AN OVERVIEW OF CONTAINER TERMINAL AND SHIPPING OPERATIONS AND INSIGHT ON THE QUAY CRANE ASSIGNMENT PROBLEM UNDER HETEROGENOUS CRANE ASSUMPTION

Abstract

Due to the massive effect of containers’ use on the global trade, container shipping liners_x000D_ and container sea terminals became a vital part of global trade. The number of containers_x000D_ transported around the world is increasing yearly which in turn raises several challenges._x000D_ This motivates the research of this thesis which focuses on identifying the current status of_x000D_ container operations management, its main challenges, and future research directions. One_x000D_ of the identified research avenues, namely the quay crane assignment problem was_x000D_ investigated under different settings. To achieve our research agenda, an overview of the_x000D_ container journey and its main challenges is presented by segmenting the container_x000D_ shipping liner and container terminal decisions. Then, an overview of 19 surveys and_x000D_ review papers based on the segmentation is developed. Which helped to identify_x000D_ contributions, categorization approach, main findings, and future research directions. Some_x000D_ of the analysis pointed out the quay crane assignment problem among the important_x000D_ problems, which motivate us to investigate the problem under some new practical_x000D_ assumptions that were briefly considered so far. As result, we presented an attempt to_x000D_ model this complex problem and an exploratory approach to investigate the implications_x000D_ of heterogenous quay crane in terms of productivity on the assignment problem. A_x000D_ scenario-based analysis is done to assess the effect of heterogenous cranes quantities,_x000D_ locations, and sizes. The best of our knowledge, this thesis is among the few attempts to_x000D_ investigate such a problem.

Date of Award	2020
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	HBKU College of Science and Engineering