Sequencing ship operations considering the trajectory of the quay crane spreader

This study addresses the sequencing problem in ship operations, with the aim of minimizing the quay crane operation time in a ship bay. By analysing realistic trajectories of the quay crane spreader in various situations, a mathematical model for expressing the transport times of the spreader is established and a method for determining the shortest-time trajectory for a given bay configuration is proposed. Positioning times of the spreader are analysed for various cases of ship operations. Based on the analysis of transport and positioning times, an exact algorithm to obtain the optimal sequence of the discharging and loading operations and a common rule to be applied in practice are developed. An extended discussion on sequencing reshuffling operations is presented. Numerical experiments with the data from a real-world port, show that this approach can determine a ship operation sequence with the shortest total operation time.