Bilevel Programming Model and Solutions of Berth Allocation and Quay Crane Scheduling

Abstract

This paper discusses a method for scheduling berth and quay cranes, which are critical resources in container ports. A bi-level programming model, where the berth allocation problem with the objective of minimizing the sum of waiting time and handing time of each vessel is dealt with as upper level problem while the quay crane scheduling problem with the objective of minimizing the sum of makespan of all the vessels and the completion time for all the quay cranes is dealt with as lower level problem, is formulated by considering various practical constraints such as interference between the quay cranes. In order to solve this model, a genetic algorithm is used to determine the near optimal solution. A computational experiment is conducted to examine the performance of the proposed bi-level programming model and algorithm.