An optimization model for storage yard management in transshipment hubs

Loo Hay Lee (), Ek Peng Chew (), Kok Choon Tan () and Yongbin Han ()
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Loo Hay Lee: National University of Singapore
Ek Peng Chew: National University of Singapore
Kok Choon Tan: National University of Singapore
Yongbin Han: National University of Singapore

A chapter in Container Terminals and Cargo Systems, 2007, pp 107-129 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This paper studies a yard storage allocation problem in a transshipment hub where there is a great number of loading and unloading activities. The primary challenge is to efficiently shift containers between the vessels and the storage area so that reshuffling and traffic congestion is minimized. In particular, to reduce reshuffling, a consignment strategy is used. This strategy groups unloaded containers according to their destination vessel. To reduce traffic congestion, a new workload balancing protocol is proposed. A mixed integer-programming model is then formulated to determine the minimum number of yard cranes to deploy and the location where unloaded containers should be stored. The model is solved using CPLEX. Due to the size and complexity of this model two heuristics are also developed. The first is a sequential method while the second is a column generation method. A bound is developed that allows the quality of the solution to be judged. Lastly, a numerical investigation is provided and demonstrates that the algorithms perform adequately on most cases considered.

Keywords: Port operation; Storage allocation; Mixed-integer programming; Heuristic algorithm; Column generation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-540-49550-5_6

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-49550-5_6

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