scholarly journals Berth Scheduling Problem Considering Traffic Limitations in the Navigation Channel

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4795 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ya Xu ◽  
Kelei Xue ◽  
Yuquan Du

In view of the trend of upsizing ships, the physical limitations of natural waterways, huge expenses, and unsustainable environmental impact of channel widening, this paper aims to provide a cost-efficient but applicable solution to improve the operational performance of container terminals that are enduring inefficiency caused by channel traffic limitations. We propose a novel berth scheduling problem considering the traffic limitations in the navigation channel, which appears in many cases including insufficient channel width, bad weather, poor visibility, channel accidents, maintenance dredging of the navigation channel, large vessels passing through the channel, and so on. To optimally utilize the berth and improve the service quality for customers, we propose a mixed-integer linear programming model to formulate the berth scheduling problem under the one-way ship traffic rule in the navigation channel. Furthermore, we develop a more generalized model which can cope with hybrid traffic in the navigation channel including one-way traffic, two-way traffic, and temporary closure of the navigation channel. For large-scale problems, a hybrid simulated annealing algorithm, which employs a problem-specific heuristic, is presented to reduce the computational time. Computational experiments are performed to evaluate the effectiveness and practicability of the proposed method.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng Luo ◽  
Hongying Fei ◽  
Dana Sailike ◽  
Tingyi Xu ◽  
Fuzhi Huang

“Double-Line Ship Mooring” (DLSM) mode has been applied as an initiative operation mode for solving berth allocation problems (BAP) in certain giant container terminals in China. In this study, a continuous berth scheduling problem with the DLSM model is illustrated and solved with exact and heuristic methods with an objective to minimize the total operation cost, including both the additional transportation cost for vessels not located at their minimum-cost berthing position and the penalties for vessels not being able to leave as planned. First of all, this problem is formulated as a mixed-integer programming model and solved by the CPLEX solver for small-size instances. Afterwards, a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is developed to obtain good quality solutions within reasonable execution time for large-scale problems. Experimental results show that DLSM mode can not only greatly reduce the total operation cost but also significantly improve the efficiency of berth scheduling in comparison with the widely used single-line ship mooring (SLSM) mode. The comparison made between the results obtained by the proposed PSO algorithm and that obtained by the CPLEX solver for both small-size and large-scale instances are also quite encouraging. To sum up, this study can not only validate the effectiveness of DLSM mode for heavy-loaded ports but also provide a powerful decision support tool for the port operators to make good quality berth schedules with the DLSM mode.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masoud Kavoosi ◽  
Maxim A. Dulebenets ◽  
Olumide Abioye ◽  
Junayed Pasha ◽  
Oluwatosin Theophilus ◽  
...  

Purpose Marine transportation has been faced with an increasing demand for containerized cargo during the past decade. Marine container terminals (MCTs), as the facilities for connecting seaborne and inland transportation, are expected to handle the increasing amount of containers, delivered by vessels. Berth scheduling plays an important role for the total throughput of MCTs as well as the overall effectiveness of the MCT operations. This study aims to propose a novel island-based metaheuristic algorithm to solve the berth scheduling problem and minimize the total cost of serving the arriving vessels at the MCT. Design/methodology/approach A universal island-based metaheuristic algorithm (UIMA) was proposed in this study, aiming to solve the spatially constrained berth scheduling problem. The UIMA population was divided into four sub-populations (i.e. islands). Unlike the canonical island-based algorithms that execute the same metaheuristic on each island, four different population-based metaheuristics are adopted within the developed algorithm to search the islands, including the following: evolutionary algorithm (EA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), estimation of distribution algorithm (EDA) and differential evolution (DE). The adopted population-based metaheuristic algorithms rely on different operators, which facilitate the search process for superior solutions on the UIMA islands. Findings The conducted numerical experiments demonstrated that the developed UIMA algorithm returned near-optimal solutions for the small-size problem instances. As for the large-size problem instances, UIMA was found to be superior to the EA, PSO, EDA and DE algorithms, which were executed in isolation, in terms of the obtained objective function values at termination. Furthermore, the developed UIMA algorithm outperformed various single-solution-based metaheuristic algorithms (including variable neighborhood search, tabu search and simulated annealing) in terms of the solution quality. The maximum UIMA computational time did not exceed 306 s. Research limitations/implications Some of the previous berth scheduling studies modeled uncertain vessel arrival times and/or handling times, while this study assumed the vessel arrival and handling times to be deterministic. Practical implications The developed UIMA algorithm can be used by the MCT operators as an efficient decision support tool and assist with a cost-effective design of berth schedules within an acceptable computational time. Originality/value A novel island-based metaheuristic algorithm is designed to solve the spatially constrained berth scheduling problem. The proposed island-based algorithm adopts several types of metaheuristic algorithms to cover different areas of the search space. The considered metaheuristic algorithms rely on different operators. Such feature is expected to facilitate the search process for superior solutions.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenming Cheng ◽  
Peng Guo ◽  
Zeqiang Zhang ◽  
Ming Zeng ◽  
Jian Liang

In many real scheduling environments, a job processed later needs longer time than the same job when it starts earlier. This phenomenon is known as scheduling with deteriorating jobs to many industrial applications. In this paper, we study a scheduling problem of minimizing the total completion time on identical parallel machines where the processing time of a job is a step function of its starting time and a deteriorating date that is individual to all jobs. Firstly, a mixed integer programming model is presented for the problem. And then, a modified weight-combination search algorithm and a variable neighborhood search are employed to yield optimal or near-optimal schedule. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms, computational experiments are performed on randomly generated test instances. Finally, computational results show that the proposed approaches obtain near-optimal solutions in a reasonable computational time even for large-sized problems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Feifeng Zheng ◽  
Zhaojie Wang ◽  
Yinfeng Xu ◽  
Ming Liu

