Optimization for Container Handling Equipments Allocation

Based on ARENA

] 2 3
lie WAN , Qing-yu MENG , Wen WANG
123
, , Department of Industry Engineering, School Of Management,
Hebei University of Technology Tianjin, China
C jeanwanI218@hotmail.com , 2mqyI218@163.com , 3
wenwenbabi@163.com)

Abstract - This paper focuses on a handling system of Zhang Haiqing (2008) had made a research about
container port which used the technics of Quay Crane, optimal scheduling algorithm for container trucks based
Container Truck and Yard Crane. Then with the simulation [4] .
on ARENA . Liu Xiaoyu (2009) had estabhshed a
software of ARENA, we build a simulation model for this
configuration simulation model for container truck, and
system, and make an optimization to find the optim l �
then with the simulation software ARENA, calculate the
allocation of equipments under the constraints of a certam
[ 5]
equipment utilization and a minimum operation time. �ith optimal allocation .
the conclusion in our paper which overturns the experience Xiao Xiangdong (2003) toke the advantage of
resource utilization value, we can reduce the investment cost engineering design examples, and then identified the ratio
[6]
by optimizing resource allocation, also under the constraint between quay crane and RTG . Li Jianzhong (2005)
of the certain equipment utilization. adopted the Relaxation-based heuristic algorithm �o
obtain aapproximate optimal solution of dynamIc
Keywords Container port; handling equipmesst; Arena [7]
configuration Han Xiaolong (2005) given an
-

simulation; optimization
quantitative model and algorithm to determine the number
. . 8
of gantry crane when dId the handl·mg operatlOn[ ]. M·laO
Ming (2006) used the ARENA simulation model to
1. INTRODUCTION
analysis the container handling process, and then got an
[9]
optimal handling system . Han Xiaolong (2006)
It is the trend that world globalization and integration
determine the relationship between the number and the
of economy will develop rapidly. So as the result of this . [10]
efficiency of Contamer Truck and Yard Crane . Wang
trend, international trade and Container Transport also
Bin (2005) toke the advantage of different mathematical
have a rapid growth. The need of Container Transport has
models to determine the total amount of three equipments
increased to a new high level. However, the problem is [II]
under different conditions .
that neither the current management level nor the current
In this paper, the optimization is not only for a sin�le
handling capacity cloud meet the gradually increasing
entity, but also a whole analysis for all the three handlmg
demand of transport. We know that to meet customer's
transportation needs and get more profits are �he final
processes. And then based on the previous stu ��
es and
.
exiting constraint conditions such as the utlhzatlOn,
goals for enterprises. So for the port loadmg and
failure rate and other random variables, we optimized the
unloading enterprises, if they want to get market
container handling system.
competition advantages form the fierce market
environment, they should make full use of resource and
optimize resource allocation to meet more customers'
II. PROBLEM DESCRIPTIONS
need.
Although there had been so many researches on the
A Container Handling Technics
container handling in the port, but most of them were
limited to describe the current situations, logistics
The problem we focus on is that a container port
network optimization and system simulation about
needs a small additional berth to meet the increasing
container handling technologies. What's more, most of
demand need for business expansion. In order to
the optimizations were for a single entity, there was no
standardize, this additional berth has the same parameters
such analysis for the whole handling processes. So the
with other existing berths, such as the density arrived to
results certainly had some limitations.
port, ship type and so on. For a simple description of the
Daganzo (1989) had used the mixed integer
problem, we assume that this container port uses th�se
programming model to solve a problem involved the
[1] handling technics: Quay Crane loading and unloadmg
static quay crane allocation . Tabernacle (1995) had
containers on the shore; Container Trucks undertake the
applied Learning theory to the analysis of Quay Crane
[2] task of level transport from wharf apron to the rear yard;
which for improving the operational efficiency . Wilson
Yard Cranes undertake the handling task on the rear yard.
(1999) had combined the branch and bound method and
The route for Container to transport is just shown in Fig.l.
the taboo (Tabu) search method to calculate a reasonable
[ 3]
cabins allocative decision .
978-1-4244-6484-5/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE

