A Simulation Study for the Operations Analysis of Dynamic Planning in Container Terminals Considering RTLS

The aim of this study is to propose using dynamic planning system (DPS) for yard tractors (YT) utilizing real time location systems technology (RTLS) and analyzing its performance. The system can provide real time job ordering in terms of load balancing using the information on location, in regards to the movement of YT. There are two required DPS operation rules regarding YT; the shortest operation time rule and the equal load distribution rule. We examined, by means of simulation, how productivity could be improved with the DPS in container terminals. For the examination, three operation methodologies were utilized: previous, pooling, and dual-cycling. According to the results, flow time of the pooling operation was shorter than previous operations, and dual-cycling was the shortest operation. The best performance was achieved with minimized cost when the shortest operation time rule applied to dual-cycling operation.