Container Port Management

Picture of yard CCR applied its simulation and optimization expertise to solve a resource scheduling problem at a major container shipping terminal. This terminal is comprised of six marshaling yards with resources that include over 70,000 shipping containers, and several hundred tractors, and about one hundred yard and quay cranes. The challenge was to develop schedules for these resources that optimize container throughput. This is complicated by the fact that unanticipated events can arise at any time that make it necessary to recompute schedules in real-time. Schedule picture

Our approach was to synchronize asset activities over a fixed time horizon, while constantly monitoring for events that result in schedule modifications. The system continuously optimizes the schedule given current state information and future demand forecasts. This technique has resulted in container throughput improvement rates between 10 and 20 percent.