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 A Description of physical model
Ship Quay rrransportation :� Yard Crane
arrival Crane Container True handling
1-+ handling to the rear yarer The time ships reach to the port obeys the negative
exponential distribution , and the rated volume of each
ship is 145TEU(a TEU denoted 20ft standard container
Fig. 1. The route for Container to transport
and other box only would be conversed into TEU afte ;
their volume had been conversed into container's. The
B The Known Conditions
conversion factor=natural length of the container120 foot).
After the ships arrive at the port, they will wait for the
Through collecting and collating the relevant
quay cranes services. The quay cranes would lift the
infor�atio�, such as the density ships reache the port,
container from the ship and move horizontally, then land
handhng tIme and mechanical parameters of the three
them to the container trucks which are waiting for
Handling equipments, we get the following data as known
transporting to rear yard. The quay crane complete the
conditions.
task one by one until the completion of all the tasks·
(1) The time that ships reach to port obeys the
negative exponential distribution EXPO (389);
container truck then transporte them to the rear yard ;
finally the yard crane remove the container from the
(2) The rated capacity of each ship to load box is
container truck while container truck is released after
145TEU;
(3) Prep�re Time tasked by Quay Crane is 5min;
place the containers on the specified location ,th � yard
crane can be released ,then do the next task..
(4) It wtll take 40s for conveying Containers to
Container Trucks by Quay Crane;
B Conceptual model
(5) It will also take 40s for conveying Containers to
Yard Crane by Container Trucks;
In the handling processes, the quay crane operation is
(6) The time between containers left Quay Crane and
made as the first workstation A, the process of putting the
out of the system is 2min;
shore containers to the container truck would be abstract
(7) The processing time of Quay Crane obeys the
as the first path ;transport process of container truck is
uniformly distributed Uniform [2.5,3.5];
made as the second workstation B, the hand-over process
(8) The processing time of Container Trucks obeys
of container truck and quay crane would be abstract as the
the uniformly distributed Uniform [4,5];
second path.; the process of yard crane managing is
(9) The processing time of Yard Crane obeys the
made as the third workstation C, the process putting the
uniformly distributed Uniform [3,4].
yard crane to the specific location would be abstract as the
time of entity out of the system . All the processes times
C Constraints
had been set in the above section.

While increasing throughput at the pier, there are

also some problems with the handling processes, for
IV. ESTABLISH AND OPERATE THIS
example, the incoordination between three kinds of
SIMULATION MODEL
handling equipments lead to a lower utilization and a
delusion of handling equipments shortage. But in order to
A The assumed condition of this simulation model
meet the need for reducing handling time, it is important
for the port to identify the resources utilization, at the
The simulation model is the epitome of the physical
same time to minimize the total process time. Based on
model of real projects. In order to make our simulation
these demand for the port, we propose some constraints as
model can consistent with the physical model and has a
following:
better response to changes of the real projects, we have
(1) The utilization of quay crane is not less than 0.75;
made some assumptions:
(2) The utilization of container truck is not less than
(1) There is only one ship arrived during the time of
0.60;
simulation;
(3) The utilization of yard crane is not less than 0.50;
(2) Only one container can be handled by each of the
(4) The handling time was the minimum time.
three kinds of handling equipments at a time;
Under conditions of the required resource utilization
(3) The volume of Each container was a TED-
and minimum handling time, it would provide the basis
information for the other berth to determine the
(4) The three kinds of handling equipme ts are �
independent;
equipments number and reduce investment costs by
(5) Only after completing the current task, the next
optimizing the handling equipments allocation,
task should be continue.

