Title: Cargo unloading problem: a quantitative modelling for arriving at optimum strategy

Authors: Dilip Roy, Asit Bandyopadhayay

Addresses: Centre for Management Studies, The University of Burdwan, Golapbag, Burdwan-713104, W.B., India. ' Jaypee Business School, Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, Deemed University, A-10, Sector-62, Noida-201307, India

Abstract: This paper presents a modelling approach for arriving at an optimum strategy for bulk cargo unloading in a port. This an important task faced by each and every port on each and every day. At present, no objective procedure is available in the literature. We have made an attempt to formulate the unloading problem in terms of five alternative strategies and derive expressions for their respective costs, so that optimal unloading strategy can be identified and adopted. This involves handling of the situations in the stochastic domain. A case study has been added on Kolkata port for demonstration purpose.

Keywords: cargo unloading; routing problem; water depth; dredging; modelling; cost minimisation; regression analysis; optimisation; bulk cargo; ports; unloading strategy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMOM.2010.038145

International Journal of Modelling in Operations Management, 2010 Vol.1 No.2, pp.125 - 136

Published online: 19 Jan 2011 *

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