Inventory-Based Empty Container Repositioning in a Multi-Port System

The purpose of this study is to develop an inventory-based control policy to reposition empty container in a multi-port system with uncertain customer demand. A single- level policy with repositioning rule in terms of minimizing the repositioning cost is proposed to manage the empty container with periodical review. The objective is to optimize the parameters of the policy to minimize the expected total cost per period incurred by repositioning empty container, holding unused empty container and leasing empty container. The problem is solved by applying non-linear programming and a gradient search approach with Infinitesimal Perturbing Analysis (IPA) estimator. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed policy.