Developing a Robust Optimization Model for Seaside Operations in Container Terminal under Uncertainty Environment
Dina Natalia Prayogo, Akhmad Hidayatno and Komarudin

Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Indonesia

Abstract

The rapid growth of the global economy in this last decade requires the improvement of operational management efficiency of container terminals, to response the 4% growth of container shipping demand in international trade, with world container port throughput reached 701 million TEUs in 2016 (UNCTAD, 2017). Various efforts have been made by container terminal managers to increase the productivity level of limited resources. The main resources at container terminals are the availability of quay seaside and container storage yard on the land-side. The maximum of berth utilization is influenced by the allocation of vessels into berth segments and the number of quay cranes assigned to serve the discharging and loading activities of containers into each arrived vessel in container terminal. Tactical decisions in the Berth Allocation Problem and Quay Crane Assignment Problems in resource management in seaside of container terminal are intertwined with each other, such that needs to be taken into account in an integrated manner. In addition, container terminal managers often face the uncertainty of ship arrival time and the number of containers that must be discharged and loaded into each arrived vessels are in uncertainty environment, such that needs to estimate the handling time required. This results in container terminal managers having difficulty in providing services that ensure the shipping liner owners satisfaction.
Therefore, this paper discusses the robust optimization model development to integrate tactical decisions on seaside operations in container terminal, that is consist of Tactical Berth Allocation Problem and Specific Quay Crane Assignment Problem by considering the uncertainty of vessel arrival time and the number of containers to be discharged and loaded into the arrived vessels, which also affects the uncertainty of handling time required. The development of optimization model considers container terminal managers and shipping liner owners viewpoints. Thus this optimization model has two objective functions, i.e. minimizing total costs of seaside operations and maximizing service levels for shipping liners. Since these two tactical decisions for seaside operations are inter-related each other, the robust optimization model is solved by using the Functional Integration Approach with Feedback Loop Structure, which is applied to a numerical example for testing the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Keywords: Robust Optimization, Tactical Berth Allocation Problem, Specific Quay Crane Assignment Problem, Container Terminal Operations, Uncertainty Environment.

Topic: Infrastructure and Environment