Optimal Decision on Landside Operations and Truck Tour of a Container Terminal

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1 Sciece Joural of Busiess ad Maagemet 2017; 5(2): doi: /j.sjbm ISSN: (Prit); ISSN: (Olie) Optimal Decisio o Ladside Operatios ad Truck Tour of a Cotaier Termial Jumi Yi School of Ecoomics ad Maagemet, Xiame Uiversity of Techology, Xiame, Chia address: yijumi@xmut.edu.c To cite this article: Jumi Yi. Optimal Decisio o Ladside Operatios ad Truck Tour of a Cotaier Termial. Sciece Joural of Busiess ad Maagemet. Vol. 5, No. 2, 2017, pp doi: /j.sjbm Received: Jauary 18, 2017; Accepted: March 2, 2017; Published: March 10, 2017 Abstract: I moder cotaier trasportatio, the cotaiers trasshipmet betwee the quayside ad ladside plays a key role i the efficiecy of a cotaier termial. From the perspective of logistics, port operatios are determied by the port facilities, space ad ruig time, ad a focus o cotaier movemet withi the termial will draw more attetio o the operatioal efficiecy of port trasportatio ad hadlig of the termial. By aalyzig the elemets of the system operatios, a mathematical model is setup to solve cotaier movemet by truck routig ad yard layout. With the model ad the istace data from a cotaier termial, the cotaier truck tour ad optimizatio problem is well settled, ad the model s feasible applicatio is discussed. Keywords: Cotaier Termial, Operatios, Truck, Trasportatio, Route 1. Itroductio Cotaierizatio is the revolutio of trasportatio i the 20th cetury. Nowadays cotaier trasportatio plays a key role i the world trade ad ecoomy of port cities [1]. Accordig to Drewry Shippig Cosultats, the aual cotaier traffic has icreased more tha six times sice 1990, ad i 2015 the global cotaier trasport reaches 1,777 millio TEUs with a total capacity of 2.19 millio TEUs by all cotaier carriers. For a typical cargo lier, it is critical to have a high throughput of ships at the port. This requires that the time spet o each ship visit is as small as possible ad cosequetly, moder cotaier port operatio requires a efficiet operatio of the port facilities. I those ports, the cotaier termials (CT) are critical facilities, where cargo cotaiers are trasshipped betwee ships ad lad vehicles. A cotaier termial has quayside ad lad side areas, while the quayside with loadig ad uloadig of ships, ad the ladside where cotaiers are loaded ad uloaded o/off vehicles [2]. The CT operators as port service providers directly serve the cotaier lie operators (carriers); they are of particular importace for cotaier trasportatio of a port, ad they also have leadig service coectio with cotaier yards, stevedore compaies ad haulers [3]. I the ladside of a CT, there are storage yards for the stackig of export/import cotaiers, ad the trasshipmet of cotaiers betwee ships ad yards. Trucks with checked export cotaiers arrive at the termial s i-gate. Data of the cotaiers are fed i the termial s iformatio system. Trucks the drive to storage yard to uload the export cotaier waitig for icomig vessel. With moder quayside ad ladside craes ad other equipmet i a cotaier termial, a vessel visits the termial just i several hours to uload import cotaiers ad to load export cotaiers. The import cotaiers uloaded from the vessel also eter the storage yards for shot time stackig. I such a short time, the trasport from quayside to ladside is very busy ad it plays a key role i the total efficiecy of the CT. However, the orgaizatio of the trasport iside the termial for the vessel visit is a complex problem, those questios such as the block assigmet, the truck route for cotaiers eed to be cosidered systematically ad optimally to achieve CT operatioal efficiecy. Thus it is ecessary ad importat to examie the trasshipmet operatios betwee ladside storage yards based o the CT layout ad cofiguratio. I this paper, we quatitatively study the CT trasshipmet operatios with a case of a key port i southeast Chia.

