Planning Simulation Experiments in the Tasks of Studying the Operational Strategies of Container Terminals

Abstract

There is a lot of scientific papers that consider the efficiency of different container yard’s handling strategies. The methods of assessment vary from abstract mathematical calculations to aposterioric collection and analyses of practical data. This article deals with a new way of stacking strategy’s estimation. It postulates that investigations based on the extrapolation of existing strategies cannot be reliable due to rapid changes in terminals’ environment and restricted amount of data that can be collected within limited periods of the strategies’ application. The hypothesis of the study is that the only method that could provide robust comparative study of container stacking strategies is the simulation modelling. In the same time, any model is only a tool of analyses. The synthesis could be provided only by massive iterations of single simulation experiments with controlled searching procedure in the space of parameters. Consequently, the stress of the simulation study should be put not on the model itself, but on the way how to use it, i.e. on the experiments planning. Only a rationally constructed machine of simulation scenario generation could provide adequate and statistically reliable results. In order to demonstrate the importance of this ‘task setting’ machine, two example strategies are selected for comparison: (1) allocation of containers to slots with the minimum height and (2) stacking of containers in accordance with expected dwell time. It also shows that the objective function has a great impact on the optimal strategy implementation. In the study described in the paper the number of moves requested to select a container is opted as an optimization criterion.

Keywords

• container terminal
• allocation of containers
• stacking of containers
• sea cargo front (scf)
• land cargo front (lcf)
• container yard (cy)
• simulation study
• operational strategy