Research On The Models And The Methods Of Empty Container Management

With the globalization of economy, it is more and more obvious that container transportation plays an important role in the world trade. Along with this development,the empty reposition becomes barrier of developing further.This barrier arouses many scholars'interest, and they proceed homologous research. But reviewing the current researching, the study of reposition optimization is still placed in the stage of determining the nature, there are seldom literatures which is dead against systematical and precise quantitative analysis. Shipping company still distributes the empties with the experience. Therefore, it is very difficult to operate economically without mathematics model of reposition.Along with the container transportation development, it is necessary to put forward theory, model and method to match the current transportation net's development. Furthermore, it is helpful to the development of ITS.From the angle of the shipping company and using the empty car distribution theories for reference, the optimization model which combined the qualitative analysis and the quantitative analysis is constructed for empty reposition , so that the optimization of routing, quantity and time is available. The contents and innovative points of this dissertation include:(1)Through studying the procedure of container delivery, the whole systems of empty reposition is assorted of the land-reposition and the sea-reposition. According to the component of this system, the demand and supply of empties, the homologous mathematics model which can minimize the transportation cost is constructed. Simultaneously, .the cost of reposition is analysed with the real example.(2)Analysing the reposition with unconcerned situation and the random requirement in the land-reposition, a chance constrained model is constructed. On the same time, the strategy of the reposition model which comprises random parameter is found. Within the research, GA of stochastic simulation in two phases to resolve is used. According to the simulation analysis and compare with the data that get from the reposition with certain situation, the model is available. So this model provides new strategy to the empty reposition.(3)The reposition model with time-window is used into resolving the reposition, which can resolve the problem of reasonable reposition with concrete restricting term of launching time. This model with time restriction is accordant with the fact. It is the first using immune algorithm to solve this model. The following simulation shows this algorithm can solve the reposition with complex restriction.(4)Researching the system of sea-reposition which is more complex than land-reposition, how to usePetri net into the reposition is discussed. Therefore, the reposition which troubles shipping company long time can be researched with quantitative analysis. The reposition model which is based on Petri net is constructed and can be resolved with genetic algorithm and Petri net. This method overcomes the limitation and complication of Petri net, and makes the most use of GA and Petri net.The procedure of a certain shipping company's reposition among its base ports is simulated, which shows that it is feasible to use Petri net and GA to research this problem. This method is useful because it can construct model easily and simply, so that it is worth to research further.(5)Considering the clients'different demand, the problem of reposition is reduced as the cost minimization which is based on the clients'demand through choosing the reasonable routing and transportation mode. The factor which can infect the clients'satisfaction is analysed and introduced as 6 indexes. The empties reposition model which is based on the customer satisfaction through using gray system theory is constructed. On the same time, this model combines the gray system and generalized cost matrix and provides a new way which depend on the indexes. This way can satisfy with different clients and different requirement and provide the reposition optimization.(6)With the development of artificial intelligence, Agent mode and container tracking system, it is the first time to use multi-Agent mode in the decision-making system of reposition. Since the reposition is the object with the logical and physical discrete character, the automatic adaptive cooperative multi-agent tech is used into reposition system to match the laden container's transportation. Since the multi- agent system has layered information handling and decision-making institution, it can improve the cooperation ability and autonomy of each part, enhance the decision-making ability of whole reposition which is important to the development of container multi-model transportation.