2 Sciece Joural of Busiess ad Maagemet 2017; 5(2): Literature Review Cotaier trasportatio has a vast developmet i the last cetury, as the key ifrastructure of cotaier trasportatio, the umber ad capacity of seaport cotaier termials has icreased ad will icrease i the future. However, i the short term CT operators have to hadle icreased cargo amouts at their termials with give limited capacity. High operatig costs for ships ad cotaier termials as well as high capitalizatio of ships, cotaiers ad port equipmet demad the reductio of uproductive times at port. To balace the high cocetratio of activities ad cotrol the traffic cogestio of trucks, craes ad other hadlig equipmet i the yard, may related studies have bee preseted. Thus it will ecourage port authorities ad CT operators to redesig the ladside bufferig ad hadlig of cotaiers to more efficiecy, rather to keep up with higher cargo amouts tha to decrease costs [4]. The super ordiate goal is to reduce the time for the dischargig ad loadig process of a ship [3]. Speed ad efficiecy are very importat i the global trasport of goods, ot oly for the carrier but also for a termial, sice the competitio amog cotaier termials has icreased [5]. A typical cotaier lier carrier operates several cotaier vessels servig may ports. The problem of efficietly operatig such a lie fleet is composed of several sub problems, amog them fidig a optimal fleet size ad fleet routig, the problem of efficietly trasferrig the cotaiers to ad from the ships, ad the problem of a efficiet utilizatio of the ship s capacity. Port efficiecy ad ship utilizatio efficiecy largely deped o the way i which cotaiers are stored i the ports ad iside the ships [6]. O the other side, i a typical layout of a CT system (Figure 1), quayside ad ladside are seamlessly cofigured ad operated coordiately to achieve its operatioal goals. While [7] provides a comprehesive survey of the state-of-the-art of operatios at a cotaier termial (see Figure 2 for illustratio) as well as methods for their optimizatio, ad [8] cosiders yard operatios paradigms ad developmets systematically with review ad proposal a formal classificatio scheme for storage yard operatios. Empty cotaiers are eeded at the sheds for stuffig purposes ad imbalaces; they are prepared for ship, trai ad truck loadig ad have to be trasported to the respective yard or trasitio area. A reorgaizatio of the yard has to be performed for additioal trasports ad their characteristic. However, to speed the dischargig ad loadig process of a vessel from the quayside, the ladside operatios ad efficiecy i the CT system should be cosidered also. I the ladside, there are storage yard to buffer import ad export cotaier movemets, the yard layout, block cofiguratio, cotaier assigmet ad truck routig are key factors to affect the operatios ad efficiecy. The outboud or export cotaiers are stored i the cotaier stack yard i the ladside of the termial. Cotaiers are stored i the yard i a block cofiguratio. Figure 1. Cotaier termial system (schematic side view) [6, p. 13]. Figure 2. Operatios of a seaport cotaier termial ad flows [6]. The efficiecy of loadig operatios i CTs is highly depedet upo the smooth flow of cotaiers to ad from the quayside ad ladside area. A dysfuctioal material flow patter results i cogestio ad, ultimately, i icreased cotaier hadlig costs. Past studies have idetified the cotaier s operatio as the bottleeck i the material flow durig the loadig operatio [9]. I a busy CT, the loadig ad uloadig processes have to be cosidered at the same time. The eed to hadle large volumes of cotaier traffic ad the scarcity of lad i the CT ladside area pose serious challeges for the port operator to provide efficiet services. The cotaier loadig ad uloadig activities i a CT are usually cocetrated ad ievitably happe at the same time. This makes the yard plaig problem much more challegig compared to port plaig for geeral termials where loadig ad uloadig activities ca be cosidered idepedetly by havig differet dedicated storage areas for import ad export activities [10]. Marti et al. [11] have developed a heuristic for load plaig of cotaier ships while takig the efficiecy of the gatry crae operatios ito accout. Their results show that sigificat chages i the operatioal efficiecy of the craes are possible by usig a good heuristic. A iterative search algorithm [12] itegrates a cotaier trasfer model ad a cotaier-locatio model to determie a optimal storage strategy ad hadlig schedule. Also [4] improves the efficiecy i the storage yard through schedulig the storage ad retrieval of cotaiers.

