Sea Container Terminals

Due to a rapid growth in world trade and a huge increase in containerized goods, sea container terminals play a vital role in globe-spanning supply chains. Container terminals should be able to handle large ships, with large call sizes within the shortest time possible, and at competitive rates. In response, terminal operators, shipping liners, and port authorities are investing in new technologies to improve container handling infrastructure and operational efficiency. Container terminals face challenging research problems which have received much attention from the academic community. The focus of this paper is to highlight the recent developments in the container terminals, which can be categorized into three areas: (1) innovative container terminal technologies, (2) new OR directions and models for existing research areas, and (3) emerging areas in container terminal research. By choosing this focus, we complement existing reviews on container terminal operations

Proactive model to determine information technologies supporting expansion of air cargo network

Shippers and recipients expect transportation companies to provide more than just the movement of a package between points; certain information must be available to them as well, to enable forecasts and plans within the supply chain. The transportation companies also need the information flow that undergirds a transportation grid, to support ad-hoc routing and strategic structural re-alignment of business processes. This research delineates the information needs for an expanding air cargo network, then develops a new model of the information technologies needed to support expansion into a new country. The captured information will be used by shippers, recipients, and the transportation provider to better guide business decisions. This model will provide a method for transportation companies to balance the tradeoffs between the operating efficiencies, capital expenditures, and customer expectations of their IT systems. The output of the model is a list of technologies – optimized by cost – which meet the specific needs of internal and external customers when expanding air cargo networks into a new country

Mixing quantitative and qualitative methods for sustainable transportation in Smart Cities

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

Shipment consolidation and distribution models in the international supply chain

With the increasing competition in global trade, buying and transporting items effectively in the international network are critical and challenging problems for many companies. The objective of this study is to design a cost-effective consolidation and distribution method to transport shipments in a global network. In the dissertation, we investigate an integrated consolidation problem in the international supply chain, where a US manufacturing company buys multiple items from China. A proactive order consolidation strategy is proposed. Different from current practices, our approach consolidates items in China considering inland transportation in US. This strategy is modeled to minimize the total costs by effectively loading items into an ocean container considering subsequent inland transportation cost and handling cost given container capacity and packing constraints. Two difficult combinatorial optimization problems, such as a mode selection problem and a three-dimensional bin packing problem, are combined into the model. Due to the problem complexity, approximation algorithms are proposed to solve the model. The basic model is extended to consider the inland multi-stop delivery and multi-period planning horizon. Several solution methodologies are developed and evaluated to solve large-scale problems. Based on the numerical results, it is observed that our proposed methods could achieve up to 30% cost savings compared with the current shipping practices. The algorithms we developed could obtain the good implementable solution in a reasonable time for real-world problems

Integrated optimization and simulation model for resource acquisition and utilization : an application to ocean/river articulated tug/barge system

Thesis (Sc. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Ocean Engineering, 1997.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 199-203).by Ming Qi.Sc.D

Tabu search for ship routing and scheduling

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University, 20/12/2006.This thesis examines exact and heuristic approaches to solve the Ship Routing and Scheduling Problem (SRSP). The method was developed to address the problem of loading cargos for many customers using heterogeneous vessels. Constraints relate to delivery time windows imposed by customers, the time horizon by which all deliveries must be made and vessel capacities. The objective is to minimise the overall operation cost, where all customers are satisfied. Two types of routing and scheduling are considered, one called single-cargo problem, where only one cargo can be loaded into a ship, and the second type called multi-cargo problem, where multiple products can be carried on a ship to be delivered to different customers. The exact approach comprises two stages. In the first stage, a number of candidate feasible schedules is generated for each ship in the fleet. The second stage is to model the problem as a set partitioning problem (SPP) where the columns are the candidate feasible schedules obtained in the first stage. The heuristic approach uses Tabu Search (TS). Most of the TS operations, such as insert and swap moves, tenure, tabu list, intensification, and diversification are used. The results of a computational investigation are presented. Solution quality and execution time are explored with respect to problem size and parameters controlling the tabu search such as tenure and neighbourhood size. The results showed that the average of the solution gap between TS solution and SPP solution is up to 28% (for small problems) and up to 18% for large problems. However, obtaining an optimal solution requires a large amount of computer time to produce the solution compared to obtaining approximate solutions using the TS approach. The use of Tabu Search for SRSP is novel and the results indicate that it is viable approach for large problems

