ABSTRACT In a container terminal, containers unloaded from a ship are moved to the yard during the import operation. The export operation is the reverse of the import process. When a ship is served by multiple shore-cranes having both loading and unloading activities at the same time, a yard-machine can process an import container and an export container in one single round-trip. This paper investigates a model that concerns with the location and loading/unloading speed of shore-cranes, speed of yard machines, as well as the location of containers in the storage yard. The aim is to optimise the scheduling of container processes in maximising the efficiency of ports. The problem is solved using meta-heuristic techniques. Key Words: Transportation, Scheduling, Optimisation 1. INTRODUCTION Globalisation has brought with it an increase in the level of transportation. The world’s regions are also more closely linked with sources of raw material, manufacturing plants and markets worldwide (McCalla, 1999). World container traffic has already reached 236 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in 2003 (UNCTAD, 2004). Because of the economy of scales, larger and larger container vessels are being built. This leads to even higher capital investment for each new ship. With the high cost of vessels and of the goods they carry, shippers would obviously prefer a more reliable and efficient port of call. In a deregulated environment, keen competition exists between ports. To improve the port’s attractiveness, terminal operators are constantly under pressure to find ways to improve the reliability of their services, to reduce the overall transit times of container and to reduce costs as well. Optimisation of container process with multiple shore-cranes is investigated in this study. The problem is formulated as a mixed integer programming problem (MIP), and solved by meta-heuristic techniques for obtaining optimal schedule in minimising the ship-time and the total travelling time of yard-machines.
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