Control policies for material flow in bulk-port marine terminals

This paper examines a typical material handling operation at a bulk-port marine terminal. A simulation model has been developed for port/yard operations to evaluate and improve the system performance. There exists a railroad system delivering the ore into a yard from a nearby mine. There are vessels arriving at the pier to receive the ore that is piled in the yard. The yard carries two forms of ore (wet and dry) and it is driven by the demand from the vessels. We have studied various operational policies that would resolve the issue of where to place the arriving material in the yard using the simulation model. The effectiveness of different heuristics are discussed and explained. Various sensitivity analyses and further research topics are considered