A Simulation Study on a Workload-based Operation Planning Method in Container Terminals

A yard in a container terminal is a temporary storage space before containers are loaded onto the target vessel or de-livered to consignees. For improving the utilization of the space in the yard and the efficiency of loading and discharg-ing operations, it is important that operation plans must be carefully constructed in advance. A heuristic method is suggested to solve operation space planning problems considering workloads on handling equipment as well as space availabilities. The operation plans in this paper includes quay crane (QC) schedules and space plans for multiple ves-sels considering the workload in the container yard of container terminals. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of a space planning method and the performance of a new QC scheduling method using a simulation model