Effective Algorithms for Integrated Scheduling of Handling Equipment at Automated Container Terminals

Meersmans, Patrick J. M.; Wagelmans, Albert P. M.

Effective Algorithms for Integrated Scheduling of Handling Equipment at Automated Container Terminals

ERIM Report Series Reference No. ERS-2001-36-LIS

31 Pages Posted: 26 Aug 2006

See all articles by Patrick J. M. Meersmans

Patrick J. M. Meersmans

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Department of Econometrics; Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM)

Albert P. M. Wagelmans

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Erasmus Center for Optimization in Public Transport (ECOPT); Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Department of Econometrics

Date Written: August 2001 6,

Abstract

In this paper we consider the problem of integrated scheduling of various types of handling equipment at an automated container terminal, where the objective is to minimize the makespan of the schedule. We present a Branch & Bound algorithm that uses various combinatorial lower bounds. Computational experiments show that this algorithm is able to produce optimal or near optimal schedules for instances of practical size in a reasonable time. We also develop a Beam Search heuristic that can be used to tackle very large problem instances. Our experiments show that for such instances the heuristic obtains close to optimal solutions in a reasonable time.

Keywords: Container terminal, scheduling, AGV's, branch & bound, beam search

JEL Classification: M, M11, R4, C69

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Meersmans, Patrick J. M. and Wagelmans, Albert P. M., Effective Algorithms for Integrated Scheduling of Handling Equipment at Automated Container Terminals (August 2001 6,). ERIM Report Series Reference No. ERS-2001-36-LIS. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=370889