Efficient planning of berth allocation for container terminals in Asia

TLDR

Berth allocation is essential for efficient terminal utilization in Asian container ports, where tradeoffs between minimizing port staying times and ship dissatisfaction must be balanced. The study aims to solve the berth allocation problem by minimizing ships' port staying times and berthing‑order dissatisfaction, seeking noninferior solutions. An algorithm is developed to generate noninferior solutions to the berth allocation problem and is illustrated on sample cases. The algorithm’s application to sample problems demonstrates its relevance for improving terminal utilization.

Abstract

Abstract Berth allocation is essential for efficient terminal utilization in container ports, especially those in Asia. This paper is concerned with a berth allocation problem(BAP) that minimizes the sum of port staying times of ships and that minimizes dissatisfaction of the ships in terms of the berthing order. In general there exist tradeoffs between these objectives. An algorithm is presented to identify noninferior solutions to the BAP. The algorithm is demonstrated with some sample problems and the results indicate the importance of the problem in efficient terminal utilization.