Evaluation of operational plans in container terminal yards using Discrete-Event Simulation

As the world container volumes are soaring, container terminals form a very important chain in the global transportation network. It is a generally accepted view that the modelling of the dynamic and stochastic nature of the container terminal systems using analytical or closed form models is a complicated process and the use of such models is very limited. Hence, this paper presents a simulation model for complete terminal operations which is developed and implemented with the view to validate/evaluate the operational results obtained from a new optimization model of the combined container assignment and yard crane deployment problem. The various aspects of the container terminal operations are modelled using discrete–event simulation. Computational results from the simulation model are reported for a UK container terminal using operational data.