| The objective of this dissertation is to improve decision making for port management and operation with multi-level simulation.;According to American Association of Port Authority, there are more than two billion tons of domestic and import/export cargos transported within and through US ports annually. Marine industry is a crucial and critical link in the supply chain for many industries as well as markets.;This dissertation has three levels of simulation and each level has different models as well as outcomes. The first model simulates the impact of adverse weather such as a storm that affects the Gulf of Mexico area where most of the US Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) ports are located. The adverse weather delays the incoming ships into LNG ports in the Gulf of Mexico. This model also simulates re-routing where one or more ports are under crisis and unable to receive any incoming ships. These incoming ships are re-routed to other ports which are selected through user interface. This model has outcomes such as the mean queue length, waiting time distribution, time in system distribution, port utilization, and total time ship spends in port operation and queuing.;The second level of models simulates the port operation for container and LNG loading / unloading processes. With different types of resources in the port operation, it is helpful to predict the behavior of the system and the performance metrics using simulation. This simulation model gives resources utilization, waiting time, and throughput.;The third level of models simulates the port management process. This model simulates the arrival procedure of ships to a port. Local pilots navigate the ships through waterways into berths. The outcomes will be utilization of the available pilots, waiting time, and cycle time of ships.;The ultimate goal of this research is to provide multi-level simulation decision making tools for port management. The simulation framework is implemented with multi-method simulation software AnyLogic. |
