Generating scenarios for simulation and optimization of container terminal logistics

This paper introduces an approach for generating scenarios of sea port container terminals. A scenario consists of arrivals of deep sea vessels, feeder ships, trains, and trucks together with lists of containers to be loaded and unloaded. Moreover, container attributes such as size, empty, reefer, weight, and destination are included. The generator is based on a large number of parameters that allow the user to produce realistic scenarios of any size. The purpose of this paper is to outline the parameters that are important to produce realistic scenarios of high practical relevance and to propose an algorithm that computes scenarios on the basis of these parameters. The scenarios can be used as input data for simulation models. Furthermore, they can be employed as test data for algorithms to solve optimization problems in container terminal logistics such as berth planning and crane scheduling. The generator discussed here has been developed within the simulation project at the HHLA Container-Terminal Altenwerder in Hamburg, Germany. Nevertheless, its structure is general enough to be applied to various other terminals as well.