3 66 Jumi Yi: Optimal Decisio o Ladside Operatios ad Truck Tour of a Cotaier Termial For these trasport flows, various optimizatio models such as vehicle routig problem have bee proposed to hadle these problems [13]. A optimal time model is setup ad solved by [14] with total truck time ad crae time miimized by the parallel loadig ad uloadig process, ad maximum mileage savig is achieved after iteratios. Optimizatio has to be very flexible ad fast, olie optimizatio is ecessary [15]. Objectives at the truck operatios area are miimizatio of empty distaces ad/or travel times. Empty distaces ca be miimized if trasports of export cotaiers from the trasitio poit to the yard are combied with trasports of import cotaiers from the yard to the iterchage poit [16]. Geerally these kids of trasports are ot as time critical as those for the ship or truck operatio. Therefore, termials try to execute them at times of less workload. The objective is to miimize (empty ad loaded) travel times or total travel distaces. I geeral, two categories of optimizatio models: trasportatio models or routig/schedulig models domiate the research of CT optimizatio. 3. A Trasportatio Model for Truck Tours I most cotaier termials, vessels visit regularly by the schedule of cotaier lies [17]. Ad several iteral trucks are used to trasfer cotaiers withi the termial. Whe a vessel arrives at a berth, a cotaier is grasped by the quay crae ad loaded to a truck, the trasported to the yard. The after uloadig the cotaier, the truck back to the berth empty or with a export cotaier to be stowed ito the vessel. This process forms a truck tour i the cotaier termial. To miimal the tour, it forms oe type of the CT truck route optimizatio problems defied by [18]. I our model, bearig the idea of simultaeous process of loadig ad uloadig, the tour is a closed path betwee a quay crae, ext uloadig block ad/or reloadig block, ad fially the quay crae agai. With cotiues tours cosequetly by oe ad usually more trucks, the cotaier loadig ad uloadig job of a vessel visit ca be fiished smoothly ad efficietly. Ad i our trasportatio model, questios below are focused: The block assigmet for import ad export cotaiers; The truck tours for import cotaiers; The truck tours for export cotaiers; The truck tours with empty backhaul because of imbalace Model Assumptio Whe a vessel visits a CT which is either the startig or the edig port of a cotaier lie service, there are some import cotaiers to be uloaded from the ship to the CT ad some export cotaiers to be loaded ito the ship. The with the give layout ad cofiguratios of the CT, data ca be collected for the model assumptio. Let M to be the total cotaiers imported to the stackig yard ad N the total exported cotaiers, while E i is the export cotaiers stacked i yard block i, ad I i is the imported cotaiers that ca be stacked i block i (i=1, 2,, ). If the exported ad imported cotaiers are stacked i separated blocks, the E i is 0 i a import cotaier block ad I i is also 0 i a export cotaier block Model Formula I our model, to achieve the operatioal efficiecy, the decisios variables x ij defie the truck tour, i which x ij cotaiers will be uloaded i block i ad the the same umber of cotaiers be loaded i block j toward the quay. Ad the objective is to set the miimal travelig distace of all vehicle movig cotaiers betwee the yard blocks ad the quayside. Thus, the objective fuctio is: Subject to ( ) xij S i S j S ij (1) i= 1 j= 1 MiZ = + +, j = 1,2,..., ij i (2) i= 1 j= 1 x E, i = 1,2,..., ij i (3) i= 1 j = 1 x I max( M, N) i, j ij (4) x x 0 i, j ij (5) Here costrait (2) restricts that the import cotaiers to be stacked i block i will be less tha the total capacity of import cotaiers i that block. There will be a imbalace of import ad export cotaiers if the accumulated import cotaiers from block j are larger tha those exported, thus