A genetic algorithm for the integrated berth allocation and quay crane scheduling problem in container terminals

Because the cost of berths and quay cranes are very high compared to the investment costs for the other facilities in container terminals, so berths and quay cranes are the most critical resources in determining the capacity of container terminals. In order to efficiently utilize berths and quay cranes, this paper studied the dynamic discrete berth allocation and quay crane scheduling problem considering the cost balance among different vessels. The objective of the proposed model is to reduce the cost of berths and quay cranes, including the handling cost, the waiting cost and the quay crane operation cost. Due to the inherent computation complexity, a genetic algorithm is designed to attain the near optimal solution. Computational experiments show that the two proposed algorithm are effective for solving the studied problem.