other things was to determine if significant differences exist in the cargo handling charges coastal shippers and ocean (foreign) shippers are made to pay by the terminal operator in the handling of coastal export and import trades, as well as foreign imports and exports via ocean shipping to countries other than coastal West African countries. Secondary data on the cargo dues and container handling charges for import and export trade types was obtained from the SIFAX terminal as a case study. The data covered a period of three years between 2019 and 2021. The statistical method of difference of mean was used to analyze the data obtained while the t-test was used to investigate the significances of the differences in charges. The analysis was implemented by the use of SPSS version 20.1. It was found that, for the import trade, there exist significant differences between the charges per ton of cargo handled and per TUE and FEU handled. Coastal import trade between Nigeria and tropical West African Countries are charged significantly lower cargo handling charges per ton of cargo handled than foreign imports from countries other than the tropical West African countries. For container export trade, the study concludes that there is no significant difference between the container handling charges per FEU and TEU exported to foreign countries other than tropical West African countries and per FEU cum TEU exported via coastal shipping to tropical West African countries. This indicates that there is no disparity in the pricing policy of the terminal operator with regards to export container handling charges. The same amount of charges is paid by shippers for export of laden TEUs and FEUs to all destinations and regions.

Port 4.0: a conceptual model for smart port digitalization

Port and terminal operators are experiencing growing complexity and rapidly accelerating demands. As a result, the entire port ecosystem — from the seaports to inland intermodal terminals — is under pressure to modernize. Port 4.0 is a port that leverages advanced technologies to digitally transform key business processes, improve security, and increase operational efficiency and port sustainability. This study presents a conceptual framework for Port 4.0. The conceptual framework describes key principles, enabling technologies, and key service areas for port digitalization. The framework is illustrated using digitalization examples in different ports worldwide.

Deep Learning Forecasting and Statistical Modeling for Q/V-Band LEO Satellite Channels

As the number of satellite networks increases, the radio spectrum is becoming more congested, prompting the need to explore higher frequencies. However, it is more difficult to operate at higher frequencies due to severe impairments caused by varying atmospheric conditions. Hence, radio channel forecasting is crucial for operators to adjust and maintain the link’s quality. This paper presents a practical approach for Q/V-band modeling for low Earth orbit satellite channels based on tools from machine learning and statistical modeling. The developed Q/V-band LEO satellite channel model is composed of; (i) forecasting method using model-based deep learning, intended for real-time operation of satellite terminals, and (ii) statistical channel simulator that generates a time-series path-loss random process, intended for system design and research. Both approaches capitalize on real-measurements obtained from Al-phaSat’s Q/V-band transmitter at different geographic latitudes. The results show that model-based deep learning can outperform simple statistical and deep learning methods by at least 50%. Moreover, the model is capable of incorporating varying rain and elevation angle profiles.

Marine ecological impact analysis of residual chlorine emission from LNG transfer station

During the operation of LNG terminals, sodium hypochlorite was used to prevent Marine organisms from attaching to the equipment, resulting in aquatic life problems caused by residual chlorine discharge. The free residual chlorine in seawater is more toxic to aquatic organisms, and the maximum inhibitory effect on Chlorella growth is shown when the concentration of residual chlorine is 0.20mg/ L. Meanwhile, Chlorella growth is greatly affected by residual chlorine, and the recovery time is longer. The concentrations of zooplankton affected by continuous exposure to chlorine were lower than those affected by intermittent exposure. The effect of residual chlorine on shellfish is relatively small. When the residual chlorine concentration is lower than 1mg/L, shellfish can still open their shells to feed, but the feeding speed decreases.

AIR PASSENGER TERMINAL DESIGN IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

The construction of new passenger air terminals, reconstruction or expansion of existing ones should take place with a decreasing in the impact on the environment, taking into account the strategy of sustainable development and environmental, social and economic aspects recommended by the Global LEED certification system. The construction sector is beginning to realize that sustainability is key and technology has an important role to play in helping to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Building information modeling (BIM) can help achieve all of the Sustainable Development Goals. BIM can impress with its performance. Primarily, BIM realizes this advantage through its ability to facilitate communication and coordination, identify clashes, and reduce costs. The information model of the air passenger terminal contains not only geometric data, but also all energy data and information such as insulation type, opaque enclosure structures, glazed structures, energy sources, climate data, aspects of heating, cooling and ventilation. In this case, engineers can work with building energy model BEM. The design, construction and operation of air passenger terminals must be carried out in accordance with the design dimensions of sustainable terminals, it is necessary to implement modern technological developments, such as intelligent systems, BIM-technologies, ecological and renewable building materials, alternative energy sources.

AGV-Based Vehicle Transportation in Automated Container Terminals: A Survey

To respond to the rapid growth of shipping container throughput, terminals urgently need to improve the efficiency of thier operations and reduce operational costs through automation and intellectualization upgrades, thereby improving service levels and enhancing market competitiveness. Due to the advantages of reliable transportation, efficient operation, and environmental friendliness, AGV-based automated container terminal (ACT) has become the development trend of container terminals. To help ACT improve its operational management capabilities, plenty of scholars have explored the transportation system of ACT. Through the analysis of operational management issues, the paper defines the four main research topics in vehicle transportation of the ACT including equipment scheduling, path planning, exception handling, and vehicle management. Then, in each topic, the works in the recent 25 years are summarized and several research opportunities for possible follow-up research directions in different fields are proposed. We expect our survey could not only provide references for more scholars on the research of operation and management of terminals, but also provide guidance for system evaluation and improvement for terminal system engineers and operation managers.

