An efficient heuristic algorithm for solving a multi-vessel quay crane scheduling problem in container terminals

As an important node of a multimodal container transport hub, the container terminal occupies a critical position in the whole process of container transportation and the global supply chain network. With the increasing size of container vessels, improving the handling efficiency of multiple vessels at berth in a given port becomes a complex problem to solve. We formulate a mixed-integer linear programming model to minimise the vessel services time, the total completion and travel times of quay cranes (QCs) among multiple vessels. To solve the proposed model, we develop a particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm incorporated with a tailored initial-solution generation algorithm. Furthermore, a couple of acceleration strategies are designed to improve the solution quality and shorten computation time. The results of numerical experiments on real-life instances validate the proposed model and the efficiency of the proposed algorithm.