B To establish the simulation model

III. MODEL DESCRIPTION

According to the theory of modeling for discrete

event and the conceptual model that we had described

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before, the container handling model which by using the
simulation software Arena7.01 is constructed in this paper,
it is shown in Fig.2.
1 '"'""= }.-( ES )-- ==,-
..,""- -- 1,"",:,"· 1-- -:-,�.­
.-,"". �-- ..."-,,.-
Figure2. the structure of container handling model
The Create module is the boundary of the system for
the entities entering the system. In our model,
parameters" Entities Per Arr" and "Max Arrival" are set
to 145.and 1 respectively, which means that each time
reached 145 entities and the maximal value of reached
each time is 1. Modules as Workstation A, B and C stand
for the three equipments of Quay Crane, Container Truck
and Yard Crane separately. Process modules named
"Workstation A process", "Workstation B process" and
"Workstation C process" stand for the handling process of
the three equipments separately: when an entity left from
Workstation C it will withdraw from the system, at the
same time the Record module will record the leave time
of this entity, and finally the module named "Exit
System" will release the entities processed in this system.
C To Run the Model
Through inspecting and verifying by the conditions
of special value of an entity , multiple entities in a single
equipment , multiple entities and multiple equipments ,
the model can be verified that it is certainly correct to the
real project. After the validation, we set to different
parameters to response to changes of variables, then we
repeatedly run the simulation model 500 times and set
simulation time to 300min, finally we get the utilizations
of each kinds of the equipments and total operating time,
the results are shown in Fig .3 and Fig.4.
Clearly, in the initial cases, the resources of
equipments' numbers are too large and their utilizations
were much lower, especially for resource B (stands for
Container Truck) whose utilization ratio is only reached
-1-.:·,,-1 0.1810. This low utilization means that there is still the
much space to optimize. What's more, the work time does
not meet the requirements, the minimum time (would be
identified as the time that the first container leaves from
this system) is 18.0553mins, and the end time (would be
identified as the time that the 145 container leaves from
this system) is the maximum time which are 299.90mins
and much greater than the time required. Form such
information, we can known that the inharmony and
the incoordination between these different kinds of resources
lead to the low efficiency and wasteful. All that makes the
port had a high investment with the low return, while also
lead to a lower customer satisfaction, so it is necessary to
optimize this model and finally to obtain the optimal
result.
v. OPTIMIZATION FOR THIS MODEL
In this section, considering demands for higher
resource utilization and a minimum operating time, we
reset the relevant parameters to obtain the optimal
resource allocation under the existing constraints of
utilization and operating time. The OptQuest package
which be included within the simulation software
ARENA had many heuristic algorithms such as Tabu
search, scatter search, other heuristic algorithm and so on.
With application of these algorithms, we can simply
change the variables within the ranges to approach to the
optimum point quickly and reliably.
When we optimize this simulation model, first of all,
what should we do is that to activate the optimization
window, and then open the "Tools" menu, choose the
option of "OptQuest for Arena" for creating a new
optimization, ultimately, a chart of control options will be
shown in Fig.5 at last.

Usage

Instantaneous Utllrzallon lIIinimum MJxrnum IIIlnunum MJunum

Avmgt H,IIWlilh Anugl Avmgf VJl.lf V"1t

Worksl�lonA 0.7140 <.00 0.1451 0.1416 0.00 10000

Workslation8 OUIO <.00 005810318 0.1841 0.00 10000
WorkslalionC 04111 ' .00 0.1165 0 431 1 0.00 10000

Figure5. the chart of control options

Figure3. utilizations of each kind of the equipments

Just like be shown in Fig.5, the values of all the

Replications: 9lJ Time Units: Minutes
resources and variables are restricted to a certain data
range, the middle recommended value is the starting
IUser Specified point to run, Upper Bound and Lower Bound are the
Tally scope of OptQuest's search process. Because of the
attribute of discrete event simulation, the simulation step
Interval Minimum M,ximum Minimum
IhHWidth Averlge VI�t is set to 1. So in order to find the possible results, , we
Recordl� container 128.16 <1.69 t23.88 269.32 18.0553 299.90
must make sure that they are realistic when we set to these
Figure4. total operating time parameters. The final constraints are set as shown in Fig.6.

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 built the conceptual and Arena simulation model for this
iiu
Controls
l�eJf:f system. And then considering the constraints of a certain
Workstation A (= 2 I- equipment utilization and a minimum operation time, we
Workstation B (= 12 !S um Afl Controls
Workstation (
C =4 Workstation A used the "OptQuest" to optimize this model and finally
Workstation B
Workstation C . get the optimal allocation of equipments. Our model's
final optimal allocation of equipments was realistic and
C!::J I �a",el II � had some practical value. However, the simulation
software was used only for teaching; it certainly had some
Figure6. windows of constraints
limitations such as quantities limited for physical volume
(containers) first arrived in, parameters restrictions and so
What should we do next is to select the target and on. So how to break these limits to built a model within
output requirements windows (shown in Fig.7). Here we more restrictions and parameters will be the direction and
use the total operating time as our optimized goal, use the focus for our furthert research.
utilization that the port required as the lower bound of
output. It means that the utilization of all the results found
are higher than required. ACKNOWLEDGMENT

:;Of ' S8D

Solo� Ro5pon,;o ! Lowor DOlllld \uPPl)t OOUAd V61UI) ;;::j The paper is supported by the 2008 Natural Science
IM'�.ITOlflllW'1'141 AYIIMfJ941
- �-: Foundation of Hebei Province (G2008000122). We

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- especially wish to thank all the people who had helped us
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a lot in the course of study.

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Figure7. windows for target and output requirements
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[8] Han Xiaolong Resource Allocation in Contaier terminal
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satisfactions are also upgrade.

VI. THE CONCLUSION

In this paper, based on analyzing a handling system

of container port which used of the technics of Quay
Crane, Container Truck and Yard Crane on the whole, we

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