Tactical planning models for managing container flow and ship deployment

This paper addresses two practical problems from a liner shipping company, i.e. the container flow management problem and the ship deployment problem, at the tactical planning level. A sequential model and a joint optimisation model are formulated to solve the problems. Our results show that the company should implement the joint optimisation model at the tactical planning level to improve the shipping capacity utilisation rather than the sequential model used in the current practice. Repositioning empty containers also need to be considered jointly with the nonempty container flow at the tactical planning level. Some important managerial insights into the operational and business processes are gained.

[1]  K. Lai,et al.  Shipping Container Logistics and Allocation , 1995 .

[2]  C. M. Khoong,et al.  A DSS for empty container distribution planning , 1995, Decis. Support Syst..

[3]  Chia-Hui Chang,et al.  Optimal Slot Allocation in Intra-Asia Service for Liner Shipping Companies , 2008 .

[4]  Michael H. Cole,et al.  Empty container management for intermodal transportation networks , 2002 .

[5]  T. Notteboom,et al.  Containerisation, Box Logistics and Global Supply Chains: The Integration of Ports and Liner Shipping Networks , 2008 .

[6]  Jie Zhang,et al.  On cost-efficiency of the global container shipping network , 2005 .

[7]  Teodor Gabriel Crainic,et al.  Multicommodity, multimode freight transportation: A general modeling and algorithmic framework for the service network design problem , 1986 .

[8]  Chuen-Yih Chen,et al.  A Two-Stage Stochastic Network Model and Solution Methods for the Dynamic Empty Container Allocation Problem , 1998, Transp. Sci..

[9]  D. Song,et al.  Empty Container Management in Cyclic Shipping Routes , 2008 .

[10]  Kjetil Fagerholt,et al.  Ship Routing and Scheduling: Status and Perspectives , 2004, Transp. Sci..

[11]  Teodor Gabriel Crainic,et al.  Survey Paper - A Review of Empty Flows and Fleet Management Models in Freight Transportation , 1987, Transp. Sci..

[12]  Mark S. Daskin,et al.  A combined model of train routing, makeup, and empty car distribution , 1987 .

[13]  B. J. Powell,et al.  Fleet deployment optimization for liner shipping: an integer programming model , 1997 .

[14]  William C. Jordan,et al.  A STOCHASTIC, DYNAMIC NETWORK MODEL FOR RAILROAD CAR DISTRIBUTION , 1983 .

[15]  Krishan Rana,et al.  Routing Container Ships Using Lagrangean Relaxation and Decomposition , 1991, Transp. Sci..

[16]  Brian W. Kernighan,et al.  AMPL: A Modeling Language for Mathematical Programming , 1993 .

[17]  Michel Gendreau,et al.  Dynamic and Stochastic Models for the Allocation of Empty Containers , 1993, Oper. Res..

[18]  David Ronen,et al.  Ship scheduling: The last decade , 1993 .

[19]  David G. Luenberger,et al.  Linear and nonlinear programming , 1984 .

[20]  Antonio Manca,et al.  An Operational Model for Empty Container Management , 2005 .