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To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2009.09.006 Byline: Charlie Wen, Sandra Duni EkAioAlu, Allen Greenwood, Shu Zhang Abstract: This paper describes exact and heuristic approaches for scheduling multiple cranes that service a shipyard that produces multiple ships concurrently. Cranes transport a variety of materials over a shared network of tracks; therefore, inter-crane interference is a major factor affecting makespan and crane utilization. The exact approach models the problem as a multi-commodity flow problem with side constraints on a network. The corresponding integer programming formulation is solved using CPLEX. The heuristics proposed decompose the problem in two sub-problems: a scheduling problem that determines the order in which jobs should be performed, and an assignment problem that assigns cranes to jobs. Computational results show that using the Priority/ACO (ant colony optimization) heuristic gives high quality solutions. Author Affiliation: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Mississippi State University, P.O. Box 9542, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA Article History: Received 16 July 2008; Accepted 9 September 2009

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2009.08.002 Byline: Canrong Zhang (a)(b), Li Zheng (a), Zhihai Zhang (a), Leyuan Shi (b), Aaron J. Armstrong (b) Keywords: Berth allocation; Container terminals; Crane scheduling; Lagrangian relaxation; Sub-gradient Abstract: This paper examines the allocation of berths and quay cranes for vessels arriving at container terminals. Previous work in this area has either ignored or deemphasized the coverage range limitations of quay cranes or imposed too loose or too rigid assumptions about whether quay cranes can be adjusted during loading and discharging, thus making the extracted models less applicable to the actual situation. This paper takes into consideration the coverage ranges of quay cranes and allows for limited adjustments of quay cranes during loading and discharging. A mixed integer programming model is constructed, and a sub-gradient optimization algorithm is applied to solving the problem. Using actual data, the performance of the algorithm is demonstrated. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Industrial Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China (b) Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA Article History: Received 23 January 2009; Revised 9 July 2009; Accepted 9 August 2009

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2008.09.035 Byline: Youfang Huang (a), Chengji Liang (a), Yang Yang (b) Keywords: Automatic container crane; Genetic algorithm; Route planning; Loading/unloading of yard crane; Optimum route Abstract: In recent years, the scale of container transportation and the size of vessels are becoming larger and larger; development of automatic container cranes becomes a necessity. As a key function of automatic control of unmanned cranes, the optimum route can minimize the cycle time by calculating the most efficient combination of horizontal and vertical motions of container loading/unloading. In this study, we have comprehensively studied various issues in the route planning in different fields. Later, the mathematical model based on the problem analysis of loading/unloading process was presented. Particularly, to solve the problem, an optimum route method based on genetic algorithm, which satisfies the criteria such as length, smooth degree and safety distance, was developed. Finally, the computational experiments testified the effectiveness of the algorithm and explored a new way to increase the efficiency of container loading/unloading process. Author Affiliation: (a) Shanghai Maritime University, 1550 Pudong Avenue, Shanghai 200135, China (b) Graduate School of Information, Production and Systems, Waseda University, 2-7 Hibikino, Wakamatsu, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka 8080135, Japan Article History: Received 21 July 2007; Revised 19 May 2008; Accepted 8 September 2008

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2008.09.008 Byline: Haipeng Zhang (a), Kap Hwan Kim (b) Keywords: Dual cycling; Quay crane scheduling; Container terminals Abstract: An important objective of all schedules in a port is to minimize turnaround time of vessels. An operation schedule for Quay Cranes (QCs) can significantly affect the turnaround time of a vessel. Recently dual cycling techniques have already been used for reducing the number of operation cycles of QCs in some advanced container terminals. This study attempts to minimize the number of operation cycles of a QC for discharging and loading containers in a ship-bay, which is equivalent to maximizing the number of dual cycle operations. A formulation in QC scheduling problems is proposed as a mixed integer programming model. A hybrid heuristic approach is proposed to solve this model. The algorithm applied in this study takes two types of sequencing into account, i.e. inter-stage sequencing (hatch sequencing) and intra-stage sequencing (stack sequencing in the same hatch). This approach hybridizes a certain reconstructive Johnson's rule with an effective local search method. Finally, certain data in real cases are used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Industrial Engineering, Pusan National University, Room #10605, Building 10, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735, Republic of Korea (b) Department of Industrial Engineering, Pusan National University, Room #10619, Building 10, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735, Republic of Korea

Double-rail-mounted gantry (DRMG) crane system is an emerging container-handling technology that was recently introduced in Europe. The system consists of two rail-mounted gantry (RMG) cranes of different height and width. Intuitively, this special feature will help to increase the productivity of the two cranes since they can pass through each other during their movement along a container block. This paper focuses on providing an efficient operation strategy for the DRMG systems to load outbound containers. An integer programming model is developed to formulate the problem. A greedy heuristic algorithm, a simulated annealing (SA) algorithm and a combined DRMG scheduling heuristic (CDSH) ate designed to solve the proposed problem. Computational experiments show that the CDSH outperforms the other two approaches. Since the CDSH performs well and is easy to implement, it has a high potential to be used in scheduling DRMG systems in real operation. Keywords: Scheduling Double-rail-mounted gantry crane (DRMG) Scheduling heuristic