The quay crane operation problem at marine container terminals: bibliometric analysis, emerging trends, and future research opportunities

This study presents an effort to critically review and analyze the existing research on the quay crane operation problem at ports from its inception in 1989 to the middle of 2024. In the process of this comprehensive review, a variety of bibliometric methods and techniques for mapping this very intensive research field are used. The formed dataset with a total of 340 studies allows manageable and visible analysis. All the collected studies are categorized into four groups based on the year of publication to better understand the evolution of major themes from earlier studies to more recent ones. The developed dataset is further used to build the features that are significant in the context of mapping through a detail visualization, interpretation, and discussion, including dynamic trends that involve emerging and declining topics. The results from conducted analyses show that the scope of the quay crane operation problem has been substantially expanded well beyond the themes that were common in earlier studies, including quay crane scheduling, quay crane assignment, and berth allocation. The evolutionary themes and sub-themes mainly deal with optimization problems related to port/terminal links, stochastic programming, modern equipment types, and integrated scheduling. Some additional thematic paths are discovered and thoroughly discussed as well focusing on double-cycle operations of quay cranes, uncertainty modeling, eco-friendly initiatives, and automation. A significant emphasis on automated container terminals, stochastic systems, and optimization in the latest studies indicates that these topics are likely to receive more attention from the community in the following years.