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Levelling crane workload in multi-yard rail-road container terminals

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  • Schulz, Arne
  • Fliedner, Malte
  • Fiedrich, Benedikt
  • Pfeiffer, Christian

Abstract

In modern rail-road container terminals, container transshipment between trains and trucks is carried out by large gantry cranes that span over rail tracks and road lanes. Prior optimization approaches have mainly focused on the short-term scheduling of these crucial transshipment resources. In this work, we focus on a midterm planning level that assigns inbound trains to yard tracks such that trains can be serviced by yard resources on schedule. This planning task is especially crucial in larger terminal settings which comprise more than a single yard, which is increasingly typical in growing intermodal networks. We describe the planning situation we encountered at a large rail-road terminal in Germany and propose a mixed-integer model formulation that captures the core of the decision problem. Further, we carry out a complexity analysis of problem variants and develop a heuristic solution procedure in a simulated annealing framework based on these structural insights. The approach is tested in a comprehensive computational study which demonstrates the viability of the approach to solve instances of real-world size.

Suggested Citation

  • Schulz, Arne & Fliedner, Malte & Fiedrich, Benedikt & Pfeiffer, Christian, 2021. "Levelling crane workload in multi-yard rail-road container terminals," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 293(3), pages 941-954.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:293:y:2021:i:3:p:941-954
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2020.12.063
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Boysen, Nils & Emde, Simon & Fliedner, Malte, 2012. "Determining crane areas for balancing workload among interfering and noninterfering cranes," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 79437, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
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    4. Konrad Stephan & Nils Boysen, 2017. "Crane scheduling in railway yards: an analysis of computational complexity," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 20(5), pages 507-526, October.
    5. Nils Boysen & Simon Emde & Malte Fliedner, 2012. "Determining crane areas for balancing workload among interfering and noninterfering cranes," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 59(8), pages 656-662, December.
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    13. Mateusz Cichenski & Florian Jaehn & Grzegorz Pawlak & Erwin Pesch & Gaurav Singh & Jacek Blazewicz, 2017. "An integrated model for the transshipment yard scheduling problem," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 57-65, February.
    14. Nils Boysen & Malte Fliedner & Florian Jaehn & Erwin Pesch, 2013. "A Survey on Container Processing in Railway Yards," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(3), pages 312-329, August.
    15. Nils Boysen & Joachim Scholl & Konrad Stephan, 2017. "When road trains supply freight trains: scheduling the container loading process by gantry crane between multi-trailer trucks and freight trains," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 39(1), pages 137-164, January.
    16. Jian Gang Jin & Der-Horng Lee & Jin Xin Cao, 2016. "Storage Yard Management in Maritime Container Terminals," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(4), pages 1300-1313, November.
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    18. Y Zhu & A Lim, 2006. "Crane scheduling with non-crossing constraint," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 57(12), pages 1464-1471, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Zhongbin Zhao & Xifu Wang & Suxin Cheng & Wei Liu & Lijun Jiang, 2022. "A New Synchronous Handling Technology of Double Stack Container Trains in Sea-Rail Intermodal Terminals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1, September.
    2. Roy, Debjit & van Ommeren, Jan-Kees & de Koster, René & Gharehgozli, Amir, 2022. "Modeling landside container terminal queues: Exact analysis and approximations," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 73-102.
    3. Basallo-Triana, Mario José & Bravo-Bastidas, Juan José & Vidal-Holguín, Carlos Julio, 2022. "A rail-road transshipment yard picture," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).

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