EURO 2024 Copenhagen
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1544. Container relocation and retrieval tradeoffs minimizing schedule deviations and relocations

Invited abstract in session TC-62: Container Stacking and Yard Planning II, stream OR in Port Operations.

Tuesday, 12:30-14:00
Room: S12 (building: 101)

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Robert Klar
Science and Technology, Linköping University
2. Anders Andersson
Vehicle Systems and Driving Simulation, Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI)
3. Anna Fredriksson
Science and Technology, Linköping University
4. Vangelis Angelakis
Science and Technology, Linköping University

Abstract

Ports are striving to improve operational efficiency in the face of ever-increasing trade volumes. In this context, the operation of port terminal storage yards is key, as complexity and poor coordination lead to containers being stacked without regard to retrieval schedules, resulting in time- and energy-consuming reshuffling operations. This problem, known as the block relocation (and retrieval) problem (BRP), has recently received considerable attention. While there are promising solutions to the BRP, the literature considers the problem in isolation, optimizing a single operational parameter for one of the many port stakeholders. This often leads to efficiency losses, since port processes involve different stakeholders and port parts. In this work, we explicitly focus on the scheduling of trucks for hinterland distribution: schedules are often shifted to minimize reshuffling, which causes losses to transport forwarders and reduces the competitiveness of the port. We discuss the trade-off between minimizing the number of container reshuffles and minimizing the deviation from the scheduled time windows for container retrieval by introducing a multi-objective optimization problem. Given the complexity of the problem, we present a greedy heuristic. Our results indicate that the number of schedule deviations can be reduced without significantly affecting the number of relocations.

Keywords

Status: accepted

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