Title: A new tool for generating scenarios in container terminals

Authors: Iñigo L. Ansorena

Addresses: Technical University of Madrid, C/Professor Aranguren s/n, Madrid 28040, Spain

Abstract: This article presents a new tool for generating scenarios in container terminals. The tool simulates the arrival of vessels at container terminals. Each new ship call is modelled with eight variables that are crucial to produce scenarios of high practical relevance. Four variables describe the characteristics of container ships (demand) while the other four describe port performance (service). Then the tool generates random numbers from these variables. The random numbers are generated according to statistical distributions. Then the tool detects a 'failure' if the generated number (output) is out of a range of tolerance. The number generator is the first step to develop a complex simulation model which might be used to cope with berth planning and crane scheduling problems in the future. The structure of the generator discussed here is general enough to be applied to any container terminal.

Keywords: simulation; container terminals; failure rate; port performance; service-demand.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2019.100117

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 2019 Vol.33 No.2, pp.280 - 290

Received: 11 Jul 2017
Accepted: 20 Nov 2017
Published online: 09 Jun 2019 *

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