Development of a decision support system for solving container loading problems

The globalization of supply chains and rising fuel costs are forcing container carriers both to minimize the number of trips and to maximize available container space. This makes container loading (CL) a critical process especially in real‐life applications. Container loading (CL), which is a difficult problem to be solved, has many applications in container transportation and distribution industries. This article presents a container loading support system (CLSS). The proposed CLSS composes of three main components, including a hybrid Bees Algorithm as the main computational algorithm, the graphical user interface (GUI) and a simulation program. The aim of the designed system is to make the packing pattern more visible to the user in order to simplify the loading process. An illustrative example ‐a CL problem from literature ‐ is also provided to introduce the operation of the system and to prove its efficiency. First published online: 24 Jun 201

Port choice: A frequency-based container assignment model

The process of containerization has connected the world with a cost-effective freight service, successfully forming a competitive global market. Mixed freight shipping has changed dramatically due to containerization and globalization. The port system has experienced a tough time keeping pace with globalisation in terms of its roles and functions in liner shipping. Consequently, port choice has become a challenging problem to analyse with many stakeholders and complex circumstances. The literature formulating the basis of this maritime container assignment model can be identified as a combination of port choice modelling, a freight flow model and empty container repositioning. It is observed that the maritime container assignment problem shares a greater affinity with transit assignment than with traffic assignment conventionally applied freight in the four step approach, because containers are generally carried by shipping lines which operate services on fixed routes or port rotations. A model capable of representing full and empty container flows at a global level would be useful to almost every stakeholder in the container liner shipping industry, such as shippers, shipping lines, port authorities, terminal operating companies, regional and national planning authorities, marine insurance companies, and others. The classic frequency-based transit assignment approach of Spiess and Florian is transferred and applied to maritime containers as the foundation for a global maritime container assignment model. The first version of this model assigned full and empty containers to routes to minimise expected travel time, which consists of sailing time between ports and dwell time at intermediate transhipment ports. Service frequency and port capacity influence the pattern of full and empty container flows and therefore port choice. In this thesis, the model is further developed to fit the reality of container liner shipping by minimising expected cost rather than expected travel time. The objective is now to assign container flows to routes to minimize the sailing costs and expected dwell costs at the origin port and intermediate transhipment ports. The constraints included are extended to include the maximum number of containers each route can carry. Finally, the capabilities of the cost-based container assignment model are explored through a case study of the Europe-Far East trade lane. A range of strategy and policy options, such as a shipping line planning a new route or modifying an existing route and a port authority considering expansion, are simulated. A possible approach to model validation through independent data is proposed. Recommendations for future research are provided at the end of the thesis. Many aspects are covered in the thesis; an origin-destination matrix estimation, automated virtual (task) network construction from routes and schedules, improvements to the probability distribution used for ship arrivals, a validation procedure, and model extension from port-to-port movements to door-to-door container movements

Seaport supply integration and orientation, and their impact on performance

This thesis primarily aims to examine the causal relationships among the integration strategies of seaport terminals along the supply chain, and the antecedents and consequences of the integration strategies. In this thesis integration strategy is termed Port Supply Chain Integration (PSCI) and the antecedents and the consequences of PSCI were identified and termed as Port Supply Chain Orientation (PSCO) and Port Performance (PP). A research model representing these causal relationships was developed through a comprehensive literature review and a semi-structured interview with practitioners and academics. The research used Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to validate the constructs and rigorously test the relationships among them. Furthermore, a multi-group analysis was conducted in order to assess the applicability of the research model to different environments. The multi-group analysis tested whether the research model can be applied to two sample ports (A and B) and two sample groups (terminal operating companies and port users). The data used in these empirical analyses were collected from terminal operating companies, shipping companies and freight forwarders in South Korea, and the number of responses was 127. With regard to the results and findings of the empirical research, firstly, the three constructs, PSCO, PSCI and PP were successfully validated with the components identified from the literature review and interviews indicating that the three constructs are multi-dimensional concepts. Secondly, the empirical research showed that PSCO has a strong contribution to PSCI, and PSCI has a strong and positive impact on PP. Additionally PSCO, in turn, was found to influence positively and indirectly on PP through implementing PSCI. Finally the multi-group analysis showed that the research model can be equally applied to the two sample ports. However, the invariance test across two sample groups failed since a baseline model for the invariance test was not established. In conclusion, this thesis suggests that the integration strategy of ports along supply chains (PSCI) should be firmly based on a strong orientation to supply chain integration (PSCO) within individual seaport terminals, and the successful implementation of this strategy necessarily involves significant improvement of performance of the terminals (PP). It is also emphasised that these suggestions are valid across terminals with different operational and managerial characteristics such as hub port vs. feeder port and container port vs. non-container port