Berth scheduling in container terminals

Ports and container terminals have very complex and dynamic operations. Effective and efficient berth schedules are essential for profitable and sustainable operations. This research studies berth scheduling under uncertainties in arrival and handling times. Port operators usually face challenges in the development of berth schedules. This thesis presents a model formulation of discrete berth space that accounts for uncertainty in arrival and handling times. The problem is reformulated as a biobjective bi-level optimization berth scheduling problem. A solution approach is presented using evolutionary algorithms and heuristics. The objective of the formulation is to provide a robust berth schedule by minimizing the average and the range of the total service times for all vessels served at the terminal. Simulation is utilized to evaluate the proposed berth scheduling policy and compare it to two first-come-first-served policies. Results showed that the proposed berth schedules outperform under high congestion.