A unied approach for the evaluation of quay crane scheduling models.pdfVIP

Computers Operations Research 38 2011 683–693 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Computers Operations Research journal home A uni?ed approach for the evaluation of quay crane scheduling models and algorithms Frank Meisel , Christian Bierwirth School of Economics and Business, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Gr. Steinstr. 73, 06108 Halle, Germany a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Available online 20 August 2010 Scheduling of quay cranes at container terminals is a ?eld of growing interest in research and practice. Keywords: In the literature, we ?nd diverse models for quay crane scheduling that consider the service of container Container terminal vessels at different levels of detail. Currently, however, there exists no basis to compare the quality of Quay crane scheduling planning that is achieved from these models. There is also no platform available that allows comparing Across model evaluation different solution procedures and investigating conditions where they perform well or poorly. This Benchmark generation paper presents a uni?ed approach for evaluating the performance of different model classes and solution procedures. The approach is demonstrated by investigating the suitability of three models within a comprehensive computational study. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The QCSP with bay areas involves the lowest complexity as it basically reduces to a partitioning problem. Corresponding Quay cranes QCs are used in container terminals to charge and approaches are presented by [19–22]. discharge container vessels. The speed and the reliability of the Generally, a solution procedure designed for a particular problem service process strongly depends on the work plans which are class is applicable to a less detailed problem as well. Hence, projected for the QCs. Th