A reverse logistics problem, motivated by many real-life applications, is examined where bottles/cans in which products are delivered from a processing depot to customers in one period are available for return to the depot in the following period. The picked-up bottles/cans need to be adjusted in the place of delivery load. This problem is termed as simultaneous delivery and pick-up problem wit…
This study is motivated by the practice of large iron and steel companies, which have steady and heavy demands for bulk raw materials such as iron ore, coal, limestone and so on. These materials are usually transported to a bulk cargo terminal by ships (or to a station by trains). Once discharged, they are moved to and stored in bulk material stock yard, waiting for retrieval for production use…
The competitiveness of a container terminal is highly conditioned by the time that container vessels spend on it. The proper scheduling of the quay cranes can reduce this time and allows a container terminal to be more attractive to shipping companies. The goal of the Quay Crane Scheduling Problem (QCSP) is to minimize the handling time of the available quay cranes when performing the tasks of …
The3DContainershipLoadingPlanProblem(CLPP)isanimportantproblemthatappearsinseaportcontainerterminaloperations.Thisproblemconsistsofdetermininghowtoorganizethecontainersinashipinordertominimizethenumberof ovementsnecessarytoloadandunloadthecontainershipandtheinstabilityoftheshipineachport.TheCLPPiswellknowntobeNP hard.Inthispaper,thehybridmethodParetoClusteringSearch(PCS)isproposedtosolvetheCLPP…
The yard allocation problem (YAP) is a real-life resource allocation problem faced by the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA). As the problem is NP-hard, we propose an effective meta-heuristic procedure, named critical-shaking neighborhood search. Extensive experiments have shown that the new method can produce higher quality solutions in a much shorter time, as compared with other meta-heuris…
The distribution function in a supply chain is an important internal service function for any firm, and has been increasingly recognized as playing a strategic role in achieving competitive advantage. This paper proposes improving the distribution function of the supply chain by employing hub‐and‐spoke network designs. Such designs have proven to be effective with third party logistics carr…
Container stacking and reshuffling are important issues in the management of operations in a container terminal. Minimizing the number of reshuffles can increase productivity of the yard cranes and the efficiency of the terminal. In this research, the authors improve the existing static reshuffling model, develop five effective heuristics, and analyze the performance of these algorithms. A disc…