Design and Operation of Automated Container Storage Systems

The storage yard is the operational and geographical centre of most seaport container terminals. Therefore, it is of particular importance for the whole terminal system and plays a major role for trade and transport flows. One of the latest trends in container-storage operations is the automated Rail-Mounted-Gantry-Crane system, which offers dense stacking, and offers low labour costs. This book investigates whether the operational performance of container terminals is influenced by the design of these storage systems and to what extent the performance is affected by the terminal's framework conditions, and discusses the strategies applied for container stacking and crane scheduling. A detailed simulation model is presented to compare the performance effects of alternative storage designs, innovative planning strategies, and other influencing factors. The results have useful implications future research, practical terminal planning and optimisation.

Comprehensive introduction into container-terminal logistics and planning issues The first work covering all aspects of planning and optimising automated container storage systems Includes over 50 illustrative figures and more than 100 tables with informative performance figures Contains several practical insights into terminal-design planning and operations based on the others professional experience Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext
Dr. Nils Kemme has many years of professional experience in the field of planning, optimising and realising seaport container terminals. He worked as a project manager on terminal expansion and optimisation projects, carried out research on this topic at the Institute for Operations Research at the University of Hamburg and is now engaged as a management consultant for a leading international port consultancy.

Inhalt
1.Introduction.- 2. Container-Terminal Logistics.- 3. Container-Storage Yard.- 4. RMGC-Design-Planning Problem.- Operational RMGC-Planning Problems.- 6. Simulation as a Terminal-Planning Approach.- 7. Simulation Study on RMGC-Design Planning.- 8. Summary and Outlook.