An Effective Heuristic for the Integrated Scheduling Problem of Automated Container Handling System Using Twin 40´ Cranes

An integrated equipment scheduling model of automated container terminal is proposed in this paper. The automated container handling system studied here is proposed by ZPMC, a world-famous manufacturer of cranes and large steel structures and is composed by automatic quayside cranes, automatic yard cranes and a railed container transporting system. The most outstanding difference of this container handling system is the use of twin 40´ cranes which can grab two 40´ containers at on time. The integrated scheduling model proposed in this paper is characterized by generating equipment scheduling plan together with yard storage plan and vessel storage plan, handles the twin 40´ container operation and having the capability to solve large scale problem. The objective is to minimize the turn around time of every container ship staying in the berth. An effective heuristic method was proposed to attack the problem in this paper. The numerical experiment shows the efficient performance and satisfying result.