On Reformulation of a Berth Allocation Model

Abstract

Over the last decade, Ports’ operations have been a focal point for global supply chain management and logistics network structures around the world. The berth allocation problem (BAP) is closely related to the operational performance of any port. BAP consists of optimally assigning ships to berthing areas along the quay in a port. A good allocation of ships to berths has a positive impact on terminal’s productivity and customer’s satisfaction. Therefore, finding valid formulations which captures the nature of the BAP and accounts for the interest of ports operation management is imperative for practitioners and researchers in this field. In this study, various arrival times of ships are embedded in a real time scheduling system to address the berth allocation planning problem in a dynamic environment. A new mix integer mathematical formulation (MBAP) that accounts for two objectives—total waiting time and total handling time is proposed. The MBAP model is further evaluated in terms of computational time, and has demonstrated to be competitive compared to another well-known BAP formulation in the literature.