Planning and Decision-Making to Increase Productivity on a Maritime Container Terminal

This article describes orientations in optimization of operationson a maritime container terminal. With the application ofan adequate model for forecasting, planning and simulating itis possible to increase the productivity and optimize the capacityof the terminal. The emphasis is mainly on setting up the decisionmaking model, in order to raise productivity in all subsystemsof the maritime container terminal.Management of a maritime container terminal is a complexprocess, which includes a vast number of different decisions.The management must develop elements and strategiesfor checking the productivity and its rise, which can only beachieved through optimization of the entire system. Withknowledge about new technologies, operational processes,methods of forecast and simulation it is possible to achieve theeasiest usage of different strategies for improving productivity.This is particularly valid for terminals, where the physical extensionof the terminal is practically impossible and further developmentof the system is possible only by searching internalsources. Therefore, the management of a maritime containerterminal must develop an appropriate decision support mode~in order to make an adequate support to strategic decisions.These decisions relate basically to the assessment of the best developmentand optimization decisions and on application ofproposed solutions in the infrastructure and suprastructure ofthe terminal.