Simulation and planning of an intermodal container terminal

A decision support system for management of an intermodal container terminal is presented. Among problems to be solved are the spatial allocation of containers in the terminal yard, the allocation of resources, and the scheduling of operations to maximise a performance function based on economic indicators. These problems are solved using techniques from optimisation, such as job-shop scheduling, genetic algorithms or mixed-integer linear programming. At the terminal, the same problems are usually solved by the terminal manager, using only his experience. The manager can trust computer-generated solutions only by validating them by means of a simulation model of the terminal. Thus, the simulation tool also becomes a means to introduce new approaches into traditional settings. We focus on the resource allocation problem and describe our modules for optimisation of the allocation process and the simulation of the terminal. The former is based on integer linear programming; the latter is a discrete-event simulation tool based on the process-oriented paradigm. The simulator provides a testbed for checking the validity and robustness of the policy computed by the optimisation module.