Lu Zhen,¹* ZheLiang,² Dan Zhuge, ³ LooHay Lee,⁴Ek Peng Chew⁴

1. Schoolof Management, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China

2. Schoolof Economic and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

3. Departmentof Logistics and Maritime Studies, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong,China

4. Department of Industrial and System Engineering, National University of Singapore,Singapore

Abstract: This paper studies an operational-levelberth allocation and quay crane assignment problem (daily berth planning) consideringtides and channel flow control constraints. Aninteger programming model is proposed for this problem. Then a columngeneration solution approach is developed on a set partitioning based reformulationof the original model. Computational study isconducted on 30 test cases constructed from real-world data to validateefficiency of the proposed solution approach. Results show that thissimple but practical solution approachcan optimally solve the daily berthing planning problem instances with up to 80vessels, 40 berths, and 120 quay cranes within one hour, which is reasonableand acceptable for the real-world applications. The proposed decision model andthe solution approach could be potentially useful for some tidal ports with (orwithout) navigation channels.

Keywords: Port operations; berthallocation; column generation; tide; container ports.

1. Introduction

Due to the offshoringof manufacturing activities in Asia (particularly in China), the amount ofcontainer transportation has been growing by about three times the world’s GDPgrowth during the past three decades (Meng et al., 2014). The actualthroughputs in ports have grown even faster as more and more containers are transshippedin mega-ports of the world (Fransoo and Lee, 2013; Lee and Song, 2017). It isan urgent task to increase efficiency of port operations so as to maximize thethroughput of ports. As port operators are usually paid by a handling chargeper container, the indicator of throughput is essential for port operators’ revenue.Port operators usually have great interest in berth planning since it is thestart point of port operations planning. The planned berth locations for vesselsare subsequently used as the key input for yard storage, personnel, andequipment deployment planning. 

The berth planningprocess can be categorized into three different levels based on their planninghorizon. (1) Monthly berth planning: vessels’monthly arrival plans (e.g., estimated import and export throughput, estimatedport stay) and physical characteristics are sent from shipping lines to a portoperator; then they are fed into the CITOS (Computer Integrated TerminalOperation System) of the port operator. (2) Weeklyberth planning: the estimated arrival time and departure time of vessels isupdated by the shipping lines. The port operator assigns a berth number to eachvessel without the exact berthing start time and end time. Based on theassigned berth numbers, the yard planning can be conducted. (3) Daily berth planning: the shipping linessend the relatively accurate time of arrival and departure as well as actualimport and export throughput to the port operator, who will decide the actualberthing position as well as the start and end berthing time. In addition, quaycrane (QC) assignments for vessels are also decided in this critical step. Theleft part of Figure 1 shows the above three levels of berth planning activitiesbefore mooring a vessel.