Bi-objective optimization for the container terminal integrated planning

In this paper, we study the joint optimization of the tactical berth allocation and the tactical yard allocation in container terminals, which typically consist of berth side and yard side operations. The studied two objectives are: (i) the minimization of the violation of the vessels’ expected turnaround time windows with the purpose of meeting the timetables published by shipping liners, and (ii) the minimization of the total yard transportation distance with the aim to lower terminal operational cost. We propose a bi-objective integer program which can comprehensively address the import, export and transshipment tasks in port daily practice. Traditionally, a container transshipment task is performed as a couple of import and export tasks, called indirect-transshipment mode, in which the transit container are needed to be temporally stored in the yard. As the way of transferring containers directly from the incoming vessel to the outgoing vessel, called direct-transshipment mode, has potential to save yard storage resources, the proposed model also incorporates both indirect- and direct-transshipment modes. To produce Pareto solutions efficiently, we devise heuristic approaches. Numerical experiments have been conducted to demonstrate the efficiency of the approaches.