A Multi-Head Self-Attention Transformer-Based Model for Traffic Situation Prediction in Terminal Areas

Terminal operations management is an important part of air traffic management. Accurately detecting and predicting the operational status of the terminal area can help formulate more appropriate and efficient management methods. To achieve more accurate results in predicting the traffic situation, a ConvTrans-TCN (Convolutional Transformer with Temporal Convolutional Network) model is proposed in this paper. The model first constructs the feature extraction part using the causal-convolution multi-head self-attention module. It can effectively model the long-term dependency in the sequence and match the local patterns of the sequence, and it enhances the performance of feature extraction. Then the TCN (Temporal Convolutional Network) module is used to build the information fusion part to complete the fusion of feature data. The TCN architecture can accurately learn long-term and short-term dependencies in time series, and it has sufficient memory. Finally, the situation prediction is obtained by a feedforward neural network. The experiment’s results prove that this model is feasible and it performs better than the common models such as LSTM, BP, which can help air traffic managers to identify the operational status of the terminal area and provide decision support.

System Modeling in Solving Mineral Complex Logistic Problems with the Anylogic Software Environment

This paper is devoted to the study of the efficiency of solving logistic problems of mineral complexes by system modeling methods using the AnyLogic software environment. The oil terminal in St. Petersburg, which is a part of Russia's Multimodal Transportation System (MTS) in the North-West, was chosen as the study subject. A simulation model has been created in AnyLogic software that uses Agent-Based and Discrete Event Methods (ABM and DEM) A computational experiment was conducted based on the developed full-factor plan using a simulation model. The process of the terminal operation was optimized; as a result, to increase the absolute throughput capacity, it was proposed to increase the unloading speed, which will decrease the tankers' servicing time and thereby increase the throughput capacity practically twice. People have come up with ideas for how to put the technical solution into action. The main idea is to update the pipeline system and fittings so that they can pump oil products more quickly.

Passengers' Perceptions of Airport Design during a Pandemic (Study on Passengers at Sultan Hassanudin International Airport–Makassar, Indonesia)

There have been many articles about the airport's relationship with the Covid-19 pandemic, but there are still few articles that discuss airport design during the pandemic, especially from a passenger perspective. This article aims to propose airport terminal operations in a pandemic situation at Makassar Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport based on the views of passengers. This research uses a qualitative approach with a case study type. Primary research data was collected through in-depth interviews with 27 passengers at Hasanuddin Airport with various destination destinations classified using Atlas it software l; and secondary data collected through literature study. Airport redesign during a pandemic refers to Brownrigg (2020). The data analysis technique uses four stages of qualitative data analysis techniques, namely data collection, data condensation, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The results of the study show that: (1) Airport facilities are still inadequate. (2) Compared to other international airports in Indonesia, Hasanuddin Airport still lacks facilities and services. (3) The sense of security at the new airport is minimal. (4) Passenger satisfaction is still in the unsatisfied category. (5) Facilities needed during a pandemic are still relatively lacking. (6) Airport technology facilities are still relatively underdeveloped because most services are carried out manually or with old technology. (7) Facilities during a pandemic need to be permanent. (8) Airport human resources need to improve their professionalism to be more capable of running the latest airport technology.

Safety, security and privacy in future airport terminals: a system theory perspective

Through digitalization passengers are already being processed with biometrics and facial recognition in airport terminals around the world. On a further step, digitalization could even eliminate physical barriers between domestic and international passengers. In an uniform terminal area, this technological push leads, however, to major concerns in terms of safety, security, and privacy. We thus propose an analysis of these issues in future airport terminals from a systems theory perspective. We have identified for instance in an interaction between user, controller, and automated processing system, more than 250 ways these interactions could potentially be hazardous and more than 100 common related disruptive causing scenarios. Our results provide requirement and constraint basis for the implementation of such new airport terminal operation concepts.

Maritime terminals’ cargo handling equipment cooperation leveraging IoT and edge computing: The ASSIST-IoT approach

Port container terminals with their logistic infrastructure are essential nodes for a functional economic activity in the developed world. Hence, innovation in efficiency of the port-container industry is a fundamental issue. This paper presents a Next Generation IoT architecture inspired by the merging of commercial terminal-oriented ICT solutions with the results of H2020 research. The architecture is designed to overcome the constraints and meet requirements of a real scenario in maritime ports where different Container Handling Equipment must share heterogeneous data in a decentralized way, leveraging edge computing. This allows for their easier cooperation and avoiding unproductive movements and central communication, while reducing communication latency related to terminal operations. The paper describes a usage example, accompanied with evidence of the first stages of deployment.

Container terminals' efficiency with the unexpected output: a revised SBM approach.

Emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from port operations are a major environmental factor contributing to the problem of climate change. To cope with this challenge, International Maritime Organization (IMO) and port governments in nations have developed stringent regulations to curb the release of GHGs and other pollutants. To contribute a methodology towards the reduction in air pollution at port areas, the paper aims to assess container terminals' (CTs) efficiency by considering the unexpected output (i.e., CO2 emissions) in their operations by a revised SBM-DEA model. The main originality of this paper includes (1) using cluster analysis to determine the homogeneity of decision-making units (DMUs), (2) proposing the power utilization approach to estimate the amount of CO2 emissions released by container terminal operators (CTOs), (3) incorporating CO2 emissions into the assessment model to provide a complete efficiency ranking for CTs, and (4) developing the revised SBM to estimate efficiency scores for CT operations. Finally, 12 CTOs affiliated with the SNP corporation of Vietnam were empirically employed to validate the research model. Based on the result from the proposed research model, CTOs might reduce the amount of CO2 emissions by adopting the slack variables while guaranteeing their operating efficiency.