Crane Scheduling in Container Terminals

The globalization of trade has lead to an enormous growth in sea transportation over the last years. A great majority of general cargo is containerized and handled in container terminals which are essential hubs in sea transportation systems. The potential of cost saving in a container terminal is large and the workflow of a container terminal has to be very efficient.The focus of this book lies on the scheduling of cranes in container terminals in order to improve the turnaround time of a port. Crane scheduling has a strong impact on the performance of the container terminal system. In this book models to schedule different crane types are developed with respect to their characteristic abilities. The sugges­ted procedures and algorithms lead to crane schedules which make the container workflow more efficient and improve the performance of ports in a global and highly competitive economy.The book is addressed to logistic planners people dealing with sche­duling problems and mathematicians interested in integer programs.