the vehicle will retur to the quayside without cotaier, vise visa. Costrait (3) defies all export cotaiers to be trucked to the quayside ad the hadlig job is fiished. Costrait (4) esures that the quatity of moved cotaiers is less tha the cotaiers to be load or uload for a vessel visitig the cotaier termial. Ad costraits (5) defie our decisios variables. While S i, is the distace from block i to quay. S j is the depth of block j, ad S ij are the rectagular distaces (real route distaces) from block i to block j respectively. This model belogs to the trasportatio model category i geeral, ad it ca be solved by those Simplex based method. 4. CT Case Study ad Discussio 4.1. Cotaier Termial Backgroud XSCT is a moder cotaier termial joitly operated by the local port operator ad a world famous cotaier operator with a ivestmet of 1.68 billio RMB ad opeig o September 6th, XSCT is strategically located at the southeast of Haicag district, which is the mai chael of

4 Sciece Joural of Busiess ad Maagemet 2017; 5(2): Xiame Port i southeast Chia. There are three berths for the latest moder cotaier vessel with a capacity of 18,000 TEU or other large ships with toage of 150,000 tos. There are 1246 meters of quay legth i the termial with -17 meters draft alogside, ad the CT has 1,800,000 TEUs aual capacity. With specificatios listed i table 1, the termial has the capacity to accommodate three 15,000TEU vessels simultaeously. Gate Office Ispectio Items Table 1. Specificatios of XSCT. Values Berth 1246 meters for three vessels simultaeously Termial lad depth 1400 m Quayside depth 520 m Termial lad area m 2 Stackig yard area m 2 Stackig blocks 8 for export/import, 1 for empty Grouded empty storage TEUs Total yard slots TEUs Quay craes 10 Stackig craes 18 (RTG) The vital ecoomic developmet i Southeast Chia for both import ad export demads, superior geographical coditios, world-class hadlig equipmet ad proficiet employees support the CT project to be the leadig cotaier termial i the Greater Chia, ad it strive to be the best iteratioal cotaier termials. Ad its operatios should be also tued for this objective Data ad Layout I this case, the detail iformatio of the CT is examied to achieve operatioal improvemets. The storage yard of XSCT is further divided ito 8 stackig blocks for holdig import or export freight cotaiers, as show i Figure 3. While Table 1 lists the mai specificatios of XSCT. Ad based o the termial layout, the distaces betwee each blocks ad quay are show i Table 2. Ad from the operatioal dataset, for example, a particular vessel visit istace, the required cotaiers ad iitial assigmets are listed i Table 3. The total import cotaiers M is 1284, ad export cotaiers N is i Quay S i Table 2. Distace betwee blocks (meters). A S i1 B S i2 C S i3 D S i4 E S i5 F S i6 G S i7 A 25 0 B C D E F G H H S i8 Block A Vessel Repair Figure 3. Layout of XSCT. Table 3. Istace of import ad export cotaiers for blocks (TEU). Blocks A B C D E F G H Import Export Solutios ad Results Block H Block B Block C Block D Block E Thus, iput these values ito our model, a result will be geerated by CPLEX. The objective value is , ad the results of variables are listed i Table 4. Table 4. Result of variables. A B C D E F G H I i A B C D E F G H E i From Table 4, the data ca be further applied to the import cotaier storage. We esure that 210 import cotaiers to block A, ad 180 to B, 209 to C, 314 to D, 51 to E, 94 to E, 42 to G, ad 60 to H Result Aalysis ad Discussio Block G Block F Ladside Quayside Berth1 Berth2 Berth3 The routes for export cotaiers from stackig blocks to quayside are as follows: Tour 1. I Block A, 100 import cotaiers moved from quayside to block A, the uloadig ad stagig, while 100 export cotaiers is the loaded ito the trucks ad toward quayside. I short it is a Quay Block A Block

