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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.cor.2008.12.014 Byline: Lixin Tang (a), Xie Xie (a), Jiyin Liu (b) Abstract: This paper studies a single crane scheduling problem motivated by batch annealing process in the iron and steel industry. Each coil stack placed on fixed base needs to go through two-stage processing: heating and cooling. During each stage, limited special machines (furnace and cooler) must be operated by crane, respectively. Our problem is to assign the shared machines and schedule a single crane for minimizing the last coil stack completion time (makespan). A mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model is formulated by considering both machine and crane positions. We show that the problem is NP-hard in the strong sense. Some optimal properties on the problem are derived. A two-phase algorithm is constructed for the problem. In the first phase, a fully polynomial time approximation scheme (FPTAS) is developed for the assignment subproblem. In the second phase, a heuristics is proposed for the scheduling subproblem. From an absolute performance point of view, we analyze the quality of the two-phase algorithm. We also consider special cases where some properties or algorithms are developed. In order to further verify the performance of the two-phase algorithm, we develop a lower bound on the optimal objective function. Computational experiments on the randomly generated problem instances show that the algorithm is close to the lower bound within a reasonable computation time. Author Affiliation: (a) TLiaoning Key Laboratory of Manufacturing System and Logistics, The Logistics Institute, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110004, PR China (b) Business School, Loughborough University, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, UK

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cor.2008.04.007 Byline: Matthew E.H. Petering (a), Katta G. Murty (b) Abstract: As more and more container terminals open up all over the world, terminal operators are discovering that they must increase quay crane work rates in order to remain competitive. In this paper we present a simulation study that shows how a terminal's long-run average quay crane rate depends on (1) the length of the storage blocks in the terminal's container yard and (2) the system that deploys yard cranes among blocks in the same zone. Several different block lengths and yard crane deployment systems are evaluated by a fully dynamic, discrete event simulation model that considers the detailed movement of individual containers passing through a vessel-to-vessel transshipment terminal over a several week period. Experiments consider four container terminal scenarios that are designed to reproduce the multi-objective, stochastic, real-time environment at a multiple-berth facility. Results indicate that a block length between 56 and 72 (20-ft) slots yields the highest quay crane work rate, and that a yard crane deployment system that restricts crane movement yields a higher quay crane work rate than a system that allows greater yard crane mobility. Interestingly, a block length of 56-72 slots is somewhat longer than the average block in use today. The experiments provide the first direct connection in the literature between block length and long-run performance at a seaport container terminal. The simulator can be suitably customized to real, pure-transshipment ports and adequately tuned to get an appreciable prescriptive power. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Wisconsin -- Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53201, USA (b) Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2117, USA

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

Beijing is spending $3.2bn on venues for the 2008 Olympic Games plus a further $21.6bn on the city's infrastructure. Shanghai, too, continues to see continuing massive development, particularly in the [...]

Tower crane exhibitors, who come to SAIE every other year, return once more to the fairground in Bologna, Italy in October. For many visitors, this will be the time to [...]

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PALFINGER recently introduced nine new crane models to the North American market. The PALFINGER Compact telescopic series has been completely redesigned in the performance class up to four metre tonnes. [...]

Price: $29.95 Manufacturer American Limited Models PO Box 7803 Fremont, CA 94537-7803 www.americanlimitedmodels.com Description: plastic ready-to-install models Comments: Factory assembled and painted HO scale models of a modern-era sand tower [...]

Staff Link-Belt 348 H5 Crawler Crane is the newest addition to Classic Construction Model's continuing line of all brass, 1-to-48 scale construction equipment models. One-time edition of 300 models, models [...]

Following IC's announcement in April (at www.khl.com in the Latest news section) of a new crawler crane in the 1000 tonne capacity class under development by Liebherr, the official model [...]

Four diesel-electric Terex Gottwald mobile harbour cranes have been ordered by terminal operators from Brazil, Haiti and Sint Maarten in the Caribbean. The models include two Model 4 cranes in [...]

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[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: The date for the 2009 Modelshow Europe for scale models of cranes, heavy haulage and earthmovers has been announced. It will be on 18 April 2009 in [...]

XCMG, China's largest crane manufacturer will enter the powered access market next year with a 22 m working height stick boom model. A 26 m model will follow according to [...]

Manitex shipped the first unit of its 50 US ton (45 tonne) capacity model 5096S truck mounted crane in April. Designed with the taxi crane market in mind, the telescopic [...]

On a trip to Houston, Texas last month, I saw a lot of nothing. At Liebherr's huge new service centre, a handful of engineers worked on a measly two cranes. [...]