Resources Allocation In Container Terminal Charge/Discharge Operation

With the incorporation and globalization of the economy, volume of containers traffic keeps growing rapidly. The demand for containerized marine shipping causes great shortage in container terminal capacity. At the same time, with the development of logistics, more and more customers call for the 'door to door' transport service whose cornerstone is the seamless transport. As one of the most important parts in the transport chain, the container terminal must have scientific resource allocation methods and rules as well as enough capacity to keep up with the logistics developments.Applying the concept of logistics, the paper deals with the resource allocation problem in container terminal charge/discharge operations with qualitative and quantitative methods.First, an investigation on the container terminal's function, layout and operation resources is made at full length. The working process in container terminal is analyzed, and the resource allocation problem in container terminal charge/discharge is divided into apron resource allocation problem, yard resource allocation problem and transport equipments allocation problem.Secondly, the berth allocation problem under continuous berth frontage in container terminal is discussed. First, a model named BAM (Berth Allocation Model), whose objective is to minimize the delay of all the vessels in plan, is presented. And the BAM is subjected to berth resource constraint, quay crane resource constraint, workload constraint, and etc. Then a more reasonable model named BQAM (Berth Quay-crane Allocation Model) is given. The distance between the vessel and yard is taken account in the model as well as all the constraints of BAM. The objective of BQAM is to minimize the generalized time. Then after the BAM and BQAM, the quay-crane assign model is presented. Because it is quite difficult to solve BQAM directly, a heuristic method based on backtracking method for the BQAM is suggested. The backtracking method can provide not only the vessels berthing space, berthing time but also the quay crane schedule.Thirdly, the paper focuses on the transport equipment (yard truck) allocation problem. A two-phase yard truck allocation model is given. The first phase model is used to determine the number of yard trucks used in container terminal charge/discharge. And based on the result of the first phase model, the second phase model aims to assign yard trucks to the tasks so as to minimize the distanceempty trucks covered.Fourthly, the gantry crane allocation problem is discussed in the paper, and also a two-phase model for gantry crane allocation is presented. In the first phase, a network flow model is established, and the minimum flow algorithm for the gantry crane allocation network model is given. The minimum flow algorithm proves reasonable and efficient.Based on the result of the first phase model, the second phase model aims to assign gantry cranes to the tasks so as to minimize the distance grantry cranes covered. A numerical example is used is show how to use the model and algorithm, and the results show that the model and algorithm is reasonable and efficient.Fifthly, resource allocation in container charge/discharge operation is studied in simulation. It's discussed in this paper that the working process of quay cranes, yard trucks and gantry cranes in container terminals that adopt pool strategy and dual cycle. And the equipment's events are classified as Lifting Event, Dropping Event, Moving Event, Waiting Event and Virtual Event* Programmed by VB6.0, a system simulating the charge/discharge operation in container terminal is presented, and used to allocate resource in terminal charge/discharge operations in cooperation with analytical models. According to the output of the simulation system, the most satisfactory resource allocation scenario is chosenFinally, a case is presented. Based on the BQAM and its heuristic backtracking method, the BAAS (berth allocation assistant system) is realized with Visual Basic and Access. The BAAS has three functions: data import from the existing system; berth allocation; berth map drawing. Some advanced techniques such as jumping search method, two-direction search method are applied to fasten convergence. The system is applied in a NINGBO BEILUN CONTAIENR TERMINAL, and has gained great success.Here are the highlights in the paper:1. To discuss berth allocation model under continuous frontage2. To introduce the new concept of generalized time, and the BQAM and its heuristic backtracking method is presented.3. To present models for yard trucks and gantry crane allocation in container terminal adopting dual cycle and pool strategy.4. To give a simulation system in container terminal charge/discharge operation. The model isused to adjust resources allocation in container charge/discharge in cooperation withanalytical models.The paper capitalized on network flow theory, optimization theory, heuristic algorithm theory and simulation theory to discuss the resource allocation problem in container terminals that adopt dual cycle and pool strategy. Most of the resource allocation problems such as berth allocation, quay cranes allocation, yard trucks allocation and gantry cranes allocation are discussed. The study provides some valuable suggestion for the container terminal in our country.