5 68 Jumi Yi: Optimal Decisio o Ladside Operatios ad Truck Tour of a Cotaier Termial A Quay path. Ideed it is 100 cosequet tours for trucks alog this path. Tour 2. I Block B with total 170 export cotaiers, while 110 cotaiers follow the Quay Block A Block B Quay path, ad 60 by Quay Block B Block B Quay path. Tour 3. I Block C with total 321 export cotaiers, while 120 cotaiers follow the Quay Block B Block C Quay path, ad 201 by Quay Block C Block C Quay path. Tour 4. I Block D with total 231 export cotaiers, 231 cotaiers all follow the Quay Block D Block D Quay path. Tour 5. I Block E with total 46 export cotaiers, all 46 cotaiers follow the Quay Block E Block E Quay path. Tour 6. I Block F with total 99 export cotaiers, while 5 cotaiers follow the Quay Block E Block F Quay path, ad 201 by Quay Block F Block F Quay path. Tour 7. I Block G with total 106 export cotaiers, while 64 cotaiers follow the Quay Block D Block G Quay path, ad 42 by Quay Block G Block G Quay path. Tour 8. I Block H with total 87 export cotaiers, while 8 cotaiers follow the Quay Block C Block H Quay path, 19 by Quay Block D Block H Quay path, ad 60 by Quay Block H Block H Quay path. I the situatio of parallel loadig ad uloadig process, the total travel distace ca t be miimal if the import cotaiers are assiged to a block by adjacet priciple. From our results, Block A which is closed to quay ad remote Block G are ot fully assiged with cotaiers because of varied distaces betwee differet cotaier stackig blocks. I the process of cotaier trasport, the M, N values which a vessel visits the termial ca be reached i advace through the Bookig Cofirmatio. Thus our model ca be ru each time before the vessel visit ad ca guide the block assigmet based o their capacity or adjustig the block capacity o site. Our objective is to achieve total miimal travel distace, i other word; the workig efficiecy ca be improved by this way i some sigificat extet. Sice the berths ca hold three vessels i the same time, however, if three vessels visit the termial simultaeously, the M, N value of our model will be the sum of the import /export cotaiers to be hadled for these ships. But it is complicated for the block assigmet because the cotaiers of each ship must be clarified ad distiguished i the stackig blocks. Further variables assigmet is eeded for this situatio. 5. Coclusio There are may optimal problems for the operatios of cotaier termials. I this paper we studied a specific cotaier flow betwee the quayside ad ladside i a cotaier termial with give yard layout ad cofiguratios. By examiig differet optimal models proposed for cotaier termial optimizatio both o quayside ad ladside, we setup our specific trasportatio model for the trasshipmet of cotaiers withi the termial. The solutios ad suggest applicatios are proposed based o the real data from the CT s layout ad operatios. Our study helps the termial to improve its operatios ad may ecourage cotaier termial idustry to realize optimal ad reasoable operatios. However, the operatioal efficiecy is decided by multiple factors ad further details o operatios ca be examied for better implemetatio. Ackowledgmets The authors wish to thak the aoymous referees whose careful readig ad commets helped to greatly improve the paper. Also, Yuayua Li s discussio ad help is also ackowledged. This work is partially supported by NSFC Research Grat ad the Fujia Provicial Natural Sciece Foudatio (Grat No. 2014J01271). Refereces [1] W. K. Talley, Port Ecoomics, New York: Routledge Press, ch. 10, pp , [2] J. C. Frasoo ad C.-Y. Lee, The critical role of ocea cotaier trasport i global supply chai performace, Productio ad Operatios Maagemet, vol. 22, o. 2, pp , [3] R. Stahlbock ad S. Voß, Operatios research at cotaier termials: a literature update, OR Spectrum, 30 (1): 1 52, [4] I. F. A. Vis ad R. de Koster. 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