Title: Mathematical programming and simulation based layout planning of container terminals

Authors: Jorg Wiese, Leena Suhl, Natalia Kliewer

Addresses: Decision Support and Operations Research Lab, University of Paderborn, Paderborn 33098, Germany. ' Decision Support and Operations Research Lab, University of Paderborn, Paderborn 33098, Germany. ' Decision Support and Operations Research Lab, University of Paderborn, Paderborn 33098, Germany

Abstract: Container terminal operators are under pressure to handle the increasing amount of container transfer in the global transportation network. To manage the growth, new container terminals are built or the capacity of existing ones is expanded using modern container handling technologies as well as automatic equipment. An efficient layout of the container terminal is crucial to obtain the maximum capacity. In this paper we present an approach based on a mixed integer linear model to find promising layout configurations for container terminals. Means of simulation are used to validate and evaluate the attained layout configuration. In addition the adequacy of the mixed integer linear model for planning layouts of container terminals is evaluated using the developed simulation model.

Keywords: container terminals; layout optimisation; simulation; terminal design; layout planning; layout design; facilities layout.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSPM.2009.032594

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, 2009 Vol.5 No.4, pp.313 - 323

Received: 24 Oct 2008
Accepted: 12 Mar 2009
Published online: 08 Apr 2010 *

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