Based on the classical MapReduce concept, we propose an extended MapReduce scheduling model. In the extended MapReduce scheduling problem, we assumed that each job contains an open-map task (the map task can be divided into multiple unparallel operations) and series-reduce tasks (each reduce task consists of only one operation). Different from the classical MapReduce scheduling problem, we also assume that all the operations cannot be processed in parallel, and the machine settings are unrelated machines. For solving the extended MapReduce scheduling problem, we establish a mixed-integer programming model with the minimum makespan as the objective function. We then propose a genetic algorithm, a simulated annealing algorithm, and an L-F algorithm to solve this problem. Numerical experiments show that L-F algorithm has better performance in solving this problem.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seyed Mahdi Homayouni ◽  
Sai Hong Tang

According to previous researches, automated guided vehicles and quay cranes in container terminals have a high potential synergy. In this paper, a mixed integer programming model is formulated to optimize the coordinated scheduling of cranes and vehicles in container terminals. Objectives of the model are to minimize total traveling time of the vehicles and delays in tasks of cranes. A genetic algorithm is developed to solve the problem in reasonable computational time. The most appropriate control parameters for the proposed genetic algorithm are investigated in a medium size numerical test case. It is shown that balanced crossover and mutation rates have the best performance in finding a near optimal solution for the problem. Then, ten small size test cases are solved to evaluate the performance of the proposed optimization methods. The results show the applicability of the genetic algorithm since it can find near optimal solutions, precisely and accurately.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Wenqian Liu ◽  
Xiaoning Zhu ◽  
Li Wang ◽  
Baicheng Yan ◽  
Xuewei Zhang

As the core operational issue in container terminals, yard crane scheduling problem directly affects the overall operation efficiency of port connecting highway or railway transportation and sea transportation. In practice, the scheduling of yard cranes is subject to many uncertain factors, so the scheme may be inapplicable and needs to be adjusted. From the perspective of proactive strategy, considering fluctuations in arrival time of external trucks as well as varied handling volume of yard cranes, a stochastic programming model is established in this paper to obtain a fixed scheme with the minimum expected value of yard crane makespan and total task waiting time over all the scenarios. The scheme does not require rescheduling when facing different situations. Subsequently, two algorithms based on certain rules are proposed to obtain the yard crane operation scheme in the deterministic environment, which are taken as the basic solution in the uncertain conditions, and then a tailored genetic algorithm is adopted to find the optimal solution with good adaptability to the uncertain scenarios. Finally, we use small-scale examples to compare the performance of algorithms in the deterministic and uncertain environment and then analyze the relationship between different yard crane configurations and the number of tasks. Large-scale experiments are performed to study the operation efficiency of the storage yard with different handling volumes assigned to each yard crane.


Author(s):  
Sadegh Niroomand ◽  
Béla Vizvári

In cases where the size and colour of cable are changed, the cable industry is classified as a multi-product, mass production system. The paper provides a mixed integer linear programming model based on continuous time representation for a case study on the scheduling problem of the cable industry to minimize the total cost including setup cost, operating cost, and inventory holding cost. As the solution methodology, three grouping policies are proposed while Xpress solver could not give any feasible solution for the model. Cables of the same size and the same colour, respectively, of the different types of cable are grouped together. A metaheuristic based on a simulated annealing algorithm is applied to minimize the total cost of proposed solutions. Finally the solution with the smallest total cost is selected as the production schedule of the study case.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Marmolejo ◽  
I. Soria ◽  
H. A. Perez

This work presents a distribution problem of products of a soda bottling company. Commodities are produced at several plants with limited capacity and the demand of distribution centers is satisfied by shipping via cross-docking warehouses. The decomposition strategy is proposed to determine which warehouse needs to be opened to consolidate the demand and by which warehouse each distribution center is served exclusively. The objective is minimizing fixed costs and total transportation costs. The model presented is a mixed-integer programming model with binary variables for which we propose a decomposition strategy based on Benders algorithm. Numerical results show that the proposed strategy can provide the optimal solution of several instances. A large-scale case study based on a realistic company situation is analyzed. Solutions obtained by the proposed method are compared with the solution of full scale problem in order to determine the quality bound and computational time.


Author(s):  
Jérémy Decerle ◽  
Olivier Grunder ◽  
Amir Hajjam El Hassani ◽  
Oussama Barakat

Home health care structures provide care for the elderly, people with disabilities as well as patients with chronic conditions. Since there has been an increase in demand, organizations providing home health care are eager to optimize their activities. In addition, the increase in patient numbers has led organizations to expand their geographical reach. As a result, home health care structures tend to be located in different offices to limit their travel time and, consequently, caregivers employed by these various structures must be assigned to one of the offices so they start and end their workday at their associated office. Unlike the existing literature where an upstream assignment of caregivers is performed to become a parameter of the model, the assignment of caregivers to offices is solved during the resolution of the problem in order to obtain the best possible combinations. Thus, we suggest a mixed-integer programming model of the multi -depot home health care assignment, routing, and scheduling problem without prior assignment of caregivers to the home health care offices. In addition, we propose an original matheuristic -based approach with different assignment strategies to assign visits and caregivers to the home health care offices in order to solve the problem. The experiments are conducted on a set of 56 heterogeneous instances of various sizes. Results are compared with best solutions obtained by a commercial solver, and with a lower bound obtained by Lagrangian relaxation. The results highlight the efficiency of the matheuristic -based approach since it provides a low deviation ratio with a faster computational time.


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