SIMULATION STUDIES OF HEURISTIC APPROACHES FOR DYNAMIC SCHEDULING OF CONTAINER TERMINAL OPERATIONS

H.-L. Zhang∗ and Z.-B. Jiang∗∗

Keywords

Heuristic rule, dynamic scheduling, container terminal logistic sys- tem, simulation

Abstract

The growth of marine containers transportation along with increas- ing complex container terminal logistic system (CTLS) has called for more effective approaches for scheduling container terminal re- sources. This paper discusses the problem of scheduling quay crane, yard crane and container truck for improving the container ter- minal productivity. One dynamic scheduling method and specific heuristic scheduling rules for dynamically assigning quay crane, yard crane and container trucks are proposed according to stowage plans and storage plans. A simulation model of a container terminal in Shanghai is built by the application of WITNESS2002, a simulation software package, to evaluate the efficiency of the dynamic schedul- ing method. From simulation results, the production efficiency increased about 8% by the dynamic scheduling method than static one previously discussed in CTLS.

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