Dynamic Scheduling of Handling Equipment at Automated Container Terminals

25 Pages Posted: 20 Feb 2003

See all articles by Patrick J. M. Meersmans

Patrick J. M. Meersmans

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Department of Econometrics; Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM)

Albert P. M. Wagelmans

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Erasmus Center for Optimization in Public Transport (ECOPT); Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Department of Econometrics

Date Written: 13 2001, 12

Abstract

In this paper we consider the problem of integrated scheduling of various types of handling equipment at an automated container terminal in a dynamic environment. This means that the handling times are not known exactly beforehand and that the order in which the different pieces of equipment handle the containers need not be specified completely in advance. Instead, (partial) schedules may be updated when new information on realizations of handling times becomes available. We present an optimization based Beam Search heuristic and several dispatching rules. An extensive computational study is carried out to investigate the performance of these solution methods under different scenarios. The main conclusion is that, in our tests, the Beam Search heuristic performs best on average, but that some of the relatively simple dispatching rules perform almost as good. Furthermore, our study indicates that it is effective important to base a planning on a long horizon with inaccurate data, than to update the planning often in order to take newly available information into account.

Keywords: container terminal, dynamic scheduling, beam search, dispatching rules

JEL Classification: M, M11, R4, C69

Suggested Citation

Meersmans, Patrick J. M. and Wagelmans, Albert P. M., Dynamic Scheduling of Handling Equipment at Automated Container Terminals (13 2001, 12). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=370931

Patrick J. M. Meersmans (Contact Author)

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Department of Econometrics ( email )

P.O. Box 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam
Netherlands

Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM)

P.O. Box 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam
Netherlands

Albert P. M. Wagelmans

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Erasmus Center for Optimization in Public Transport (ECOPT) ( email )

3000 DR Rotterdam
Netherlands
+31 10 408 2576 (Phone)
+31 10 408 9162 (Fax)

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Department of Econometrics

P.O. Box 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam
Netherlands

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