Queueing networks for supporting container storage and retrieval

Purpose - An integrated queueing network focused on container storage/retrieval operations occurring on the yard of a transshipment hub is proposed. The purpose of the network is to support decisions related to the organization of the yard area, while also accounting for operations policies and times on the quay. Design/methodology/approach - A discrete-event simulation model is used to reproduce container handling on both the quay and yard areas, along with the transfer operations between the two. The resulting times, properly estimated by the simulation output, are fed to a simpler queueing network amenable to solution via algorithms based on mean value analysis (MVA) for product-form networks. Findings - Numerical results justify the proposed approach for getting a fast, yet accurate analytical solution that allows carrying out performance evaluation with respect to both organizational policies and operations management on the yard area. Practical implications - Practically, the expected performance measures on the yard subsystem can be obtained avoiding additional time-expensive simulation experiments on the entire detailed model. Originality/value - As a major takeaway, deepening the MVA for generally distributed service times has proven to produce reliable estimations on expected values for both user- and system-oriented performance metrics.