《Storage space allocation models for inbound containers in an automatic》.pdf

European Journal of Operational Research 226 (2013) 32–45 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect European Journal of Operational Research journal homepage: www.else /locate/ejor Discrete Optimization Storage space allocation models for inbound containers in an automatic container terminal Mingzhu Yu, Xiangtong Qi ⇑ Department of Industrial Engineering and Logistics Management, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: This paper studies the problem of improving the operations efficiency for retrieving inbound containers Received 4 January 2011 in a modern automatic container terminal. In the terminal, when an external truck arrives to collect a Accepted 29 October 2012 container stored in a specific container block, it waits at one end of the block where an automatic stack Available online 9 November 2012 crane will retrieve the container and deliver it to the truck. With the aim of reducing the expected exter- nal truck waiting time which is determined by how the containers are stored in a block, we propose two Keywords: correlated approaches for the operations efficiency improvement, (1) by designing an optimized block Container terminal scheduling space allocation to store the inbound containers after they are discharged from vessels, and (2) by con- Space allocation