Collaborative Optimization of Berth Allocation and Yard Storage in Container Terminals

Considering the interaction between the berth and the yard, this paper studies the collaborative optimization problem of berth allocation and yard storage from the point of the ships over a certain planning period. This collaborative optimization problem is formulated as the integer programming, which aims at minimizing the total truck travel distance. And decision variables are the berthing positions for visiting ships and the storage positions for export containers. Meanwhile, this paper demonstrates the complexity of the problem in theory. And the hybrid tabu genetic algorithm is designed to solve the problem to obtain the optimal berth allocation position and export container storage position. For this algorithm, the rule is applied to generate the initial feasible solutions, and the crossover and mutation operation are simultaneously applied to optimize the initial solutions. Finally, this paper discusses two different scenes: the same berth scene and the same ship scene. The influence of two different scenes on truck travel distance is analyzed by different numerical examples. Numerical examples’ results show that the collaborative optimization of berth allocation and yard storage can effectively shorten the truck travel distance and improve the efficiency of terminal operation, which provides the decision support for terminal operators.