Multiple Yard Cranes Scheduling Model and Algorithm in the Mixture Storage Block

In order to improve the operating efficiency of mixture storage yard, the problem of multiple yard cranes scheduling (MYCS) must to be solved. The paper develops a multiple yard cranes scheduling MIP model in order to minimize the sum of trucks’ waiting cost and yard cranes’ moving cost. An important feature is that the future has to be taken into account: the interference between two yard cranes, and the priorities of internal and external trucks, and the different arrival time of trucks and other factors. The study proposes an improved genetic algorithm (GA) to solve the MYCS problem and verifies the performance of algorithm by two numerical examples. The experimental results indicate that the proposed scheduling model is superior to the traditional scheduling and the algorithm is practically meaningful.